I’ve seen contradicting things about order of adding fertilizers into a reservoir and their effects on precipitation… If done wrong.
Some say to add in ingredients by PH(H-L)… Others say by type of ingredient…
Ex. Silica first (wait 10-30min), base fertilizers second (using one’s containing P first), then cal mag and the rest after (enzymes, ph up/down etc)…
So how do I know what’s right? I’ve had issues with using fertilizers for hydro a while and at first it was ph down and having gunk in my water filters (200 mesh) but I’m unsure if it’s just bad stuff or precipitation… At this point it’s likely a little of both but I dilute my acid now so that shouldn’t be an issue anymore.
I use Humboldt’s secret and they don’t disclose anything and ignore emails… I ph’ed every ingredient today and it confused me even more since they range from 1.8ph all the way to 11.75ph… The order they are mixed isn’t ph based from High to low either so I’m stumped as to what’s right, wrong and why they’re done differently.
I have a list based on each method ready to go I just need to know which one makes the most sense… By PH in descending order or by type. Ph down I’d always add at the end, but I find I don’t usually need much if any at the end anyway.
Dissolve it all in warm water if using powdered nutrients and stir between steps. Sometimes things can precipitate out of solution if the water is too cold, but reactions between nutrients like carbonates and excess phosphorus/iron can cause solids like insoluble carbonates and iron phosphate to precipitate out, so called ‘nutrient fall out’
I use potassium silicate (Balance by Athena) for PH UP. I added it to a base solution after the fact to get the measurements needed to get ph to 6.4.
I follow up by adding it prior to adding everything else about 20-30 mins later… which is (in the order I add)
Balance
Cleanse
Epsom/calmag
Base b
Base a
Pk booster (if I use it)
I’ve always added calmag (when used) before base nutes.
I also use GH maxibloom:
Epsom/calmag
1-2tsp of Maxibloom
1/2 tsp TnB naturals PH up (derived from potassium hydrogen carbonate)
That gets me to 6.7ph.
So I am planning to do a type mix as well instead of based on each ingredients ph. I see each of you also have the dilemma of doing Cal mag, in the right order (before or after nutes). I used to do Calmag first to get a ppm and tare it. But this time I am likely going to do it a little different.
I do always add ph at the end (ph down), lately since I have a bluelab ph down controller, I don’t even add ph down. I let it mix with the Reservoir since I move out 25% and add back in 25% so the ph is usually around 6.4-6.5 but the Reservoir is at 6.2 so it levels out at around 6.1-6.2
I mix them in room temp water but once mixed into inoculated tea I mix it with my Reservoir. I add 2 gallons to my 3gallons to make 5 gallons in my res.
I only use a fraction of the minimum recommended in the instructions 25-40% so far.
All my ingredients are wet. Except 1 of my Benny’s, which is dry (tps billions), but these are added days prior to nutes to brew my “compost tea”.
PPM test
Cal mag n iron
PPM test (to get cap mags ppm, usually around 55)
Plant enzyme
Golden tree
I hope I don’t gunk up my filters. If I don’t, it may have been fall out. Due to improper mix procedure, which HS didn’t really illustrate as theyre own instructions contradict eachother…
If this doesn’t stay clear I’ll likely remove golden tree which has kelp and maybe bat guano, because it lingers on my filters and I’ll just stick to using it as a foliar spray with cal mag.
Do you use foliar spray during veg or bloom?
I do during veg but this will be my first bloom so I am not sure if it’s good to do during Flowering (especially if Golden tree has guano, which I can’t confirm )
Yeah both of these will have some gunky residue that floats to the top or gets sucked into filters.
I have found the same with fluvic and humic acid as well but kelp is probably the worst for it. I think it’s the Alginate in it. Most of the organic nutrients or additives will have some sort or residue I found.
That said, I would still be using kelp… it increases chlorophyll production, reduces stretch from high nitrate levels, builds pest and disease resistance etc. It’s amazing stuff.
Mostly in veg and less and less they begin to fill up.
Silica->everything but Ca-> Ca-> adjust pH. I like to dilute pH up or pH down in water before using it because I’ve had some precipitation by using it full strength too fast. Calcium based nutrients will form calcium phosphate or sulfate if mixed with P or S containing nutrients at high concentrations.
I’ve also never personally seen organics like kelp/fulvic/humic/bat guano etc be kept in a reservoir for long successfully without the res getting nasty/smelly.
Personally I wouldn’t spray anything in flower. Some people do the first few weeks though while there’s still barely any buds.
I’ve always seen people do Silica → Calmag → Base Nutes → Additives → adjust ph.
Also, you can use kelp in hydro. Remo nutrients has kelp as an additive (like a single bottle of kelp, nutrient), and it works very well in Hydro.
Most other “organics” based products do not fair that well in hydro however.
EWC tea for example, goes super hard (in a good way) in hydro, but it also creates a terribly hard to clean biofilm over your buckets.
Also, dilute your single nutrient in a larger container before mixing it into your main reservoir. You only make a nutrient mistake once in a 100gal reservoir… then you figure out how to not waste 100’s of ml’s worth of nutrients and 100s of gallons of water in a single oopsie.
that is how i do it. if i ever get a drop of calmag in my si bottle it coagulates. i lot a whole bottle of powersi this way. the syringe i use for calmag always gets a crust on it when i use si.
GH floranova has kelp. i use that in a perlite/hydro medium. seems to work ok.
I always thought this was the proper order as well, and I will be using the same approach for pro-mix and for coco with perlite, I just ph as necessary for the proper medium.
I used to be a pretty huge fan of soil mixes, top dressing, teas, sst, fpj, knf, and other organic methods… but these days with my physical health not always being 100% as it was when I was younger, it is easier to just use bottled nutrients and keep it simple.
I find it interesting you say that because I’m doing the opposite switch for similar reasons too. I found it easier to get things ready once and just be able to tap water and not have to worry about mixing nutes and ph-ing and what not… I hate ph-ing . But I can definitely see how it would be difficult getting bags of amendments and mixing them too.
@DannyTerpintine@Weednerd.Anthony That order works too. As long as calcium isn’t mixed in concentrated forms together with phosphates or sulfates. Once they are diluted in the res it doesn’t matter as much. Mag sulfate would form precipitates if mixed concentrated with calcium nitrate too but not necessarily in a reservoir. It’s usually not even separated in dry nutrient mixes. Jacks 321 was made with the 5-11-26 old version of jacks that had 3.2% mg instead of 6.3%. With the newer version 5-12-26 you don’t even really need to add it in.
Dry nutrient companies usually separate the calcium nitrate as a “part B” but otherwise keep everything else together. When I use Jack’s hydro I mix that in a 2.5 gal bucket, add it to res and then fill another 2.5 gal bucket with the amount of calcium nitrate I need and throw it in the res after.
When I first started messing around with mixing my hydro salts together I used to do it in like 6 steps because I was paranoid of getting precipitates but in the end I eventually simplified it to everything else->calcium nitrate. The calcium nitrate could also go first. Everything else being micros, mag sulfate, growclean, potassium sulfate.
And yeah, that biofilm scares the shit outta me it’s really a pain in the ass to properly get off since it becomes resistant to a bunch of things when it takes hold.
I’m really not a fan of foliar spraying unless it’s necessary for pest control/prevention. I have tried Athena stack with their IPM outdoors. I can’t say the stack (kelp basically) kept my plants green. I was feeding organically and the plants were doing pretty awesome already. However the IPM did work well.
In flower I’d soak a lint free cloth and wipe the leaves & stems down, then I’d spray the top of the soil & around the pot.
. But I can definitely see how it would be difficult getting bags of amendments and mixing them too.