Cool thanks man I think I now have a better idea of how I can dial in my irrigation setup. I was always chasing that runoff but this makes more sense in a matter of set it and forget it. I have 4 2 gal per light and they can probably be hit as many times as I want. I was giving them 2 waterings with good runoff per day. Maybe I can try 3-4 smaller feeds.
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- Thread starter Coconutz
- Start date
If that was true then how can so many guys grow in coco/blumats with no runoff ever and ec above 1.2?My ec has been between 1.35-1.6 ec for 2 months now in bloom with no runoff. That said your advice is solid and he should follow it
That's a very good question.
At lets say, 1.4ec (700ppm), and a rate of 1 Liter per day. That's 42g of salts added to the media in two months. They didn't go anywhere but in the plant or in the media.
I think this is possible by three factors.
1. The Drip Clean allows the plant the ability to sort through all the buildup.
2. The Coco can hold a ridiculous charge of elements.
3. The ratio of elements is so well dialed in that the chemistry stays in check even with the buildup from start to finish.
But the question remains. Why use Drip Clean? Just to feed a higher EC than you could without? Does this improve plant health? And if not... Wouldn't 1.2ec with runoff be cheaper to run than 1.6ec with drip clean?
I think of drip clean as being a chemical form of something like fulvic acid. It bonds with the salts and actually acts as a chelate. Its primary function I believe is to change the charge of the nutrient salts so they will be less likely to stick to the media and more likely to exit with runoff. I do believe an unintended benefit is that it makes some salts available that would not normally have been. I have seen anecdotal evidence of this when feeding two plants next to each other, same environment same strain same ec same nutrient except the drip clean and the drip clean plant ended up with burnt tips, other plant didn't.
I can also say that running drip clean with runoff and a low ec is in every way superior to not running drip clean with no runoff and any ec. Runoff is hard to deal with, it sucks, but that is absolutely a happier plant. The combination of runoff and drip clean is amazing.
I think the runoff and drip clean help because by removing the unused salts it makes room for the salts you are feeding currently. This ultimately cuts down or eliminates most nute based root zone lockouts. With drip clean and runoff the only lockouts I have experienced where in a veg room on a mom that had been there way to long.
I really don't know much about what drip clean actually consists of, from what I gather it is some kind of mild PK with broken bonds on the phos and potasium. How that does what it does, i don't understand but in one way or another it helps.
If anyone has an explanation of what drip clean consists of I would be glad to hear it. I also have always wondered about the flushing leaching solutions for flush out there. What are they and how do they work.
I've looked for this answer extensively in the past. No idea what it truly contains.
For all I know dripclean is snake oil. The poster Major Cottonmouth on here runs MB 7g/gal through blumats with no dripclean and has no ploblems. MB 7g/gal gives me a ec over 1.6.
First coco grow I ran MB and lots of people said you should keep the ec no higher than 1.2 so 2 weeks into bloom I dropped it down to 1.2 5g/gal and got premature yellowing so I went back up to 7g/gal. I have no idea where my salts go. I cut up all the root balls with a knife looking. No salt residue or any sign of them, just healthy roots. Magic
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noyd666
house and garden=DRIP CLEAN 100% safe for your garden used in correct proportion,DRIP CLEAN CONTAINS= POTASSIUM AND PHOSPHORUS COMPOUNDS. ONE PARTICAL HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THERE STRUCTURE. THE INCOMPLETE ELEMENT THUS WORKS AS A MAGNET. 27 BUCKS IN OZ FOR 250 ML. HERES A CHEAPER VERSION IF YOU CAN GET IT.CALLED FLAIRFORM.
These companies are just buying peKacid and adding water and charging you double the money for the water and cool graphics on the bottle. You can order it for $10 a lb free shipping/ makes a quart- from a few hydro stores on the net. It was invented and patented by an Israeli company- ICL. Made for growing plants in alkaline desert soil I quess. It's some very interesting stuff and sounds like you can grow hydroponics with a higher concentration+N. Check out this pdf:
http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0SO...tion.pdf/RK=0/RS=ICtFZ_PdXariYTdM8vEUHqBBYsM-
http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0SO...tion.pdf/RK=0/RS=ICtFZ_PdXariYTdM8vEUHqBBYsM-
Grat find! Haven't read it all yet but I am going to. That part in the left column that talks about using it to feed 'I ro nutrients. Thát is kind of like what I was talking about. It's like it will chelate things that wouldn't be available and make them available under the broader ph range of the p and k. Interesting stuff. I think major AG obviously doesn't ph there irrigation and a product like this allows them to make trace available at a broader ph rsnge.
sanjuan
Member
I considered mixing up my own Drip Clean but I'm small scale so I'll pay H&G for the convenience. Thinking back to the "bad old days" of soil mix in plastic pots and general purpose nutes, the absence of visible salting is like magic. I haven't been brave enough to try running my Blumat system without Drip Clean.
cannacultural
Active member
So you guys are using dripclean as a standard even if not using blumats? Going to look into the background on this. Quite interesting product going by the linked article. Cheers for that
I'm about to fire up the new ballast, Solis Tek Matrix with 600w HPS. Should leave the old cheaper gear for dust. Timing is good going into week 4. Still working on getting the plant green, not sure if it's progressed much in the past day.
I'm about to fire up the new ballast, Solis Tek Matrix with 600w HPS. Should leave the old cheaper gear for dust. Timing is good going into week 4. Still working on getting the plant green, not sure if it's progressed much in the past day.
I have never used it, and don't plan to. 1.2 EC jacks + calnit dripped dtw coco. Never had a clogged line nor any significant salt build up.
RO. I don't even pH. I used to have to pH with MB. This is my first full run with jack's in flower, and the plants are a little greener than I would like, but this strain came out looking essentially the same last time but was even lighter in color with the MB. Other than color the nugs are essentially the same.
No additives, except maybe some molasses late in flower. I have played with pk boosts in past grows, powder KB, MOAB, but I seem to get the best results keeping things more consistent and at a low EC.
If you are serious about growing, drop the $150 on 25# bags and you won't regret it.
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newtothiscoco
hello its a nice question about drip clean.
i only use it as a flush product late bloom
i only use it as a flush product late bloom
The general consensus and the manufacturers instructions are pretty clear on using it the whole run. For whatever reason if you use it late it can burn. Never done it myself so I can't say it doesn't work adding it late.
Seems to me that ro or distilled water would be the best flush. Tap or well water would have some micro nutes that would stay in the coco during a flush. Dripclean is like 0-60-20 and probably not something you want left behind. In all likelihood a human could never detect by smell or taste of the buds which of these things you flushed with- so who cares- do what ya want
Does anyone know how the final flush leaching products work? I always figured at best they where something acidic that would help break down the salts.
ya, drip clean is not the right thing to flush with, but i do agree with you that it would more than likely not actually effect the final taste.
Seems to me that ro or distilled water would be the best flush. Tap or well water would have some micro nutes that would stay in the coco during a flush. Dripclean is like 0-60-20 and probably not something you want left behind. In all likelihood a human could never detect by smell or taste of the buds which of these things you flushed with- so who cares- do what ya want
ya, drip clean is not the right thing to flush with, but i do agree with you that it would more than likely not actually effect the final taste.
