[Only Ornamental]

I'd like to start a thread about ingredients (sure, they first need to be listed though they seldom are) of fertilisers and additives where you think "What the heck should that be good for?".
Maybe it's really a stupid and useless ingredient, maybe you simply don't know cause nobody knows it all, or it's there for a purpose but does have secondary effects too. Could also be a suspicion...

I just wonder because for example certain flavouring agents affect plants and some here say that product X smells like this or that. A grower might think "An additive with an aroma? WTF!" when maybe, just maybe, there's more behind it than just masking the chemical stench of the product.

[Absolem]

Hey OO

As far useless ingredients I would say all the dyes used in liquid fertilizer. Like GH three part flora series and their pH up and down. Or all the dyes used in the sugar water to add "flavor".

[bigganjabud]

Erm do you mean like water in liquid nutrient?

All nutes are minerals and certain companies sell them in a cheated powder form

Just my tuppence

[rolandomota]

I saw some purple x i think to make weed more purple lol what a steaming pile of bullshit

[Only Ornamental]

Thanks for the contributions!

Originally Posted by Absolem

...As far useless ingredients I would say all the dyes used in liquid fertilizer...

Any idea which ones? Do they even list them?

Originally Posted by bigganjabud

Erm do you mean like water in liquid nutrient?

All nutes are minerals and certain companies sell them in a cheated powder form...

Water? LoL! Okay, you got me . There are, at least in theory, ways of making liquid fertilisers without adding water or any other liquid... Not sure if the nutrient profile and ratios would hold but more important the price for the raw material is around $ 50-100 per litre. Why would I know the price? I know said theory and did the maths for fun. It wouldn't be a pure mineral fertiliser and it might not even be registrable although not containing anything synthetic or unnatural... but the fertiliser laws are sometimes very restrictive (which also explains why many products are so similar).
But what do you mean by cheated powders? Sure, some additives needed during the granulation process and to prevent caking are quite "inert" or even subpar although others might contribute to the fertiliser itself (like clay dust or chalk).

Originally Posted by rolandomota

I saw some purple x i think to make weed more purple lol what a steaming pile of bullshit

Well... they also sell blue roses and orchids... just add some food colouring to the water and voilà . I think it's already stupid with ornamentals and cut flowers and wouldn't want coloured weed, that's for sure!

[BubbaBear]

I've never seen any positive effects from root feeding silicate, I used potassium silicate for several years and orthosilicic acid products like Aptus Fasilitor for a couple years, I cut them out of my regimen and see no difference in my plants.

A few foliar feeds may help strengthen cell walls but but dumping silicate in your reservoir like everyone does just spikes your PH so you need extra PH down to get your PH in check and your plants can only take up about 1300 ppm of nutrients so your just feeding your plants extra bullshit taking the place of good old NPK.

If anything I've seen negative effects from feeding heavy levels of Fasilitor like Aptus tells you to do(double the dosage the first two weeks of flower to stop stretch) is what they instruct you to do, not only does that not work but it messes with the plants osmosis causing the plant to hold to much water making branches weak and brittle. Calcium is what you want for strong plants not silicate.

[Douglas.Curtis]

Useless ingredients? Useless for newbie growers is anything other than NPK and micros. I'm a firm believer in learning what base nutrients do for cannabis, before playing with other ingredients.

Unless you have something to compare it with, additional ingredients are a wasted shot in the dark.

[Cannabologist]

Dyes aren't quite useless - they are often used so that people, mostly children, do not mistake the liquid for plain water, and so do not drink it. This happens often in terms of coloring agents, it's primarily a safety issue, though most do not often realize this.

[Only Ornamental]

Sure, colours help seeing where the liquid is (quite practical during manufacturing and handling) but in the current era of Coke, Fanta, and Gatorade it's hard to believe that a child wouldn't drink a liquid because it's coloured and tastes funny... rather the opposite!

[buzzmobile]

Originally Posted by bigganjabud

All nutes are minerals and certain companies sell them in a cheated powder form

I think bigganjabud left an 'l' out of cheated and meant to print chelated.