I posted this in the Hydro section because I feel it is most useful in hydro but this concept can be used in all mediums.
When growing hydroponic products it is common in the industry to do a final treatment before picking up the crop in which nutrients are removed from the hydroponic solutions. While in most cases this is achieved by passing RO water through the system it is true that passing water with a very low osmotic pressure can make the plants absorb larger amounts of water than what we would ideally want, disturbing the osmotic equilibrium established by the roots with the nutrient solution. An approach that has been used to solve this problem is the use of isotonic cleaning solutions – such as Clearex – which drain the hydroponic media from nutrients without subjecting the roots to the stress of an hypo-tonic solution (such as RO or distilled water).
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On today’s article I will teach you what the Clearex solution is supposed to achieve and how you can make your own (or even a better) solution to solve this final draining problem. First of all, removing nutrient from a hydroponic solutions is not so hard. Simply by running RO water through your system after draining the original solution you will remove most nutrients since these salts – contrary to what some companies tell you – are readily soluble and easily leave the media and roots when washed with RO water. The small problem when using RO water is that it is hypo-tonic with the roots, meaning that water will go into the roots to attempt to “lower” the concentration of the solutes within the plant’s cells.
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Depending on what you want to achieve with this final draining solution you may have a problem when using such an hypo-tonic solution. In crops where there is fruit production, using such a solution can cause problems such as the rupture of fruits’ skin due to the higher rate of water absorption that takes place when plants are placed in a hypo-tonic media. In order to avoid these problems the best thing is to use an isotonic solution which has an osmotic pressure similar to the original nutrient solution.
Clearex achieves this simply by combining a few sugars to a concentration of about 4-6% in order to get to the point where the osmotic pressure of both solutions is similar. Getting regular table sugar an dissolving it in a ratio of 50g per liter of solution will achieve very similar results as those obtained with Clearex. However using sugars like this can have additional problems since sugars stimulate the development of fungi and bacteria within the root zones of the hydroponic plants.
In my opinion it would be possible to achieve better results by using an isotonic solution with a combination of salts and sugars in such a way that non-nutrient salts are used to provide an ionic content to the draining solution. Using a combination of NaCl, Sucrose and Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate to achieve a more balanced solution may provide better results when doing this type of draining procedures. Of course, this is based purely on my anecdotal evidence and an adequately controlled study would be needed to say anything conclusive for a particular plant specie.
In the end making these solutions is extremely simple and buying Clearex or such other solutions made for this purpose is an obvious waste of money. If you have obtained good results with solutions like these then you can simply make your own with simple sugars while it is possible that you could obtain results just as good as those by using RO water if your crop is not sensitive to hypo-tonic conditions. If you want to experiment a bit I would recommend using a solution with about 150 mg/L NaCl, 100 mg/L NaHCO3 (sodium bicarbonate) and 10g/L of glucose. Let me know if you get better, worse or similar results :o) (note that this is NOT a straight solution but a concentrated additive that should be used until the desired EC levels are reached)
The purpose of clearex is to displace bad tasting forms of carbon in the rhizosphere, like soil flavors and fertilizer flavors, with slightly more acceptable forms of carbon; generic sweeteners.
Only an issue with carbon deficient plants. Healthy plants are not lacking their strain specific carbon profiles, they do not desperately stick raw carbon inputs from the root zone into their flavor slots. Terroir has no place in Cannabis and fertilizer companies recognized the nature of their products early on; They make everything taste the same, like whatever carbon in the roots the plant can grab. Peat, coco, chalk, compost, microbials, sweeteners, if you can smell it is has less than 18 carbons. If you can taste it, it’s a sugar salt or acid.
Since the ‘terpene’ narrative steered cannabis away from medicinal value, there’s this impression that Cannabis flavor is the result of secondary metabolism… The first time I walked into a dispensary the bud had artificial secondary metabolites, and was deficient in primary metabolites. Completely unusable product. Naturally, you don’t get generic bitter flavorless lemon peel terps without primary sugars and acids of the lemon fruit itself. Cannabis is the same. Secondaries are derived from primaries.
When the local industry can’t even grow basic low grade weed (moderate primary metabolites, low secondary) , but attempt to fake high end weed with foreign secondary volatiles applied to horrendous weed with zero sweet/sour factor, it’s very obvious. Before the terp nonsense, flavors were faked with primary metabolites, sugars and acids, and the product was actually much better than the terpene infused sugar free chemical cow grass of today.
I did not realize is Dr. Daniel Fernandez site, and information.
Hell he posts up on Bean Basement on occasion.
Very nice guy, and shares a a lot of his big brain with us smaller thinking folks.
Now dispensaries are adding flavors? Not saying it doesn’t happen with those shit hole brick and mortar hemp selling spots that douse everything in delta8 or acetone…but actual dispensaries charging crazy for good looking low to mids? Never lol…
I have read of the use of the isotonic solucions in some invitro papers, related to small seeds of orchids, that could be harmed when dissinfected if not having the correct solution osmotic pressure.
@Emeraldgreen here’s a receipe that mimics clearex…
For 2 liters of concentrate (double strength of regular clearex):
120 grams of Dextrose (corn sugar available at wine making stores)
60 grams of Sucrose (regular white table sugar)
1.5 grams sodium benzoate (Optional as a preservative)
top off container to the 2L mark and shake to disolve.
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