Growing Without Bloom Nutes By Farside05

Yes, Potassium Silicate, that is correct, but you can get it for $20 a 1lb bag, shipped, HERE . Actually right now its on sale for $16.

If you over dried your bud, look to get some Bovida packs to help rehydrate them.

So i ended up getting some of the potassium silicate but had to go n get it from the zon cause for some weird reason they wudnt except my credit card at bas. Which was really weird cause they were the first place i started getting los kits from a few years back wen i first started growing organic. But yea anyway got some now even tho it costed 10 bux extra lol. But soon ill b doing ur same nute schedule an guna be setting up a sog grow in my 10x10 tent. Im thinking like 40 to 60 clones in a sog with the MC nutes shud be a fun run lol.
Finally got the RO system Beck up and running. I hate working on that thing. There's so many connections and possibilities for leaks. Had to chase down 2 leaks that probably took me an extra hour. I don't use it for plants anymore, just human consumption and a base for making homemade nutes from powder.


Hey with ur ro unit do u supplement the water with nutrients that u need an put it back into it? Cause wen i got mine i switched up an stopped drinking any other water but the ro water. Now i do have some other health issues but i got super sick an my doc said it was like i all of a sudden dropped half the nutrients i normally had an my body was showing signs of deficiencies. So i started drinking our well water again and water from a natural spring we got in town an a few days later started getting better? So always wondered if any1 else ever had issues with jus drinking ro water or do u need to supplement it with different stuff tht i dnt know lol?

Day 51, Day 16 after flip

Front left got fed this AM. Wasn't until composing this that I realized I shorted her 5 extra ml of Terpinator. She got 1gal of 6g Mega, 5ml Cal-Mag, 5ml Pro-Tekt, 5ml Terpinator. The right hand side girls will likely need fed in the AM.

My bag of Potassium Silicate came in today. Perhaps I can whip up a quart of Faux-Tekt® tomorrow before feeding the right girls.








Good jesus man that girl in the back left is going crazy :meatballs::headbanger:. Congrats man those girls look the tits. I cant wait till i can make some faux tekt myself shud be this week. So i shud be able 2 get the next feeding with it in it.

The quality control tests... To see how close my product is compared to Pro-tekt. I gathered a few numbers.

I poured a sample of Pro-Tekt into a cup and measured the starting pH, since Silica supplements are known to be alkaline in nature. It measured 11.5


I checked that result against my Faux-Tekt®. Same number, so we are good there.


Next I added 5ml of Pro-Tekt to a gallon of water to see the resulting ppm. I got 241.


I did the same with 5ml of Faux-Tekt® and came out with 254. Pretty close. The difference is most likely that I eyeballed the gallon rather that precisely measured it. My guess is the Pro-Tekt gallon had a tad bit more water in it. Either way, 13 points over 5ml, that's only a difference of 2.6ppm per ml.


Next I tested the Pro-Tekt gallon's pH. 8.5


Then the Faux-Tekt® gallon. Also 8.5


I added all the other components of my nute regiment. The Pro-Tekt gallon came out to 6.5, which is what I am shooting for. No other pH adjustments necessary.


The Faux-Tekt® gallon. Spot on also at 6.5.


Every one of my test showed the product to be equivalent. It looks like a winner.

Oh man im excited to make my own hahaha. So i kept seeing on the zon they had potassium sulfate which was cheaper wud that work for the same stuff but im guessing not since its the silicate were wanting. So i guess i was wondering whats the difference between the 2. I tried looking it up but cudnt find nuthn to tell me in a way i cud understand it lol.
 
So i ended up getting some of the potassium silicate but had to go n get it from the zon cause for some weird reason they wudnt except my credit card at bas. Which was really weird cause they were the first place i started getting los kits from a few years back wen i first started growing organic. But yea anyway got some now even tho it costed 10 bux extra lol. But soon ill b doing ur same nute schedule an guna be setting up a sog grow in my 10x10 tent. Im thinking like 40 to 60 clones in a sog with the MC nutes shud be a fun run lol.


Hey with ur ro unit do u supplement the water with nutrients that u need an put it back into it? Cause wen i got mine i switched up an stopped drinking any other water but the ro water. Now i do have some other health issues but i got super sick an my doc said it was like i all of a sudden dropped half the nutrients i normally had an my body was showing signs of deficiencies. So i started drinking our well water again and water from a natural spring we got in town an a few days later started getting better? So always wondered if any1 else ever had issues with jus drinking ro water or do u need to supplement it with different stuff tht i dnt know lol?



Good jesus man that girl in the back left is going crazy :meatballs::headbanger:. Congrats man those girls look the tits. I cant wait till i can make some faux tekt myself shud be this week. So i shud be able 2 get the next feeding with it in it.



Oh man im excited to make my own hahaha. So i kept seeing on the zon they had potassium sulfate which was cheaper wud that work for the same stuff but im guessing not since its the silicate were wanting. So i guess i was wondering whats the difference between the 2. I tried looking it up but cudnt find nuthn to tell me in a way i cud understand it lol.

I did not drink that much of the RO. Most of the water I consume is at work. I have one Diet Dr Pepper and then about 3 glasses of water each night during my shift. My diet is garbage mostly. When I do decide to loose weight, I do Atkins and then I take daily supplements. I need to drop some pounds again. My work schedule (nights) makes it harder to eat well.

Potassium Sulfate is completely different. You are correct on the Potassium Silicate, we are wanting the Silica part for strong stems. Potassium Sulfate can be used in our grows though, only for a different reason, the Sulfur. Sulfur is known to increase the aroma and flavors in our plants. You've probably heard of a product that is primarily Potassium Sulfate, Terpinator. You could use a bag of that product and make your own too.

In short,
Potassium Silicate = Pro-Tekt
Potassium Sulfate = Terpinator

I'm currently testing a feed regiment using Terpinator (Potassium Sulfate). My planned feed would be:

Veg:
A 1:blushsmile:1 ratio of Mega Crop to Cal-Mag to Faux-Tekt ®. Starting at 1g/ml from day 1 and increasing my the dosage by 1g/ml every 5 to 7 days until I reach 5 parts of each.

From the beginning of bloom:
6g Mega Crop
5ml Cal-Mag
5ml Faux-Tekt® or Pro-Tekt
10ml Terpinator

Last 2 weeks of bloom
6g Mega Crop
5ml Cal-Mag
5ml Faux-Tekt®
20ml Terpinator
 
I did not drink that much of the RO. Most of the water I consume is at work. I have one Diet Dr Pepper and then about 3 glasses of water each night during my shift. My diet is garbage mostly. When I do decide to loose weight, I do Atkins and then I take daily supplements. I need to drop some pounds again. My work schedule (nights) makes it harder to eat well.

Potassium Sulfate is completely different. You are correct on the Potassium Silicate, we are wanting the Silica part for strong stems. Potassium Sulfate can be used in our grows though, only for a different reason, the Sulfur. Sulfur is known to increase the aroma and flavors in our plants. You've probably heard of a product that is primarily Potassium Sulfate, Terpinator. You could use a bag of that product and make your own too.

In short,
Potassium Silicate = Pro-Tekt
Potassium Sulfate = Terpinator

I'm currently testing a feed regiment using Terpinator (Potassium Sulfate). My planned feed would be:

Veg:
A 1:blushsmile:1 ratio of Mega Crop to Cal-Mag to Faux-Tekt ®. Starting at 1g/ml from day 1 and increasing my the dosage by 1g/ml every 5 to 7 days until I reach 5 parts of each.

From the beginning of bloom:
6g Mega Crop
5ml Cal-Mag
5ml Faux-Tekt® or Pro-Tekt
10ml Terpinator

Last 2 weeks of bloom
6g Mega Crop
5ml Cal-Mag
5ml Faux-Tekt®
20ml Terpinator

So are u saying we could get the potassium sulfate an make our own fauxinator lmao. Makes me think of arnold Schwarzenegger ill be back in my best terminator voice :rofl: :rofl: .
 
So are u saying we could get the potassium sulfate an make our own fauxinator lmao. Makes me think of arnold Schwarzenegger ill be back in my best terminator voice :rofl: :rofl: .

See THIS POST
 
Dam man i so shud have gotten it. Does this stuff really change the flavor an smell of the buds versus not using it? I cant wait to try it out lol.

I can't confirm it yet. Last time I tried it I didn't use nearly as much as I plan on this time. Last time I didn't see any noticeable difference. Hoping this time it will.
 
Ok are u using ur homemade version or actual terpinator?

The real one. I got 5 gallons of it from contest wins.

PS, I sent you a private message.
 
Day 54, 19 from flip

AM pics. The 3 other girls look to be stretching some and closing the gap on back left. Their color has also balanced out more, where the newer growth on the tops was a bit lighter. I'll probably need to thin the tops some to define the colas and let in more light.





 
Day 54, 19 from flip

AM pics. The 3 other girls look to be stretching some and closing the gap on back left. Their color has also balanced out more, where the newer growth on the tops was a bit lighter. I'll probably need to thin the tops some to define the colas and let in more light.






Lookn beautiful my friend congrats.
 
Certainly up to your usual standards of verdancy, autos or photos!

Two questions: can you post your NPK ratio when you're at 6-5-5-20, and can you show the math on how you arrived at

Photos. Purple Urkle from ApeOrigin Seeds.

6-5-5-20 is right to the ragged edge of the 1:3 ratio N to K


The math: Take the totals at the bottom of the NPK x Quantity Used section and divide by the sum of the quantity used. ie for N divide 64 by 36, P 36 by 36, and K 197 by 36.
 
As more and more people make the switch to Mega Crop I’m seeing a lot of misconceptions of what it is, or is not. Let’s examine further. To keep the high-brow scientific speak to a minimum, we’ll keep it simplified and in basic terms.

First let’s review some basics. The word “Salt or Salts” is thrown around often and it’s grossly misused. For the full article on Salts, see HERE in my journal. Otherwise, let us summarize. The general public thinks of Salt as the white granular stuff season your food with, NaCl, which is toxic to plants. This is NOT what we are talking about here. We are using the chemist view of Salts which is, “any molecule that is made up of two or more ions.” They are normally crystalline solids. There are hundreds of different kinds of Salts, some like Ammonium Nitrate and Potassium Chloride are common in fertilizer. When salts are dissolved in water, the ions in the salt separate and are no longer joined together. They are now properly called ions, not salt.

To recap, if you are using a DRY fertilizer that contains things like Potassium Nitrate (combination of Potassium and Nitrogen ions), Calcium Nitrate (Calcium and Nitrogen ions), and Magnesium Sulfate (Magnesium and Sulfur ions), these ARE Salts. Once you add that powder to a gallon or liter of water and dissolve it, it is no longer Salts its IONS. So guess what. Mega Crop IS a Salt based fertilizer. Is that bad? NOT AT ALL! In organic gardening, you may have substance that is consumed by a microorganism and it excretes a Nitrogen ion as a byproduct. That Nitrogen ion is NO DIFFERENT than the Nitrogen ion that is released when some Potassium Nitrate was dissolved in water. AN ION IS AN ION, THE PLANT KNOWS NO DIFFERENCE.

What about Salt build up? If you are this point and you’re asking this question, reread the previous two paragraphs. The moment you dissolved that solid into water it became ions, not salts. The question should be, What about a buildup or imbalance of unused ions? It may be nitpicky, but let’s use the correct vernacular. It could be that you supplied more of a particular ion than what the plant needed. Let’s pick one for examples sake. Let’s say that you provided more Phosphorus than the plat needed. That excess Phosphorous will build up in the growing medium over time and could cause issues. This is why it’s recommended that you water until there is a good runoff or periodically rinse your medium, to reset the balance of your intended feed.

Enough about Salts, let’s talk about Chelation. What is it and why is it necessary? In really simplified form, the metal trace elements needed for our plants tend to react poorly with growing mediums that are a pH level of 6.5 and above. Instead of being readily available to our plants, they bind with the medium instead. Think of a Chelated trace elementa as an M&M. Say the plant wants chocolate, but when you try to give it chocolate, it melts all over your hands, and not in the plants mouth. The solution? Let’s put a hard candy shell on the chocolate and turn it into an M&M. The plant consumes the M&M, getting the chocolate it craves from inside the hard candy shell, and you don’t get chocolate all over your hands. Chelation works much the same. The barrier that the trace element has been chelated with keeps it from sticking to the soil so the plant can uptake it though the roots or leaves.

Now that we know what Chelation is, what types are there? Traditionally EDTA has been used to Chelate the metal trace elements in fertilizers. It does its job quite well. The other type is Chelation with Amino Acids. Is this something new? No. Although you can find studies dating back to 2006 on Amino Acid Chelation, you haven’t really seen many products adopting it until 2015. So what is the difference? EDTA is a synthetic, non-biodegradable, product. It is considered a pollutant and can build up in animal and human tissue. Amino Acids are organic and biodegradable. They are not considered a pollutant to the environment and are more sustainable. In the 2006 study mentioned above, using rice crops as a test subject, the Amino Acid Chelated fertilizer produced 10% more yield. Amino Acid Chelation is more efficient than EDTA and supplies that plant with more of the trace minerals. Which type of Chelation does Mega Crop use? Amino Acid, whereas many of the other fertilizers are still using EDTA.

The low down on Chelation. It’s not a dirty word. You want your fertilizer Chelated. You want your trace minerals available over a wide pH range and available to your plant. The only valid argument against Chelation is that it was Chelated with EDTA and that it is a pollutant, non-biodegradable, and can build up in human tissue. Problem solved with Amino Acid Chelation.

So there are the meat and potatoes of Mega Crop, but it doesn’t end there. In your bag they also decided to throw in a side salad. Mega Crop also includes other amino acids, kelp extract, B vitamins, and a small amount of Silica. These are some things that growers have been supplementing their plants with, so they decided to add them to the mix. The benefit to you is that you now don’t have to have a bunch of extra supplements. Everything you need to grow a nice plant is included in the bag. Can you decide to supplement other things with Mega Crop? Yes. It’s up to you to make that decision, but it isn’t necessary. If you do, however, use caution, especially with high K boosters. Mega Crop has quite robust in K to begin with. Too much and you could lock out other things like Calcium.

Summary

What it is. Mega Crop is a complete powdered 1 part fertilizer. Being a dry fertilizer, you’re not paying for water which you could add yourself. You’re not paying for the shipping cost and weight of that water either. Plus you are getting a full strength product, not a watered down, diluted version. It contains all 17 required elements for plant growth. Many of the other products, both dry and liquid, will only contain the 8 essentials. On top of that it also contains some additives that many growers choose to supplement, cutting down your supplement cost. Since its one part, you also aren’t spending needless time mixing several bottles. It’s quick and easy.

What it is not. Mega Crop isn’t unicorn horn dust. It works just like any other fertilizer. Other fertilizers are Chelated too and allow for the uptake of required elements over a broad pH range, most just do so with EDTA instead of amino acids. It’s not “Salt Free”. The sources of N-P-K are the same “Salts” that other fertilizer companies are using. Look at a label where it says “derived from” (see photos of Mega Crop and Dyna Gro Foliage Pro below). There is no guarantee that unused ions will not build up in your growing medium. It is still recommended to feed to runoff, or occasionally rinse your medium, to maintain the optimum balance of all the nutrients. You can check this yourself quite easily. If you don’t water to the point of runoff for several feedings, do so once and catch that first bit and check it with your TDS meter. What I can guarantee is that it will be higher, probably significantly higher, than your input. Pour another gallon or so at your pot and check the runoff again. You will see a decline. So why was that initial runoff so much higher? Build up! It’s not a knock on Mega Crop at all. It’s just fertilizer basics 101. You will not be able to feed every element in exactly the amount the plant wants. The goal is to make sure there is an abundance, but not overly excessive amount, of everything it might want. It will pick and choose from the buffet from there. It won’t eat the whole buffet. There will be leftovers. Those leftovers will remain in your medium. They aren’t sucked in by the roots, travel up the stems, and transpired out the leaves. Your plant isn’t Bulimic.

I’m sure someone with a PhD in Botany will want to say I over simplified something or mince points. Please provide supporting documentation. I could have linked every article for reference material but chose to try to put things in everyday language and examples the average stoner can understand, since that's what most of us are.


another reread has more educated thannibhave been in 2 decades of growing. trusting the "canna" industry was run by and for the growers if weed who tend to be a humane bunch and do all we can to help other folk along. This thread alone shows the levels some people go to in order to help. The sad reality of companies like A.N getting caught out by separating everything , was a killer to wake up to. Thanks for this major and simplified lesson in the chelation and ions , not too mention how mc is different. I know I am guilty of the " it's not salt like other nutes " line when talking about it.
 
Day 55, Day 20 from flip AM

If "you only hurt the one you love", then I should be booked for Domestic Violence. I chopped the hell out of the girls this AM. Thinned them quite a bit to define colas and open up the middles. I really don't like the looks of front right, aka cabbage girl. This is either gonna force her hand or damn near kill her. There's a bit more room in the tent now. After they recover some I might be able to readjust the ties a bit more.

On top of playing axe murderer, the three that didn't get a drink the other day got a gallon of tap followed by 2 gallons of 6g Mega, 5ml Cal-Mag, 5ml Faux-Tekt®, and 10ml Terpinator.

Front Left

Back Left

Back Left's Structure

Front Right

Back Right

The lights were out about 30 minutes before I finished, so no after shot in the tent. I'll likely post that up this evening.
 
Day 55, Day 20 from flip AM

If "you only hurt the one you love", then I should be booked for Domestic Violence. I chopped the hell out of the girls this AM. Thinned them quite a bit to define colas and open up the middles. I really don't like the looks of front right, aka cabbage girl. This is either gonna force her hand or damn near kill her. There's a bit more room in the tent now. After they recover some I might be able to readjust the ties a bit more.

On top of playing axe murderer, the three that didn't get a drink the other day got a gallon of tap followed by 2 gallons of 6g Mega, 5ml Cal-Mag, 5ml Faux-Tekt®, and 10ml Terpinator.

Front Left

Back Left

Back Left's Structure

Front Right

Back Right

The lights were out about 30 minutes before I finished, so no after shot in the tent. I'll likely post that up this evening.
Perfect for suckin down photons now!!!
 
Photon sucking, not going to google that at work ;).

The math: Take the totals at the bottom of the NPK x Quantity Used section and divide by the sum of the quantity used. ie for N divide 64 by 36, P 36 by 36, and K 197 by 36.
Sorry, I meant the math for this:
To make a quart of 7.8% solution (same as Pro-Tekt), we need 140g of Potassium Silicate.
and
To reach the 4% solution that Terpinator is, dissolve 300 grams into 1 gallon
 
Sorry, I meant the math for this:
To make a quart of 7.8% solution (same as Pro-Tekt), we need 140g of Potassium Silicate.
and
To reach the 4% solution that Terpinator is, dissolve 300 grams into 1 gallon

The math for the Potassium Silicate was real easy. At BuildASoil where I bought it, the product description tells you that if you want to make a 7.8% solution (like Pro-Tekt) dissolve 560g into a gallon. All I did was divide by 4 to get the quart number.

I'll have to revisit the math and formula for the Terpinator.
 
Day 55, Day 20 from Flip PM

Always amazed how quick they seem to bounce back. Front left girl especially. This AM when I stripped her, she had barely any buds, she was behind the other girls anyhow, and spindly little stems like something you'd see on bottom growth. This evening it looks like the stems have doubled in size and I'm seeing more buds. I was shocked, in just 13 hours time. Tomorrow I think I'll readjust restrains. That's something I haven't done in weeks. I have some space to fill in the tent looking at things now.

Front Left

Back Left

Front Right

Back Right

Group

 
Sorry, I meant the math for this:
To make a quart of 7.8% solution (same as Pro-Tekt), we need 140g of Potassium Silicate.
and
To reach the 4% solution that Terpinator is, dissolve 300 grams into 1 gallon

Racked my brain for a while trying to recreate this wheel. I'm gonna have to build it into my spreadsheet. Same process for both, but we'll do the Terpinator calculations:

Desired Concentration/Label Concentration

In this case it's 4% ÷ 53% = .075 grams per ml

Multiply by 1000 to get grams per liter. .075 x 1000 = 75

So if you were trying to make 1 liter you'd need 75g of powder and 925ml of water. Since most of us don't have graduated cylinders for 925ml of water, it's easier if we round up to a liter. In that case:

75 ÷ 925 x 1000 = 81g dissolved into a liter. So you'll actually have a little over a liter of product because you'll have the liter of water plus the volume of the powder.

Now if we want to convert the metric liter to the US gallon. Multiply the 81g x 3.785 (the amount of liters in a gallon) and we get 307g per gallon.

PS - if you're trying to do the calculations on Pro-Tekt or Faux-Tekt, don't use the 7.8% for the solution, use the K number of 4%.
 
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