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By far and without a doubt, the least expensive conventional, synthetic fertilizers

petemoss

Active member
I don't think this would make a significant difference especialy because these are in a prilled/granulated form further reducing the rate of water uptake from the atmosphere.

Well here's a picture of some calcium chloride, which is a "drying agent" similar to calcinit:

picture.php


When exposed to air, drying agents can get very wet and very heavy.
 

tester

Member
Well here's a picture of some calcium chloride, which is a "drying agent" similar to calcinit:

When exposed to air, drying agents can get very wet and very heavy.

You were right, this is some of Yara's CalciNit left on a scanner for a night:


I did some measurements:

100g CalciNit dried in an oven just until it started to melt became 99.1g
So it had about 0.9% hygroscopic water content. (I keep dry fertilizers in plastic (PET) bottles)


100g CalciNit left in a big plastic tube that had some water sprayed on the walls and the bottom, became 107.6g after a night while the granules remain still intact with some visible water on their surface. The tube was dried so I guess it could take up more water as seen on the first picture.

Started to melt in the oven:


Visible water on the surface:


100g calcinit:
 
M

Milhouse

Hey mister, I am currently using Peters Professional, pretty much same thing, in coco at the moment without any issues whatsoever!!!
 

petemoss

Active member
Hey mister, I am currently using Peters Professional, pretty much same thing, in coco at the moment without any issues whatsoever!!!

No problems here either. Coco E&F in 4" pots, 9 plantlets per sq ft in a perpetual SOG. I let the PH drift up from 5.6 to 6.5 and the EC starts at 1.7. I top off daily with tap water. When EC gets down to under 1.0, I add more Jack's hydroponic and calcium nitrate until EC 1.7 again. No res changes.

picture.php
 

petemoss

Active member
Hi Bill,
It's something I found in the street. The base of a pet cage 20"x32" that luckily fit my wardrobe cab nicely. Some Italian company makes it.

I found that Jack's mix gives my plants everything they need without additional additives. More importantly, it gives me more time to concentrate on improving my grow. I used to spend a lot of time trying new nutrients that turned out to be less effective (and far more expensive!) than Jack's.

The next step for me will be to get my tap water tested by Peter's lab. Then I can fine tune my nute mix for my particular grow parameters i.e. indoor containers under intense lighting (90 watts per sq ft), recirculating res and minimum res changes. That's what professional greenhouse hydro growers do and their profits depend on getting the most bang for their dollars when choosing the most efficient nute regimen.
 

petemoss

Active member
The UPS charges are as much as Jack's, anyone know of a distributor in the Bay Area of San Francisco?

I don't know if they have a distributor in your area. But are you ordering from this site? http://www.jrpeters.com/hydro_products.html

When I ordered 5 lbs of Jack's Pro Hydro and 5 lbs of Jack's Calcium Nitrate, FedEx residential shipping was only $10.60 to my location. You may have looked at the charges for Overnight shipping.
 

jump /injack

Member
Veteran
Shipping rates

Shipping rates

When I ordered 5 lbs of Jack's Pro Hydro and 5 lbs of Jack's Calcium Nitrate, FedEx residential shipping was only $10.60 to my location. You may have looked at the charges for Overnight shipping.[/QUOTE]

petemoss:

I just might have asked for something other than the cheapest rate and have sent them a letter asking for shipping quotes. That site you sent to me had "Blossom Booster" which I've never used but have used others like GH's Cool Bloom. Anyone use this and recommend it? Thanks for that site hadn't seen the other goodies.

Jack’s Classic 10-30-20 Blossom Booster
 

petemoss

Active member
Water test results

Water test results

I just got my test results from JR Peters Labs for my municipal tap water. My tap water is less than 50 ppm and doesn't even register on my Truncheon ppm wand. Guess I'm lucky to have such soft water. Looking at my test results I see nothing alarming, but I was surprised to see that my water alkalinity of 21.8 ppm was classified as very low, the normal range being 100-140 ppm for small containers. I'll call the lab tomorrow and ask the tech if there is any changes I should make in my nutes (Jacks Hydroponic plus calcium nitrate).

TEST RESULTS TEST RESULTS


Soluble Salts mmhos/cm .050 *
Copper Cu ppm .019
pH 7.08
Zinc Zn ppm .008
Alkalinity ppm 21.8 *
Molybdenum Mo ppm .000
Calcium Ca ppm 3.98 *
Aluminum Al ppm .011
Magnesium Mg ppm .904 *
Nitrate NO3-N ppm .000
Sodium Na ppm 7.63
Ammonium NH4-N ppm .620
Chloride Cl ppm 9.99
Urea UREA-N ppm .240
Boron B ppm .000
Total Nitrogen N ppm .860
Iron Fe ppm .018
Phosphorus P ppm .712
Manganese Mn ppm .004
Potassium K ppm .000
Sulfur S ppm 1.44 *

* Outside of normal range

I know very little about NPK numbers but it seems that the elements that are "outside of normal range" shouldn't have much effect on my final hydroponic solution and I can treat my tap water as close enough to RO water.
 

dgr

Member
pete,
my guess is you won't have to keep chasing pH back down like those that have to with harder water.
 
Y

YosemiteSam

Your water is fantastic. Nothing whatsoever to worry about. That low alkalinity means that even without a lot of NH4 your pH in the media itself is going to stay very stable, in fact hard to change.

My opinion, for what it is worth, you have an excellent situation for the nutes you are using.

Take a look at this article for a better understanding http://www.greenhousegrower.com/magazine/?storyid=96
 

petemoss

Active member
dgr, Even though my water has low alkalinity, solution Ph drifts up from 5.3 to over 6.3 over the course of a week. I think I can slow the upward Ph drift by adding more Ph Down to the water I add to top off my small res. (about a gal per day).

YosemiteSam,
I've always assumed I could treat my soft water as RO water but actually seeing the test results gives me peace of mind. Thanks for that link about alkalinity. It explains things very clearly, especially to a non-scientist like me.
 
When I called JR Peters and inquired about technician consulting they asked me what state I was in and if I was growing marijuana. They proceeded to emphasize that the state they are in has no MMJ policy and that they do not support the idea of medical marijuana etc. etc.
Left me a little nervous to say the least.

Be safe out there.
 

petemoss

Active member
When I called JR Peters and inquired about technician consulting they asked me what state I was in and if I was growing marijuana. They proceeded to emphasize that the state they are in has no MMJ policy and that they do not support the idea of medical marijuana etc. etc.
Left me a little nervous to say the least.

Be safe out there.

hmmm, maybe I should just email them for advice since I don't want to be interrogated on the phone. Most likely they are just covering themselves in case a narc calls. They are obviously trying to tap into the home MJ growing market by recently forming a separate company to cater to the "small home grower". This protects their bread and butter commercial greenhouse business I suppose. Now they are even marketing a "bloom booster" to swell the size of our "fruits".

Since they won't be forthcoming with MJ specific advice, I'm wondering what kind of plants I should claim to be growing at home.
Tomatoes perhaps? Thanks for the warning. You're right, better to be safe.
 

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