Live or Sterile? Why I choose Live

shanker65 said:
Thinking on adding some Grandmas Molasses to my reservoirs to give a bit of magnesium to the plants. How much do you recommend starting out with? Reservoirs hold about 25liters/a little over 5gal. Currently plants are in veg. Very very similar recipe to your vegetative recipe. Thanks Cap!
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High shanker65,
the cap'n asked me to pass on a message, so here it is:

"Tell him not to add molasses to the reservoir in hydro. Only use it in the tea to feed the army of microbes.. Sugary products in hydro could cause a slime outbreak."

s1ingblade
 
Thanks Sling/Cap.

I also did a bit of reading and came to the conclusion that molasses is not a good thing to have in my reservoir.

Couple Q's.

1. If adding molasses to a reservoir is bad then how come it is ok to hand water it at the base of the plant? Won't it just end up getting rinsed out and recirculated during the next irrigation?

2. Any Experience adding ZHO into Heisenberg Tea? Supposedly it will cause pH swings in a recirculating system.... Is it the same as molasses in that it's ok to hand water it over the base of the plant with the tea? I don't see how they can't end up in the reservoirs if they are applied.

Thanks a bunch.

Peace!
 
shanker65 said:
Thanks Sling/Cap.

I also did a bit of reading and came to the conclusion that molasses is not a good thing to have in my reservoir.

Couple Q's.

1. If adding molasses to a reservoir is bad then how come it is ok to hand water it at the base of the plant? Won't it just end up getting rinsed out and recirculated during the next irrigation?

2. Any Experience adding ZHO into Heisenberg Tea? Supposedly it will cause pH swings in a recirculating system.... Is it the same as molasses in that it's ok to hand water it over the base of the plant with the tea? I don't see how they can't end up in the reservoirs if they are applied.

Thanks a bunch.

Peace!
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Good Questions, Shank.

Again, adding any sugary / carb products to a hydroponic system could trigger a slime outbreak, as it could provide too much food for bacteria. There is always good and BAD bacteria in your system, so we want to try to starve all bacteria in the system. This is why we keep making more tea every week.

1. When you brew your tea, you are breeding an army of mycrobes. As the beneficial bacteria "wake up" from the ancient forest, it feeds off the molasses in the bucket. So in theory, most of the molasses is already consumed in the bucket, before you add the "bennies" to the base of the root mass.

2. ZHO is another form of beneficial bacteria. Think of it as a "poor man's great white". I used to use a pinch of it in my tea, along with the great white. I never noticed any PH swings. It is cheap enough to give it a try if you want. I mostly use the ZHO when I am planting my garden outdoors. I mix it in to the potting soil. The best tea is the most diverse tea. The mycogrow from fungi dot com is great too.

Hope that helps explain things!
 
Explained things very well! Thanks for the help. Good to know about the molasses being mostly consumed prior to the tea being added to the plants. I have a bit of ZHO here so I'll probably use a bit at a time and see how it works. Take it easy dude. I'll be reading your journal thing that you recently posted later tonight.
 
Cool Video Journal!

I'd like to pick up a couple of those yellow drip rings that you have there.... Can't seem to find them locally though. :( Keep up the awesome growing and hope you smash that record you were going for. Looking good! (Sorry for a useless post)
 
Update:

I hand watered in some ZHO a few days ago and no signs of pH swings. Plants look pretty nice! I Like your idea of applying it during transplants or in the nutrient solution that we use to pre-soak our rockwool cubes.
 
shanker65 said:
Cool Video Journal!

I'd like to pick up a couple of those yellow drip rings that you have there.... Can't seem to find them locally though. :( Keep up the awesome growing and hope you smash that record you were going for. Looking good! (Sorry for a useless post)
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They are the "hydro halo". You can get them on ebay.

shanker65 said:
Update:

I hand watered in some ZHO a few days ago and no signs of pH swings. Plants look pretty nice! I Like your idea of applying it during transplants or in the nutrient solution that we use to pre-soak our rockwool cubes.
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Good to know. Thanks for the feedback. This will help others. I like the ZHO. It's not as diverse as the great white but still VERY good stuff and 1/4 the price.
 
TheCapn said:
>>>You mentioned that you use a recirc. Top feed system during flower. How do you know what nutrients to replace in your reservoir after its been through the plants? Do you just top it up to your target PPM? Wondering how much the PPM usually changes after the plants have drank some. Can you just run your pump less so you have less runoff and then can just waste it?

This is a great question, and I was just talking to another member about this yesterday. Don't run your pump less. Recirculate that water in flower, 15 minutes at a time, twice a day! For your reservoir, with recirculating top feed, a good rule of thumb, is to hold ONE WEEK's worth of nutrient solution. I'm sure you will find a good routine, but for example, if you have 4 plants using 25 gallons a week, then you would set your res at 25 gallons every time you mix up new solution. 3-4 days later, you will have ~12 gals left in the res, top it off back up to 25 with PLAIN water. Another 3-4 days later, when you are down to 12 again, throw away ~6 gallons of it, then mix up 20 gals of solution and start the process over again. Make sense? When your res is down to 12 gallons, check your PPM. If it is way too high, then you are mixing up your nutrients too high. Back off 100ppm or so.

Doing it this way will help prevent any nutrient deficiencies, or overages of any one component. IN that remaining water in the res, I promise you, something is lacking! It is temping to just keep topping up with water or nutrient solution, but if you don't do at least partial water changes, you will run into trouble, eventually.
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This information is a big help to me. I have been completely emptying my main reservoir when I change nutrients. Following this procedure will make things a lot simpler for me. Do you do this even when you are changing the nutrient profile for different stages of growth? When I completely empty my main reservoir I have to make sure the pump is primed again or it make not work.
 
TrysHard said:
This information is a big help to me. I have been completely emptying my main reservoir when I change nutrients. Following this procedure will make things a lot simpler for me. Do you do this even when you are changing the nutrient profile for different stages of growth? When I completely empty my main reservoir I have to make sure the pump is primed again or it make not work.
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If you're changing ALL of the water, that's fine. But you're wasting nutrients. The only time I change ALL of the water, is if I feel a plant has a deficiency. I can't remember the last time I did that. And if I think a plant DOES have a deficiency, I don't change my recipe, I don't try to correct it. I just start with a fresh batch of nutrients. The exception to this is if you consistently have a strain that shows deficiencies... in this case, you may need to adjust your recipe.

>>>When I completely empty my main reservoir I have to make sure the pump is primed again

Your pump intake is probably pointed down. Make sure it is sideways and you shouldn't have the problem. If it loses prime, you could ruin a crop.
 
TheCapn said:
If you're changing ALL of the water, that's fine. But you're wasting nutrients. The only time I change ALL of the water, is if I feel a plant has a deficiency. I can't remember the last time I did that. And if I think a plant DOES have a deficiency, I don't change my recipe, I don't try to correct it. I just start with a fresh batch of nutrients. The exception to this is if you consistently have a strain that shows deficiencies... in this case, you may need to adjust your recipe.

>>>When I completely empty my main reservoir I have to make sure the pump is primed again

Your pump intake is probably pointed down. Make sure it is sideways and you shouldn't have the problem. If it loses prime, you could ruin a crop.
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Thanks for the info, and I'll turn that pump sideways.
 
Whats the PPM of your tea usually come out to Cap? I'm going to be pre-soaking some rockwool cubes to start a few seeds soon.... I'm just curious. :)
 
shanker65 said:
Whats the PPM of your tea usually come out to Cap? I'm going to be pre-soaking some rockwool cubes to start a few seeds soon.... I'm just curious. :)
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Very low. Around 50ppm. Be sure you use distilled or RO water. Check my blog entry on starting seeds. Using that method, I'm 100% germ rate for the last ~3 dozen seeds.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Cap... I'll definitely re-read the germinating article a couple times as I prepare the cubes for some seeds.

Take it easy and hope you have a good week!

- Chris.
 
Alright; I took a good look at the seed germination thread again. What a well thought out post that one was.

I'll also be doing a few clones at the same time;

- Can I use the same low ppm tea mixture for preparing starter cubes for both seeds and un-rooted clones?
 
shanker65 said:
Alright; I took a good look at the seed germination thread again. What a well thought out post that one was.

I'll also be doing a few clones at the same time;

- Can I use the same low ppm tea mixture for preparing starter cubes for both seeds and un-rooted clones?
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For seeds, yes. For clones, you can add the tea, but follow the clone recipe.
 
Hey Cap'n, a member is having some problems with his Rockwool grow. I'm don't have enough experience to help, but I thought of you immediately. If you have a moment could you check out his post. I've linked it below.

Needs Help
 
Hey Capn,

If your main 5gallon bucket of tea is like 6 days old; Would it be ok to ad a fresh 1ml/L of AquaSheild before applying?

Thanks!
 
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