It's all very interesting! I had a conversation with Stan from Ferro earlier on in thr week and he was saying that he doesn't recommend silicon for cannabis as it reduces transpiration and can slow plants down. He was saying that's why they don't offer a silicon in their range and can get the same benefits using bio crop. Not a lot available on how it works but I think I read it's a seaweed extract so polysaccharides etc. That's the reason I decided only to use it fot PH up. He's the first person I've heard say it's not that beneficial for plants though. The general consensus seems to be that silicon provides a wide array of benefits?
integrajosh wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 7:59 pmI agree about the ph down not causing lockouts, but it is also salt that takes up ppms that could be your base nutes insteadgrumpygrower wrote:Thanks Integrajosh, I'm really enjoying the journey with aeroponics :) so much more to think about though.
The precipitate cloud is normally because potassium silicate is extremely alkaline (13PH) so it will skyrocket the PH and cause nutrients to solidify and become unavailable to the plant. The reason why some see the cloud form while adding the silicon is they probably because their nutrients have already been added and that sudden increase to 12+ PH takes out a load of nutrients. The real dumb thing on my part is I was well aware of this and decided to ignore it because I'm a lazy git. I suppose I thought they were young and it wouldn't affect them as much :)
What I should of done is add the silicon and mix, then PH the water and finally add nutrients and PH again. But I'm not going to use the potassium silicate as intended by the manufacturer anymore and just use it as a PH up. With this nutrient line, once everything is mixed, the PH is ~4ish so a few ml of silicon brings it up to 5.4 and once it's set, it hardly moves. I've only had to adjust down once so far and that was more because I added fresh water and it climbed a bit.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about adding PH down. Cannabis can take loads of P up no problems. I'd be very surprised if you managed to cause a lockout even by dumping a shit load in.
integrajosh wrote: ↑Sun Apr 12, 2020 6:49 pmHey man, I've heard of that cloud forming from silicon. But from what I've read it can take up to an hour to fully mix, then you should add nutrients.
I quit using it after stretch because it also makes my solution go up to 9-ish ph, then I have to use a shitload of ph down even after adding my nutrients. Imo prbly healthier for the plant not using so much ph down, but I could be wrong
Looking good though buddy
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That's the way I look at it at least
For example, when using silicone, I'd have to add almost 10 ml of ph down to 9.5 gallons, which would add almost 50 ppm to the nute solution (.7 scale) Without the silicon, I only add 3-4 ml, so allows me to use a bit more base nutrients
Just a thought broskilmk what you think, I like the conversation
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