I’ve been keeping several 5 gallon buckets of solution prepared with RO water (for soil application) that sit around for up to a week. The concentration is on the light side but I haven’t seen any precipitation in the buckets. I’ll try creating a bit more of a concentrated solution to get an idea of the solubility and see if it begins to precipitate, if you’d like…
Your TDS of the tap water you have is amazingly low at 35 ppm, tap water here is ~350-450 ppm.
So I’m curious why this is occurring. In the same vein of what Larry3215 is asking, if you think this is mineral precipitation, what is the PH range while running the solution? Is it relatively stable? What is the EC of the solution that is being used? Cal/Mag was mentioned, how much is being added? Any other amendments added?
The megacrop formulation is fairly complex when comparing it with Jacks, etc. There are ingredients that biologicals might feed on which makes the overall system chemistry somewhat more difficult to predict. Any close-up photos of the precipitate?
There are organics in MEGA CROP, they are water soluble and will not clog drippers or lines, but in stagnant water they tend to fall to the bottom layer of solution because they are heavier.
This might be what Howard is talking about. If you are very worried about it you can use a filter bag.
That would make sense. My system is recirculating and the rez is constantly stirred by air stones and water falls, so no chance for anything to settle out.
I’ve got some fairly decent aeration going on in there, though. I would think that would be enough to keep things well mixed, but in any case it’s definitely not stagnant. As I mentioned in my first post, it did not matter either way.
I am going to go back to Jack’s for now until I can figure out what is different about my setup or environment, and revisit the issue later. I’ve got 20+ lbs of megacrop in airtight containers with dessicant, I’m sure it will keep just fine.
[Edited to add] I will still use it for hand watering seedlings, they seem to love it
Day 31 from sprout “autos” currently running at a 2.1ec of megacrop with about 20-40ppm of Calcium Hypochlorite intially, but the plants are running in straight coco and they are looking like they can take more.
So would/will you be using mega crop in future grows or mix it up …? I think it’s really good for my plants and am quite pleased with it so far but I would need another couple of months before I will maybe change to using it exclusively…( Epsom salts now and then too)…
Btw im in bio-bizz ‘All-Mix’ soil with additional perlite…
Happy growing,
Gaz
For now i will be as i like simplicity even though i was on the maxi series before so barely a step above that for simplicity. But even after a couple cycles with megacrop i figure im starting to get the hang of it now.
I was always a consistently light feeder as im a non-drain to waste grower, and everything that goes in stays there till the end. So it has always been better to play it safe as buildup still could occur if i fed to heavy or for too long with the maxi series.
Megacrop on the other hand when running on the lighter side i find it throws out phosphorus deficiencies, and maybe possible mag as well but correction wise all you do is increase the feed rate and the plants sort themselves out. I have yet to run into an over fertilized situation but again started low and have been working my way up as far as feed goes, but even still it a lot less touchy compared to the maxi series.
Also i should note this last res change i haven’t had any of that sediment/scum yet. Things that were changed were i light proofed the res a bit more in that my feed tube which was clear is now wrapped in black shrink wrap to prevent a bunch of light transmission getting in. Also ive been watering really heavily as of late where i have quite a bit of excess run off “that run back into my res” but due to that any of the sediment could be getting trapped up in the coco instead of chilling in the res.
Either way still need to do some testing with making a feed batch and having some control samples in jars and other conditions to see if there is a difference.
But yeah so far i’ll be sticking with the megacorp till i learn the in’s and out’s of how it handles which so far is quite good for a one part.
Interesting… Neither of my reservoirs is fully light proof, but that wasn’t a problem with full synthetic nutes (they are in a low light area). I’ve been meaning to address that for a while anyway. This is good motivation to just do it, and at the very least it will eliminate another variable.
As an experiment, I’ve mixed up a three gallon batch of solution to an EC of 1.7 PH of 6.3 and have it sitting stagnant in a closed container in the greenhouse (lots of light). Will let you know in a several days if I see some precipitation or signs of biological growth.
well any bacterial growth with be from the jar or your water so shouldn’t be an issue. i just know that my reservoirs can and do produce diatoms “brown algae” if i don’t keep on top of it with a light sterilization. Which some of that sediment has similar characteristics.
I’ll setup some tests this week or weekend, and mix up a batch and have samples as follows just to cover the basics and not every possibility as my res isn’t air tight and 99% of people are the same.
water megacrop sealed dark
water megacrop open air dark
water megacrop open air light
water megacrop swab of res scum "diatoms ? " open air light
water megacrop swab of res scum "diatoms ? " open air light calcium hyprochlorite
water megacrop open air light calcium hyprochlorite
@Mr.Sparkle, not doubting you. I’m also suspecting that is what is being seen with those experiencing sludge formation. That is, instead of straight mineral precipitation. Water is RO and UV sterilized but I’m welcoming some contamination and biological growth as it would show that there is something in the solution feeding them.
Your test is much more thorough and I look forward to referencing your results.
Those results could also be enlightening as to whether it would make sense to run a solution alive or dead, with added beneficials or without, depending…
One interesting thing is that overnight, the solution does appear to stratify as @GreenleafNutrients has alluded to (stagnant solution). PH varies with the depth of the solution. Solution remains translucent. PH at the top of the solution is near the PH of the source water (~6.9) until given a stir. Now I’m wondering if it’s possible for the concentration in the denser regions to exceed the solubility limit in solution. I don’t know if that is physically possible (Uggh, there is probably some sort of thermodynamic answer). Insights here?
What kind of water will you be using - distilled or tap or RO?
If you are using tap, I would suggest at least one control with distilled or RO water.
I think we may be putting too much emphasis on this settling out or stratification. I just checked the labels on several brands and ALL of the ones I could find easily say to shake vigorously before use. That includes my CalMag.
As far as I can tell with a quick search, virtually all nutes will do this when left sitting/stagnant. This includes Fox Farms liquid nutes.
Well, I grow in soil-less mix, relatively small containers outdoors and the Mega Crop works fine. However, I have determined that it is really not cost effective for me to continue using it on my cannabis plants.
I find that I need to use about twice as much Mega Crop as Jack’s Classic Citrus FeED in order to keep the plants green and vigorous.
With Jack’s I used 3/4 to 1 teaspoon per gallon to feed my plants with each watering.
Mega Crop needs 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons per gallon feeding/watering in order to maintain nice robust growth under the sun.
1.5 lbs of Jack’s with shipping is less than $20.00.
1.34 lbs Mega Crop is $25.00 without shipping.
I just ordered some Jack’s to replace the dwindling supply of Mega Crop I have been using.
That’s pricey, are you overseas? edit: never mind, just looked at the pricing again.
Bulk appears to be where it’s at, the smaller quantities are a bit more pricey. $2.55 per lbs when purchasing the 21.7 lbs bag at the current pricing. ~$10 lbs for the ~5 lbs.
@GreenleafNutrients
Sorry, but I think it is a superior product for my specific application.
I use plenty of dolomite lime in my soil mix.
An abundance of calcium is available to my plants.
My plants stay greener with much less product with the Jack’s
I have used Jack’s Citrus for the past several years, start to finish. Very happy with the gooey flowers.
I just bought it from eBay.
I used to buy it directly from JR Peters but it appears that I can no longer do so.
My hydro project is going well. I started out feeding way too heavy. Some how I mis-measured something and was at close to 9 gm/gal. The plants didnt seem to mind all that much other than some very dark leaves. There was no sign of burning. They did look like they needed some Cal Mag, which I have been adding.
I have been dropping the EC as I re-fill the rez each time. Yesterday I was down to an EC of around 1.1mS but the PH and EC are still rising as the water level drops, so I lowered it down to an EC of about 900. Thats roughly 5 gm/gal.
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However, my EC and PH were still rising as the water level drops, so I just lowered it down to an EC of around 900.
Im very happy so far. For me, this stuff seems almost fool proof.
