Nutrients and Additives (UK)

[funkymonkey]

Snagged it off ebay from the same supplier I got the Triethanolamine and Sulphated Castor Oil from, the Citric Acid was 2.50 for a kilo, the Triethanolamine was 6.99 for a litre and the Sulphated Castor Oil was 3.49 for a litre and had free shipping so a real bargain. Be years before I need to buy any more PH Down or spidermite sprays! lol

I'm going to do a tutorial thread on making your own rooting gel 5x the strength of Clonex shortly as I just bought the Indole-Butyric Acid (IBA) and Napthalenic Acetic Acid (NAA) needed to make a litre of the stuff.

 

[lovelightpower]

citric acid is great, i use it all the time for PH'ing.
i just buy mine from the wine making/beer brewing section of roys supermarket.
£1 a pot.

seems nicely soluble.

 

[VerdantGreen]

yeah citric acid has many benefits - one great one is that it keeps P in solution very efficiently. it's also natural - plant roots exude it.

thread about citric acid from the organic forums
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=191399

i use it by mixing a tablespoon of the power in a grolsh bottle full of water. it then takes a few tablespoons of this solution (used like pH down) to get a 2 gallon can of my water down to about pH6

 

[funkymonkey]

Glad to hear a few people are already using Citric Acid with good results. Anyone use Baking Soda for ph up?

 

[lovelightpower]

i use bicarbonate of soda for ph up...

 

[shafty420]

weeping willow rooting gel

Willow trees produce a rooting hormone that is stored in it's bark and branches. This can be extracted by boiling the branches or simply soaking them in water.

Boiling Method

1) Cut the willow branches into 2 - 5 inch pieces
2) Fill pot with branch segments and put it on the stove
3) Pour enough water into the pot to submerge the branches
4) Turn the heat on the lowest setting
5) Put a lid over the pot
6) Leave for 2 hours
7) Let cool for a couple of hours
8) Strain out branches
9) Store in sealed container in the freezer and it should last for years

Soaking Method

1) Cut the willow branches into 2 - 5 inch pieces
2) Put branch segments into a container (Mason Jar works well)
3) Fill the container with enough water to submerge branches
4) If the container has a cover, cover it!
5) Let sit for at least 24 hours
6) Strain out branches
7) Store in sealed container in the freezer and it should last for years

Using the Rooting Hormone
Rooting hormone must be kept sterile or bacteria could destroy the hormone. Therefore when using hormone from a large batch, separate the portion you are going to use from the rest of it.

Put the portion you're going to use in a container with holes in the lid. Stick your clones in the lid so the cut portion of each clone is fully submerged in rooting hormone. Leave sit for 12 - 24 hours so as to let the clones absorb enough hormone, then put your clones in your medium and throw away the used rooting hormone.

 

[mooseknuckle]

much obliged

 

[McSnappler]

Great thread, keep coming back to it, and have purchased a couple of the products recommended too.

Really interesting and helpful info from funkymonkey and co!

 

[funkymonkey]

I was listening to someone trying to explain how to clone today, they were rambling on about presoaking cubes for 8 hours in a mix of about 5 products, soaking cuts for an hour in rooting gel then using a razor blade to make a 45 degree cut but doing it under water etc etc.

Sod all that, I take the plugs out of the bag, wet them in tap water, turn em upside down and poke a small hole in with a nail (the pre-made hole on the top is way too big), then cut the branch off the plant with a pair of scissors, pull off most of the fan leaves, strip off the growth from the bottom two inches, trim to length just below a node, stick em in the plugs, whack em in the propagator and wait till roots appear. No products used to soak the cubes, no rooting hormones or cloning gels, nothing. It works. I have used all kinds of gels, hormones and potions in bottles in the past and just don't see a need for any of them, just keep the plugs moist (not wet) and the environment 21-22C and rh above 70 and they will root. Here's 5 Volunteer cuttings I took last week, 8 days and roots everywhere.

 

[theherbalizor]

If cloning in RW I recommend a good 24 hour soak. 1.2 EC, root excel and superthrive at ph5.5.

Take 150 cuts in 2 hours and all will be rooted in 5-6 days. I like to take small cuts.. say 1 or 2 nodes below the RW and 1 or 2 above.

 

[McSnappler]

Do the guys using Potsil in Coco reduce base nutes when adding it to the res?

AF is using canna a + b and wants to start adding the potsil. I assume 1/2 bottle dose (2.5ml to 10L) is a good starting point, but don't know whether he should cut down the a+b a bit.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[theherbalizor]

I do not cut down the base when feeding with POTsil. At the end of the day it has no real NPK value.

 

[theherbalizor]

Here is a BBchem cut that I took on Monday.

Note I use the edge of the cube to increase oxygen ratio.

 

[ChaosCatalunya]

Here is a BBchem cut that I took on Monday.

Note I use the edge of the cube to increase oxygen ratio.

Nice idea there using the edge of the cube... always noticed Rockwool rooting really well when less than saturated, it seems Coco is similar, works better when squeezed out a bit...

I ended up using the 2" cubes, they are wrapped like 3", but you use them alone, unlike the 1" you then stick in 3" wrapped cubes. The bigger size [2" not 1"] seems to help, it is easier to keep them half wet and they are spaced out nicely for the propagator.

I used to chop out the bottoms out of the 4' long 6" wide Rockwool slab trays, the ones with 12 spiky grooves, not the versions with 2 or 3 bigger "steps" ....and run the blocks in a "bare root NFT" ... i.e. no spreader mat. If you dribble a flow along the bottom the roots that emerge are instantly in an NFT flow, not sitting around getting cold, sad and air pruned, they turn 90 degrees sideways, [horizontal, in nice lines matching the tray's grooves] growing thick and strong, supplying your clone with max nutrients and water. When you transplant into the NFT flowering table [or other systems, it works well for most] the roots are usually undamaged and so take off at great speed at the critical time for their development. If you let them fuzz out in all directions, you often crush half or more transplanting...This technique can really make a dramatic difference in Winter where cold temps can really slow down plants metabolisms, an often overlooked aspect of growing that is an important factor for yield.
Having a nice 23 degree flow beneath the clones also raises humidity up to a point you do not need a propagator lid, so you can have a nicer, fresher, rot free environment, hopefully closer to max perfection for the grow.

 

[funkymonkey]

Herb is right about adding silicates, you add them on top of your base ec as it's not a fertiliser, there is a small amount of K in potassium silicate but not enough to mess with things.

 

[Blimey]

After seeing what cheesey's roots were like, I've been using regen-a-root for about 10 days now...when I saw the root development on the last two males I cut while re-using the pots this morning....my jaw just dropped.

Thick white roots everywhere....totally circling the lower third or so of the 6.5 litre pot....all in 8 days or so.

An order of magnitude or more above what I'm used to.

 

[cheesey]

After seeing what cheesey's roots were like, I've been using regen-a-root for about 10 days now...when I saw the root development on the last two males I cut while re-using the pots this morning....my jaw just dropped.

Thick white roots everywhere....totally circling the lower third or so of the 6.5 litre pot....all in 8 days or so.

An order of magnitude or more above what I'm used to.

great stuff isnt it blimey well worth the £13 a ltr . plus it lasts for ages at 1ml per ltr.

 

[Blimey]

Literally unbelievable......this stuff will never leave my arsenal now.

That one photo you posted has changed everything!

 

[cheesey]

Literally unbelievable......this stuff will never leave my arsenal now.

That one photo you posted has changed everything!

cool . glad i cud help .

heres a root ball out of a 15 ltr pot of coco .
roots not as white as it was flushed for 16 days and photo was took 3 days after the plant was chopped .the plant was drinking over 10 ltr a day .

 

[theherbalizor]

Look at that stem!!!

I would want to whittle that into something.. not sure what but its way cool man!! LOL