Yayyy! My first colloidal silver generator (photo)

[NPK]

I'm winding up a late winter/early spring grow, including many plants grown from female seeds I made last year. Here are a few pics--the larger plants in the foreground are Sweet Tooth and Blue Tooth (Blue Dream x Sweet Tooth):



This one's my version of Blue Diesel--cannot WAIT to see the finished flowers, but they're a ways off, so I'm gonna have to use a forcing structure. The little freak to the right is labeled Sweet Tooth, but I'm skeptical. Still better than a stick in the eye!



Group shot taken maybe 10-14 days ago--about 70 percent of these are from my own female seeds.



Can't thank you enough for the information here, PhenoMenal! It is literally priceless.

 

[OmeJozzie]

OmeJozzie, you are so right. I think alot depends on the strain used. I was the person that ran the first test ever and I am the one that discover that you could use CS to change the sex of our plants. Over the years it's still the same. Some times it works but most of the time very poorly if any pollin at all. You always get male flowers but most of the time very little pollin if any.
This is my post saved from years ago letting the members of a growers forum in on my findings. I jumped the gun a little and posted before I found that I only got 2 seeds and only after rubbing the opened male flowers with out any pollin, on the female flowers. In all these years nothing has changed. Later,Stash

"

Thanks for the reply Stash.
The first four or five times i tried the CS method, it worked perfectly. These were all different strains. Weird thing is that i tried the same strains again, and .... no pollen. My own females or newly bought from the shop, both the same problem.

I think i'll give STS a shot, i hope this is a little more relyable then the CS method.


To everyone else.
I'm not bashing the CS method here, just sharing what i learned.
CS does work, even if it is sometimes, on some strains. But it is very cheap, easy, safe and very much worth a try.

I'll try the STS and report the results here. It could take a while, couse i have no room left to start at the moment.

 

[jakeh]

I'm trying this now on Serious Seeds Chronic. I started late (3 weeks into flower) and it has been 11 days. I spray once a day on 1 out of 10 plants. It is definitely having an effect on the plant. It is shorter/not stretching and the buds are denser than all the others(anyone else have this happen?). The CS I made I did using Phenomenal's method. It is 40 ppm but has turned grey. Is this a factor? I am going to make some more keeping it totally in the dark to see if I get a better batch. I'm hoping to get some nanners soon because my mother plant is toast. I may have to reveg if this experiment doesn't work. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Femora]

This thread is to heavy for me to go throu right now, so Ill just pop the question:

Thing is; I dont have a 9v adapter..

Can I use a car-battery as powersource for my CS?
This way I cant control the mA-output but its rather depending on the medium.. hmmm...

And; How long should I let it go? Just read the ppm every hour, or can I leave it over night?

Google tells me 30 mins to 8 hours @ 12V.. gah..

 

[Adze]

Any power source that provides low voltage D.C. should work fine. If you use a car battery you can vary the distance between the electrodes, farther apart, less current. Just because a power source says it can provide say 9 volts @ 0.5 amps doesn't mean that .5 amps will flow, it depends on the load, the resistance of the water, which is high and will allow only a very small current to flow.

 

[Femora]

Any power source that provides low voltage D.C. should work fine. If you use a car battery you can vary the distance between the electrodes, farther apart, less current. Just because a power source says it can provide say 9 volts @ 0.5 amps doesn't mean that .5 amps will flow, it depends on the load, the resistance of the water, which is high and will allow only a very small current to flow.

Oh, yea, thats true. Ill just adjust the spacing between the electrodes to get a proper load..
And ill just measure the solution until I have 40-50 ppm~
Edit; Forgot.. Thanks!!


About changing the + and -.. is it important? ;o
Does it change anything but the speed of the amount of "dissolved" silver in the solution?

 

[Adze]

The silver is going to erode off one electrode and build up on the other, so switching poles means you balance the lost of silver on them.

I was thinking about the myriad of devices that have some small power source that you could use. Anything that has those black modular plug-in things, like cell phone chargers, answering machines, even the power supply for an old printer. A wide range of voltage seems to work and all these use low voltage DC. Most have the specs printed on them. Cut off the gizmo on the long wire (not the wall plug-in) find the two wires inside of that and you’ve got your power supply

 

[Femora]

Yeah, im aware of this. But the highest voltage adapter I manage to find is a 5V.. And that seemed a little low. Or is it?
I guess time would compensate it..or.. Will it?

Thanks for sorting out the pole-switching-stuff!

 

[Adze]

Yes, the slower reaction still should work. Test it. You could use two adapters in series, just make sure the polarity is correct so the voltage adds.

 

[nimbin1]

Just a thought, when using sts, the sodium thiosulfate aids in the absorption of the silver nitrate in the solution. I was wondering if you made your cs like normal but added some sodium thiosulfate to the solution if it would work more effectively . I have had great success with sts but very limited success with cs.. Just a thought.

 

[DrGreenThumb@OZ]

Heres the CS maker I made

I purchased some silver wire for $25 inc postage from a seller here in OZ ..

I use a old glass jar with 2 holes in the plastic lid and place the wire in and have aligator clips attached and thats hooked up to a 9 volt battery .. all up cost me $30 and you can reuse the wire many many times . All the aligator clips etc are at dick smith or jaycar or any electronic store.

heres photo Of mine ... you just use distilled water and hook up 9volt battery and leave for 12 hrs then store what you make in a old beer bottle or a dark brown glass bottle with a spray nozzle and then you spray it onto a female plant 2 or 3 times a day for the first 2 or 3 weeks into flowering to get the male flowers. the silver wire will turn a black color so you have to sand paper it or wipe it clean after each time and ensure the wires are about an inch apart. The pollen can be collected and applied to another female plant by using a very fine clean paint brush.

The seeds take about 35-40 days to be dark brown or black and then can be picked. The seeds must dry out for 2 weeks before being used to sprout or you can put them in storage in the fridge.

 

[PhenoMenal]

A lot of people seem to have success with CS the first time (and you don't have to flick through very many pages here to see a lot of successful results), but then have issues later when they re-use the same silver ... this suggests a link there between some people re-using their silver without cleaning it (the more electrolysis you send through the silver the 'dirtier' it gets, reducing output and increasing required time), and/or not checking the resulting ppm, which is at a reduced level the second (and third etc) production run.

Ideally you want to use pure .999 or .9999 PURE SILVER, and you don't get that purity when you re-use the silver after the first electrolysis, so if you've got say silver wire then cut it up into smaller pieces so you can get multiple fresh runs

Perhaps the Achille's Heal of CS is that we usually make it ourselves rather than buying it like STS or GA
CS has a lot of advantages, but its up to us to get it RIGHT - and not just with making the CS, but when and how often the CS is sprayed

 

[Ryan Seedquest]

Awesome thread!

I've made a batch...
Got to wait for my target to veg a bit more...

I used reverse osmosis water because I have it here
.999 wire + 9v battery

EC stopped rising after 6 hrs @ 0.04
I switched polarity & cleaned the electrodes...
2 hrs later, still reading as 0.04

I've got it put away for now...
May try charge it up some more before I use it...

 

[buzz66]

Active components are silver ions, rather than the metal particles, whose number is totally irrelevant. No motive to measure or calculate the number of them. Metal particles only worsen the solution of the CS, making clustered ions inactive. To obtain a high concentration of ions, they should be removed from the solution by filtration.

TDS meter measures the conductivity of the solution, which depends on the concentration of ions. This is exactly what the most significant measurement, which characterizes the quality of the CS for flip purposes.

In the "medical" use of the CS is nothing more than an antiseptic broad profile, which also successfully kills all living things, as do the bismuth or lead.

Spot on!

One of the most important aspect of making the solution and getting the Highest IONIC % in the solution, is to limit the current flow. At first the current will be very low, but after more and more silver IONS are released the conductivity increases and thus so does the current. The current should be limited to 1 ma or lower.
This way the Silver Nano particles are at there smallest and reduces the binding of ions to the Silver particles.
Other factors are

Shutting of when the PPM as measured by a TDS or E.C. meter peaks. If correctly made with constant low current you should actually notice the PPM measured actually go lower. This is because the solution has saturated with ions and then they start to bind with the Silver particles. All TDS meters are factory calibrated to provide an estimated PPM for the most common dissolved ion sodium chloride (salt), not colloidal silver. But salt is about twice as conductive as silver ions, so when using a TDS meter to estimate the ionic PPM of COLLOIDAL SILVER the recommended practice is to multiply the reading on the meter by 2 to 2.5 times because it has actually taken at least twice as many silver ions to reach the level of conductivity indicated on the meter. So, for example, if the TDS meter says 6 then your actual ionic silver PPM is probably between 12 to 15 ppm. ALL TDS METERS work as described here! So if anyone tells you you can simply read a colloidal silver strength directly off the dial of a TDS meter they don't know what they are talking about.
Silver purity 999 (99.9%) silver is ok but 9999 (99.99%) silver is the best.
Water must be 0 PPM preferably double distilled.

If you go above the Red Line in this graph all you are going to do is reduce the IONIC component and increase the Silver Nano particles and produce crap will will still make your plants turn but it will also make them sick and reduce the amount of pollen you will get. This is a circuit i have produced to adjust and limit the current.
The solution should be clear not yellow, not silver, not grey,not brown or you are not making it properly.

 

[noreason]

I have to update and share with you my results making female seeds with CS.

I haven't a TDS meter and my EC meter doesn't read low values under 0,1µs/cm so I can't measure the solution strength.

Usually I take a glass jar, put inside purified water (from pharmacy) or at least de-ionized water from my de-humidifier and start the generator with a 12V (relatively high amperage) for 12 or 24 hours.

Then filter the solution from metal silver and keep it away from light, using it until the end, day after day.

The solution usually darkens after few hours or a couple of days, but it still works.

That's basically what I do and it works nice.

These are some pictures of a reversed clone intensely sprayed at least a couple of times per day from the switch to 12\12. It had very little time to make few female calixes and at now i can see only male flowers.

Can you see the fist pollen? Let's look better:

And this one is clone of the same age, grown in the same conditions but not sprayed with CS

I may suggest you when spraying to leave the plants in a shadowed area, without being hit from direct light, at least for 15 minutes.
This allow the water to remain liquid for more time, giving more time for the silver ions to enter the plant's tissues.

This technique works for foliar feeding too btw, the water is the link between outside and inside, without water, pretty nothing can enter the plant.


And now a question for you all, it came in my mind some days ago and it's about DNA and hermaphroditism.

I can pollinate a female using CS on other clones, obtaining female pollen.

I can pollinate a female using stresses on other clones during flowering, inducing the inter-sexual traits to come out.

Now the question is, obviously considering the same identical clones:

Is there any difference in the DNA side of the offsprings?
Thinking about this, I can't find anything that suggests me the offsprings will have differences. Both are different ways to have male flowers appear, the first via chemical, the second via ambiental stress.

I would be happy to hear your point of view about this.

Green vibes growers!

 

[jump117]

.. and keep it away from light, ..

What will happen to the colloidal-ionic silver solution, if you do not hide it from the light?

 

[buzz66]

What will happen to the colloidal-ionic silver solution, if you do not hide it from the light?

Pretty sure you know the answer to that

You seem to be the only one who knows the FACTS about this stuff
Your results are proof of that.

Well made CS with high IONIC content (85% or more) is not effected by light, only the Silver component will turn black with light. (Silver Oxide)

For others here that can't be bothered to Current limit the production you can make high IONIC solution be using Constant Voltage of between 3 to 5 volts DC and shut off when the MEASURED PPM PEAKS. Approximately 15 PPM as measured by a TDS meter. This figure with vary according to Purity of Silver & water, temperature, stirring, current.

Here are opposite extreme examples of CS when exposed to direct sunlight. The Black stuff is CS produced with impure water and exposed to sunlight for just 30 MINUTES. The other clear stuff is correctly made current controlled 15 ppm (8 PPM measured by TDS Meter) exposed to sunlight for 4 DAYS.

 

[PhenoMenal]

excellent feedback/tips buzz!! exactly the sort we need to keep improving this technique

 

[jump117]

Photosensitive silver compounds are the halides - AgBr, AgJ, AgCl.
In the process of chemical-photographic treatment, in areas exposed to light, there is a restoration of metallic silver from silver halide.

In colloidal-ionic solution we deal only with particles of silver metal, its oxide and ions.
They are not the photosensitive material.

The gray suspension is formed by particles of metallic silver and its oxide and appears regardless of lighting.

Over time, large particles settle to the bottom and the solution becomes transparent.
Precipitation process can be considerably accelerated by freezing and thawing the solution. In this case ppm is maintained.

Evaporation of the solution can enhance ppm.

 

[noreason]

What will happen to the colloidal-ionic silver solution, if you do not hide it from the light?

Hey Jump I don't know what happens to CS exposed to light, but I do know that some energy, known as electromagnetic radiations, mediated by photons can have an impact pretty on everything, especially on instable compounds or materials.

I mean high energy packets, like UV rays and shorter wavelength radiations can have an high impact on this kind of things.

So I just prefer to put it in a dark place

Here are opposite extreme examples of CS when exposed to direct sunlight. The Black stuff is CS produced with impure water and exposed to sunlight for just 30 MINUTES. The other clear stuff is correctly made current controlled 15 ppm (8 PPM measured by TDS Meter) exposed to sunlight for 4 DAYS.

Hi buzz
I get both results (black and clear) using the same purified water.
I think the difference is in the quantity of metallic silver and thus how the generator worked. Low tension and amperage give better results but hey....that dark liquid is good the same to spray on plants. It will reverse the sex anyway without damaging plants, or at least I don't care about the color and it works

ps: I think time is an involved factor in the darken of the CS. Often a clear solution put in a dark place, become grey/dark in a couple of days...