The amount of major salts growers will use is dependent mainly on their source water. If a little complexity is tolerable, dive into DIY water-soluble nutrient salts.Ĭalcium and potassium nitrates, ammonium, potassium and magnesium sulfates, and mono potassium phosphate (aka MKP) are six water-soluble nutrient salts that deliver major nutrients and yield, which allow growers to design fertilization recipes for a wide range of water types and growing situations. Their performance is difficult to improve on. This has been done for pre-mixed products, which are the simplest source of effective hydroponic nutrients. We now turn to the task of really making the water salty so that it satisfies the plant’s needs in different phases. Municipal sources also typically contain moderate to low levels of calcium and magnesium that require supplementation for most formulations. Municipal water sources have bicarbonates, but at levels much lower than well water, and they do not exert any significant pressure on the water pH. (Editor’s note: For more information on pH management, see the Hort How-to column in Cannabis Business Times’ July/August 2016 issue.) To experiment, simply measure and record pH of your source water while adding incremental amounts of acid to find out exactly how much to add per gallon to get to any desired pH.
This is chemistry, so there is math that allows calculation of the amount of acid required to neutralize enough bicarbonates to reduce pH to desired levels. That measurement describes the level of alkalinity of the water, which in turn, tells us how fast it can raise pH. A lab is required to isolate the two to find out how many bicarbonates there are. Bicarbonate ions are measured by Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Electrical Conductivity (EC) meters, along with nutrients. Well water also typically contains high levels of HCO3- (bicarbonate) ions that raise pH over time. commonly has so much dissolved calcium and magnesium that many mainstream fertilizers were designed to depend on the water for calcium and magnesium. While RO may be a required treatment for some sources, it comes last on our list primarily because of its expense. Our water preferences are, in order: well, municipal and reverse osmosis (RO). For the cost of an irrigation-suitability test from the local soil and water agriculture lab, growers can learn everything they need to know to start building nutrient recipes that are compatible with their water. Getting our salt water to have the proper nutrient levels begins with source water. To get more nutrients absorbed, we need to be pouring more salt water onto our plants. Once nutrients have been absorbed, biology happens, resulting in plant biomass, which after harvest and drying, consists entirely of the nutrients it absorbed in its life. The uptake of these charged atoms and molecules has produced some interesting adaptations in plants, such the ability to pump potassium into the plant. When dissolved in water, salts like calcium nitrate “disappear" into solution as the calcium atom and nitrate molecule are being pulled away from each other-transforming the dry, uncharged salt into one positively charged calcium atom (Ca++) and two negatively charged nitrate anions (NO3). Some salts are good, and some not so good, but the good ones are the key to plant growth and profit. Salts occur naturally, and the salt level in soil determines how much nutrient value the soil contains. In the field, rain falls and percolates down through the soil, dissolving minerals (mostly salts) that it encounters. It is not “ocean” water in which these cultivators grow their cannabis, but it is indeed very salty water that plants adore. In fact, every plant in the world grows in salt water, and has been doing so since the day they came ashore. Cannabis growers across the globe grow their plants in salt water.
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