Terpinator vs. Terp Enhancinator (DIY version)

Baja.Beaches

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There is now Purpinator (same company). And I'm trying it on this run. Because of this writeup, I decided to try it. Let's see what happens.

Purpinator...hmm....I tried the Terpinator a couple years ago, I felt like it may have helped a little but if used at the recommended dosage it is way too expensive for outdoor. Might be interesting in hydro. I will be interested to hear of your results.
 

spyralout

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Purpinator...hmm....I tried the Terpinator a couple years ago, I felt like it may have helped a little but if used at the recommended dosage it is way too expensive for outdoor. Might be interesting in hydro. I will be interested to hear of your results.
We shall see in a little over a month. I use a healthy dose too.
 
After growing out a clone in 3 separate runs: No terp additive, Terpinator, and Terp Enhancinator, I have smelled and tasted the resulting buds for comparison.

SMELL COMPARISON
The Terpinator sample had a more intense overall smell. It is as if the smell profile I’m familiar with was turned up a couple notches. There was no noticeably featured notes to the smell, nothing was either augmented or diminished in the smell palette to detract from the usual bouquet. There was a bit of sweetness to the smell that is not usually found in this bud.

The Terp Enhancinator (TE) did not have similar results. The TE sample was only marginally more intense of an overall smell when compared to the sample without any terp additive. The noteworthy effect was that the TE seems to accentuate a pinesol-esque segment of the bouquet. There was a detectable increase in a nostril-stinging astringent note. The sample usually has a solvent-like aspect to her smell, but the TE seems to have highlighted a piney/lemony tone that is usually very subtle if present at all. Also, the TE sample was less sweet than the Terpinator sample. The subtle sweetness of the Terpinator sample was not present with the TE sample, but instead a sharper finish that could be attributed to the accentuated lemon pinesol note. Unfortunately, the TE did not seem to increase the intensity of the smell, only rearrange the priorities of featured aspects to the smell profile.

TASTE COMPARISON
The Terpinator sample had mixed reviews during taste testing that I could attribute to the testers’ taste preferences. One person found the taste to be a slightly muted version of the non-additive sample and preferred the unadulterated control bud. Another person found an increased sweetness to the taste and preferred the Terpinator sample to the control.

The Terp Enhancinator fared better in the taste testing. One tester stated that the taste was a more evenly increased flavor to either the control or Terpinator buds. Another tester found the TE sample to be more flavorful than the control, but only slightly lagging the Terpinator sample.

HONORABLE MENTION
I used the Terp Enhancinator on a round of H.A.OG to see how the additive interacts with a different plant. The lemon pinesol was dramatically increased in the resulting bud. Being that this is an OG and these terp notes are synonymous, this was a fitting addition to the final samples. The H.A.OG tends to the earthy fuel expression without terp additive, but the fuel aspect has been refined to include the hints of lemon and pine to the usual sting. These added notes are by no means drowning out the usual flavor, but have accented the underlying bouquet in a very pleasing way. I would say that I enjoy the Terp Enhancinator buds more than those without.

CONCLUSION
While the Terpinator did what it claims, namely, intensify the terpene content; the increase was not wildly dramatic. If I could put a value to the increase, I would say the smell was increased about 20-30%. While this is a noticeable increase in the terps, the price tag of the Terpinator still seems to make the decision to incorporate this additive into my nutrient regimen a toss-up. If I were doing a small single-tent grow, I would probably include Terpinator with each grow, but if you are doing multi-room commercial runs, this is going to be a hefty increase in production cost that may not see enough return depending on your market’s ability to absorb price increase. If I were to grow for a competition entry, I would consider including Terpinator for that cycle.

The Terp Enhancinator did not perform as well overall as the Terpinator, but the very low cost of incorporating the additive may allow some budget growers access to a terp enhancer. Terp Enhancinator had a more pronounced influence in the taste than the smell. It seems clear that the TE is missing something in the recipe that the Terpinator includes.

Ultimately, it seems the two terpene additives worked to bring out different sections of the smell profile. Terpinator had a nice across the board increase in intensity with some accentuated sweetness and Terp Enhancinator had lackluster intensity increase, but pronounced increase in lemon/pine notes seen in two different plants. These additives seem situational to me: if you have a plant with lemon/pine and want them exaggerated in smell/taste, use the Terp Enhancinator. If you have a plant that is a bit muted in smell and has sweet notes you’d like to highlight, reach for the Terpinator. While this test could have been better including many types of plants, I was not blown away by either additive to the point of feeling cheated by any grow that did not include them.
Excellent. This is just what I was looking for. I have a few questions. I have seen this recipe but with dark brown sugar added to it. Why so you leave it out? Sorry I'm just learning.. I have also seen a recipe that uses 8 tbsp of epsom salts and again the brown sugar. It says this brings out fruity/ sweet terpenes and the potasium sulfate brings out lemon/sour terpenes. I wonder if I could combine them or use one then the other on different waterings? Also, would any other bloom booster be needed at this point? You seem very knowledgeable so I thought it would be ok to ask your opinion. Thanks
 

Schwaggy P

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Why so you leave it out?
I was only trying to recreate Terpinator's stated composition (Potassium Sulfate) in the DIY version. Adding other things not included in Terpinator to the DIY recipe would not have been a fair side-by-side substitution comparison.

8 tbsp of epsom salts
The Terpinator (Potassium Sulfate) and Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate) have Sulfur in common. This is the main constituent included to aid in terpene development. A Terpinator vs. Epsom Salt side-by-side would be an interesting read.

I wonder if I could combine them or use one then the other on different waterings?
This may work out for you. If you decide to try out these different products, you may want to use them separately to decide which additive is giving you desirable or undesirable results. The sugar wouldn't be harmful in a soil grow, but I would be cautious about adding sugar in a sterile hydroponic setup.

would any other bloom booster be needed at this point?
You can add bloom boosters (PK additives) but they are not needed. A great product can be grown with a basic balanced nutrient formula.
 

spyralout

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So whatcha think lol? I'm still using it but not at recommended rate. It's hard for me to tell the difference without running same strain multiple times and I dont.
Did you notice an oily film in your rez?
I got similar results to Schwaggy, about 25% more stink than previous grows. It seemed to have brought out more garlic/onion in the Green Crack and Sour Diesel. I have a good amount of it so I will definitely try it again. Hope it doesn't have a short shelf life. I noticed a bit of a film but it wasn't anything to be too concerned about.
 

Capt. C

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I got similar results to Schwaggy, about 25% more stink than previous grows. It seemed to have brought out more garlic/onion in the Green Crack and Sour Diesel. I have a good amount of it so I will definitely try it again. Hope it doesn't have a short shelf life. I noticed a bit of a film but it wasn't anything to be too concerned about.
@spyralout how are you dealing with the added ppm's of this product. If i remember right a full recommended dose adds close to 400 ppm's. Are you taking those ppm's into consideration or just stacking on top of everything else?
 

spyralout

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@spyralout how are you dealing with the added ppm's of this product. If i remember right a full recommended dose adds close to 400 ppm's. Are you taking those ppm's into consideration or just stacking on top of everything else?
It didn't add that many PPMs for sure. If I remember correctly, I got maybe 50 PPM on full dose. I have a Bluelab Guardian so it's pretty accurate. Did you get different results? There would be no way I could add that many PPM to my regimen, as anything over 800 PPM total will start locking stuff out.
 

Capt. C

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It didn't add that many PPMs for sure. If I remember correctly, I got maybe 50 PPM on full dose. I have a Bluelab Guardian so it's pretty accurate. Did you get different results? There would be no way I could add that many PPM to my regimen, as anything over 800 PPM total will start locking stuff out.
Yes my numbers are different. A 5ml dose of the terpenator was just under 100 ppm's. A full dose is 20 ml which would bring it to just under 400 ppm. I acually confirmed these numbers with @Schwaggy P when i was starting the use of it. What i do not know is if there is a difference in what you are using Purpanator Vs. the Terpanator.
 

spyralout

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Yes my numbers are different. A 5ml dose of the terpenator was just under 100 ppm's. A full dose is 20 ml which would bring it to just under 400 ppm. I acually confirmed these numbers with @Schwaggy P when i was starting the use of it. What i do not know is if there is a difference in what you are using Purpanator Vs. the Terpanator.
I really didn't notice that much of a difference in PPMs. Unless my meter was way off or I'm doing something wrong in calculations. I've seen it go up to 100 PPM, but nothing higher than that. Purpinator is supposed to be the next generation to Terpinator, I believe it just came out this year. Using a Bluelab Guardian, it would be constantly in the epi bucket of the RDWC, so I'd get live readings. I'd dump it in there to charge the system, and watch the meter. Then I'd charge up the res, and use the same probes to read the res. I don't recall ever getting something as high as 400 PPM difference, that would've really killed my regimen. I was using GH3 but only Micro/Bloom (modified Lucas). I was also using GH Silica, which did raise my PPM (and pH - I used it as a pH up when needed vs. just a regular pH up). The only other variable I can think of, which probably doesn't make a difference in PPM, is that I used a chiller to get that water down to about 64F on the front end then once the system was rolling full blast, the pumps and whatnot kept it around 68F. A part of this is because my res isn't chilled, so depending on the temp of the res, the system would be getting fed with varying (hotter) degrees of water (via trickling float valve so it was somewhat gradual).
 

Capt. C

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I really didn't notice that much of a difference in PPMs. Unless my meter was way off or I'm doing something wrong in calculations. I've seen it go up to 100 PPM, but nothing higher than that. Purpinator is supposed to be the next generation to Terpinator, I believe it just came out this year. Using a Bluelab Guardian, it would be constantly in the epi bucket of the RDWC, so I'd get live readings. I'd dump it in there to charge the system, and watch the meter. Then I'd charge up the res, and use the same probes to read the res. I don't recall ever getting something as high as 400 PPM difference, that would've really killed my regimen. I was using GH3 but only Micro/Bloom (modified Lucas). I was also using GH Silica, which did raise my PPM (and pH - I used it as a pH up when needed vs. just a regular pH up). The only other variable I can think of, which probably doesn't make a difference in PPM, is that I used a chiller to get that water down to about 64F on the front end then once the system was rolling full blast, the pumps and whatnot kept it around 68F. A part of this is because my res isn't chilled, so depending on the temp of the res, the system would be getting fed with varying (hotter) degrees of water (via trickling float valve so it was somewhat gradual).
Not sure what the difference is as i mix mine in 1 gallon jugs with filtered tap. Then test with a Bluelab meter. I was concerned enough to contact @Schwaggy P about the additional ppm numbers. I will check again but i am pretty sure the ppm numbers were consistent with what Terpanator calls for. Maybe @Schwaggy P can weigh in on this again because 400 ppm is a lot to deal with when adding to a normal routine.
 

Capt. C

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This is very interesting as I haven't experienced this...I think I may be doing smth wrong :/
Also could be a difference in the two products. I was tempted to dose like @Bodean
but i want to make sure it works for me and that is why i wanted to follow manufacture recommendations but close to 400 ppm is hard to squeeze in to the routine.
 

Schwaggy P

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This is the excerpt where I did a ppm test of the Terpinator using distilled water

Screen Shot 2020-09-15 at 1.56.37 PM.png
The result was a ~380ppm increase using 20mL/gal.

I run my base flower feed ppm far lower than most at 400-450ppm(0.5 scale), so even a 400ppm increase would put me below a total concentration many seem to be able to run without ill effect. I am about 75% of the way through a flower run using Epsom salt as a terp enhancer that adds ~150ppm at 3g/gal.
 
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