Emerald Harvest "Sturdy Stalk" Precipitates When Added to Water

[brown_thumb]

I've been adjusting PH before adding EH nutrients but recently read I should be adjusting PH after adding nutrients. It's all fine (I think) until I add Sturdy Stalk which immediately precipitates to milky-white clouds when I add it to the rest of the solution. I haven't tested PH after adding nutrients so I don't know if PH of final mixed water is wrong. Before adding nutrients, I adjust air conditioner precipitate with PH of 7.0 down to PH of about 5.8. I grow in a mix of perlite, vermiculite and rice hulls with a 20-30 percent mix of good soil.

Until now, I've just shaken the bottle before watering my seedlings to try and homogenize the mixture.

Could improper PH be why Sturdy Stalk turns cloudy and settles to the bottom of the bottle? I'll be adjusting PH last when I water today.

 

[who dat is]

Sorry but I can't speak to why you are having this issue. I was posting to let you know that that same product (Potassium Silica) can be had for cheaper.

Check out Pro Tekt from Dynagro - https://www.hydroponics.net/i/144003

Or better yet buy a sack of Agsil16H Potassium Silicate from Build A Soil. You can add the Agsil as a top dressing, mix it in with your nutrients, or use it in a foliar application. They also include directions on how to mix your own 7.8% ratio that is Pro Tekt and also likely this Sturdy Stalk product you mention.

A quick blip from their website,

Price Comparison 1 Quart for $16.40: Amazon sells 1 Quart of 7.8% Pro-Tekt for $16.40 with Free Shipping. OR 3 Quarts for $9.00: 1 Pound of AGSIL16H that will make well over 3 Quarts and keep the extra 2 Bucks. How's that for value even at the 1 pound price?

https://buildasoil.com/products/agsil16h-potassium-silicate

A total stab in the dark on why you're getting precipitates is a reaction with something you are using to pH down your mixture? Citric acid? I never bother pHing anything and chem/synthetic/salt based regimens are a mystery to me. That is about the best I can offer.

 

[Phaeton]

When I use Epsom salts (Magnesium Sulfate) with ProTekt (Potassium Silicate), the precipitate forms.
When ProTeckt is added to the bloom and/or grow concentrate the same precipitate materializes, only less of it as there is less Magnesium Sulfate. No precipitate with the Micro Grow solution and by coincidence there is no Magnesium Sulfate either. Hmm.

I am assuming the precipitate is nutrient lockout and no longer use silica supplements. A year with and a year without, the branch strength and bug levels remained unchanged. To be fair, this is Alaska and we have very few bugs, Spider Mites and Fungus Gnats are the only ones I have ever had to deal with, and silica did not affect whether or not the garden got infested.

So far in the last 16 years that has been the fate of all supplements except one. Light gold colored Humic Acid, called Fulvic Acid in some advertisements but not on the label, improves the odor at the same level as bat shit tea but is cleaner and easier. Potency tests have not been made yet, but the bat shit did not increase THC, only the taste and smell. Two different trimmers have asked about the change in intensity of odor over the last year.

 

[brown_thumb]

Sorry but I can't speak to why you are having this issue. I was posting to let you know that that same product (Potassium Silica) can be had for cheaper.

Check out Pro Tekt from Dynagro - https://www.hydroponics.net/i/144003

View Image

Or better yet buy a sack of Agsil16H Potassium Silicate from Build A Soil. You can add the Agsil as a top dressing, mix it in with your nutrients, or use it in a foliar application. They also include directions on how to mix your own 7.8% ratio that is Pro Tekt and also likely this Sturdy Stalk product you mention.

A quick blip from their website,



https://buildasoil.com/products/agsil16h-potassium-silicate

A total stab in the dark on why you're getting precipitates is a reaction with something you are using to pH down your mixture? Citric acid? I never bother pHing anything and chem/synthetic/salt based regimens are a mystery to me. That is about the best I can offer.

Thank you. I'll look for those after this bottle is gone.

 

[brown_thumb]

When I use Epsom salts (Magnesium Sulfate) with ProTekt (Potassium Silicate), the precipitate forms.
When ProTeckt is added to the bloom and/or grow concentrate the same precipitate materializes, only less of it as there is less Magnesium Sulfate. No precipitate with the Micro Grow solution and by coincidence there is no Magnesium Sulfate either. Hmm.

I am assuming the precipitate is nutrient lockout and no longer use silica supplements. A year with and a year without, the branch strength and bug levels remained unchanged. To be fair, this is Alaska and we have very few bugs, Spider Mites and Fungus Gnats are the only ones I have ever had to deal with, and silica did not affect whether or not the garden got infested.

So far in the last 16 years that has been the fate of all supplements except one. Light gold colored Humic Acid, called Fulvic Acid in some advertisements but not on the label, improves the odor at the same level as bat shit tea but is cleaner and easier. Potency tests have not been made yet, but the bat shit did not increase THC, only the taste and smell. Two different trimmers have asked about the change in intensity of odor over the last year.

Hmm... I have been adding epsom salt. Today, I'll feed without the Sturdy Stalk and in a couple of days I'll try the Sturdy Stalk without the epsom salt. Then I'll know if it's interaction between the two.

As per your experience, perhaps additives such as Sturdy Stalk might do more harm than good??

 

[abuldur]

silica supplements should be mixed first to clear water and then you can add the rest.

 

[brown_thumb]

silica supplements should be mixed first to clear water and then you can add the rest.

Thanks. Will that eliminate the precipitation problem?

 

[abuldur]

it did for me

 

[Phaeton]

Hmm... I have been adding epsom salt. Today, I'll feed without the Sturdy Stalk and in a couple of days I'll try the Sturdy Stalk without the epsom salt. Then I'll know if it's interaction between the two.

As per your experience, perhaps additives such as Sturdy Stalk might do more harm than good??

I am fortunate in living in an area without many bugs.
If my garden was further south where many multitudes of various bugs randomly dropped in to snack on the plants the the toughening of the stalk and leaves from the silicate would be a definite advantage.
But here it is in the Far North and without the swarms of hungry insects the silicates do not help much.

The order in which the chemicals are mixed does make a difference. Those that do not put the high nitrogen concentrate in first find reduced availability.
The silicate supplement was always added first as per instructions. In this case the Epsom Salts reacted to form a precipitate as soon as added. Reversing the sequence out of curiosity did nothing to change the problem. I tried Gypsum supplements and they were totally unusable in any form I could find.
I am guessing some chemicals cannot be isolated effectively and need dirt to carry them. All life is compromise, I use what I can and do not sweat over nature's caprice.

 

[brown_thumb]

Should alternate between different types of nutrients and not mix them all together every time? Other than seeing precipitate, how will I know what nutrients are incompatible when mixed?