G
Grasso
Fertilization
If you are using good potting soil containing peat, compost, sand, loam and limestone then all you need to fertilize with while the plant is growing is urine. Dilute it 300-fold and water with that! If you cultivate plants in meadow ground then you do not need to care about fertilization. Horse shit is mixed into depleted, sandy soil and put between the stalks.
Plants produce organical matter from anorganical matter and the energy of the sun. Animals, fungi and bacteries feed from organics. These chemical-physical transformations rely on the elements hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.
Most fields are rich in limestone (calcium-carbonate) and gypsum (calcium-sulphate). Soluble NPK fertilizers are available to the plant only for a certain time after application. Nitrate, ammonium and potassium ions are washed out. Plants need few phosphate but it is locked out by reacting with calcium. They say that bio-fuel is the energy of the sun but their heavy machines run on fossile fuels and leave only dust and mud behind. Responsible farmers use bone-meal (calcium-phosphate).
Element contents of many herbs are shown in (1) and (2). Element contents of dry mass of average crops, in parts per million, as shown in (3):
Carbon C 450.000 ppm
Oxygen O 450.000 ppm
Hydrogen H 50.000 ppm
Nitrogen N 15.000 ppm
Potassium K 10.000 ppm
Calcium Ca 5.000 ppm
Magnesium Mg 2.000 ppm
Phosphorus P 2.000 ppm
Bloom ferts and bud boosters are non-sense. The high-P dogma is wrong.
Plants can absorb far more minerals than needed for healthy growth and decent yield. They do not know when to stop. (4) Overshoot minerals end up in vacuoles which are the storage bins, rubbish dumps and pressure ballons of plant cells. Once taken up the plant cannot get rid of the minerals again hence it does not make any sense to flush with plain water before harvest. Over-fertilization is common. It is hardly possible to follow the Hesi Hydro fertilizing sheme (6) without causing salt burn. I rather smoke street dope adulterated with sand, sugar, henna and candle-wax than home-grown containing more phosphate than THC. THC-acid (THC-phosphate and -carbonate) is less potent than THC is.
At high feeding strength crop yield drops off due to salt-burn. Natural crop yield drops off much sooner due to pests like grey-mould. Over-feeding weakens a plant. Pests finish off a weak plant. Outdoor weed is usually the healthier and more potent smoke.
A C3 plant like hemp (as opposed to C4 ones like corn and CAM ones like cactea) yielding 1000 grams of dry mass has usually transpired 500 liters of water while growing (3, I did not measure it for myself). A hydroponical nutrient solution may look like this, stating concentration of element masses in water:
N 30 ppm (5/6 as nitrate, 1/6 as ammonium)
K 20 ppm
Ca 10 ppm
Mg 4 ppm
P 4 ppm
S 2 ppm
Si 2 ppm
Cl 0.2 ppm
Fe 0.2 ppm
Mn 0.1 ppm
B 0.05 ppm
Zn 0.05 ppm
Cu 0.01 ppm
Mo 0.0002 ppm
Ni 0.0002 ppm
Some tap and well water may exceed some of these levels. But drinking water with 30 ppm of nitrate is poisonous in particular for children.
Feeding strength at mid-point shall be twice as strong as at germination and maturity. Beware that some sources state ppm values of dissolved ions including their O and H atoms or even including the crystal water of the salt! Nobles use mol / liter. Sometimes the electrical conductivity (EC) is given in Micro-Siemens or in conductivity factor (CF). Two-valent and light ions raise EC sooner than one-valent and heavy ones do.
Most plants including grasses, nettles, horsetail and hemp profit from silicium. Tea is fertilized with aluminium. Some algae and nitrogen-fixing bacteries need cobalt. Animals like us also need sodium, selen, vanadium, chrome and possibly lithium, tin and fluoride in their diet.
Plants also take up elements which neither they nor we need, for you know cadmium, lead, mercury, silver, urane and so on. Excessive accumulation of metals in living beings does occur. Rain water dissolves pipe copper. Many plastics contain heavy metals. Strong acids and bases wash too much aluminium out of rock-wool and silt. A certain tree species can consist of 15 percent nickel. Tea and elder are enriched with lithium.
Plants uptake N, P and K actively which means fast and Ca passively which means slowly. (4) Therefore a re-circulating nutrient solution becomes more alkaline. I like fresh solution with 6 pH. A standing solution may rise to 7,5 pH without upsetting me.
Nitrogen shall be supplied mostly but not solely as nitrate. On one hand nitrate helps a proper pH. On the other hand plants use up to one fourth of their energy for the conversion of nitrate to ammonium which is then built into bigger organic compounds (3). Scientists tell us in (5) that wheat can adapt to a diet rich in ammonium-chloride and -sulphate but do not tell us if they bake bread and ate it. Mister Schwarz explains that vegetables in Israeli greenhouses are fed salty water: "Tomatos are the floral rats, they eat everything. Lettuce can take a lot of salt, too, but will not reward it with a good taste."
Most elements are mobile which means that the plant can draw them out of wilting matter and recycle them. Ca, S, Fe, B and Cu are rather immobile. Iron is that hard to obtain for plants and that vital to photosynthetical cells that any overshoot is stored in special proteine boxes (3).
Metals tend to precipitate say fall out with phosphate, borate and hydroxide. The remedy is to supply two masses of fertilizer (A and B) which are diluted and mixed for each application. Sea-grass infusion is a natural mix of chelates, free ions and hormones.
The following are my supplies:
N: Nitric acid (pH- for vegetative stage) and ammonium-bi-carbonate
K: Wood-ash infusion
Ca, N, Mg, trace elements: Nitric salt of limestone and wood-ash
P, chelated trace elements: Substral Hydro Nahrung
Mg, S: Epsom salt also called bitter salt (pharmacies)
PH test strips, say advanced litmus paper: Urine test (pharmacies)
Silica promotes firm and shiny nails and hair. Sand sweats silica. Wash your hair with clay or a root stimulizer! Some of these bottles contain organical compounds such as amino-acids, vitamins and sugars. If you know what you are doing as for instance ripening a truck-load of green tomatoes with ethylene then o.k. else it is just a shoot into the dark confusing the plants and staining the expensive hydroponical equipment. Humic acid may constitute urban dreams but I call it root shmulizers of the bullshit bottle buisness.
I use a medium of perligran, sand and moss. Perligran is artificial pumice; chunks of baken perlite, a foam of sand which retains gas and water. Sand adds density and keeps the roots rolling. Strings of sphagnum moss keep the medium as one. This mix is not completely inert; however I am not ready yet for a solid-matter-less grow-op in which roots are trickled by air bubbles, moved by the tides and sprayed with gist. A pump gently waters the pot three times a day. The drain runs back into the reservoir which is cleaned every month.
1: http://www.tll.de/ainfo/pdf/kdro1006.pdf
2: http://www.tll.de/ainfo/pdf/fumi0406.pdf
3: "Plant physiology" by Taiz and Zeiger (1998)
4: http://www.usu.edu/cpl/research_hydroponics3.htm
5: http://www.usu.edu/cpl/research_hydroponics.htm
6: http://hesi.nl/english/objects/schemas/sch_hydro_en.jpg
Uli
If you are using good potting soil containing peat, compost, sand, loam and limestone then all you need to fertilize with while the plant is growing is urine. Dilute it 300-fold and water with that! If you cultivate plants in meadow ground then you do not need to care about fertilization. Horse shit is mixed into depleted, sandy soil and put between the stalks.
Plants produce organical matter from anorganical matter and the energy of the sun. Animals, fungi and bacteries feed from organics. These chemical-physical transformations rely on the elements hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.
Most fields are rich in limestone (calcium-carbonate) and gypsum (calcium-sulphate). Soluble NPK fertilizers are available to the plant only for a certain time after application. Nitrate, ammonium and potassium ions are washed out. Plants need few phosphate but it is locked out by reacting with calcium. They say that bio-fuel is the energy of the sun but their heavy machines run on fossile fuels and leave only dust and mud behind. Responsible farmers use bone-meal (calcium-phosphate).
Element contents of many herbs are shown in (1) and (2). Element contents of dry mass of average crops, in parts per million, as shown in (3):
Carbon C 450.000 ppm
Oxygen O 450.000 ppm
Hydrogen H 50.000 ppm
Nitrogen N 15.000 ppm
Potassium K 10.000 ppm
Calcium Ca 5.000 ppm
Magnesium Mg 2.000 ppm
Phosphorus P 2.000 ppm
Bloom ferts and bud boosters are non-sense. The high-P dogma is wrong.
Plants can absorb far more minerals than needed for healthy growth and decent yield. They do not know when to stop. (4) Overshoot minerals end up in vacuoles which are the storage bins, rubbish dumps and pressure ballons of plant cells. Once taken up the plant cannot get rid of the minerals again hence it does not make any sense to flush with plain water before harvest. Over-fertilization is common. It is hardly possible to follow the Hesi Hydro fertilizing sheme (6) without causing salt burn. I rather smoke street dope adulterated with sand, sugar, henna and candle-wax than home-grown containing more phosphate than THC. THC-acid (THC-phosphate and -carbonate) is less potent than THC is.
At high feeding strength crop yield drops off due to salt-burn. Natural crop yield drops off much sooner due to pests like grey-mould. Over-feeding weakens a plant. Pests finish off a weak plant. Outdoor weed is usually the healthier and more potent smoke.
A C3 plant like hemp (as opposed to C4 ones like corn and CAM ones like cactea) yielding 1000 grams of dry mass has usually transpired 500 liters of water while growing (3, I did not measure it for myself). A hydroponical nutrient solution may look like this, stating concentration of element masses in water:
N 30 ppm (5/6 as nitrate, 1/6 as ammonium)
K 20 ppm
Ca 10 ppm
Mg 4 ppm
P 4 ppm
S 2 ppm
Si 2 ppm
Cl 0.2 ppm
Fe 0.2 ppm
Mn 0.1 ppm
B 0.05 ppm
Zn 0.05 ppm
Cu 0.01 ppm
Mo 0.0002 ppm
Ni 0.0002 ppm
Some tap and well water may exceed some of these levels. But drinking water with 30 ppm of nitrate is poisonous in particular for children.
Feeding strength at mid-point shall be twice as strong as at germination and maturity. Beware that some sources state ppm values of dissolved ions including their O and H atoms or even including the crystal water of the salt! Nobles use mol / liter. Sometimes the electrical conductivity (EC) is given in Micro-Siemens or in conductivity factor (CF). Two-valent and light ions raise EC sooner than one-valent and heavy ones do.
Most plants including grasses, nettles, horsetail and hemp profit from silicium. Tea is fertilized with aluminium. Some algae and nitrogen-fixing bacteries need cobalt. Animals like us also need sodium, selen, vanadium, chrome and possibly lithium, tin and fluoride in their diet.
Plants also take up elements which neither they nor we need, for you know cadmium, lead, mercury, silver, urane and so on. Excessive accumulation of metals in living beings does occur. Rain water dissolves pipe copper. Many plastics contain heavy metals. Strong acids and bases wash too much aluminium out of rock-wool and silt. A certain tree species can consist of 15 percent nickel. Tea and elder are enriched with lithium.
Plants uptake N, P and K actively which means fast and Ca passively which means slowly. (4) Therefore a re-circulating nutrient solution becomes more alkaline. I like fresh solution with 6 pH. A standing solution may rise to 7,5 pH without upsetting me.
Nitrogen shall be supplied mostly but not solely as nitrate. On one hand nitrate helps a proper pH. On the other hand plants use up to one fourth of their energy for the conversion of nitrate to ammonium which is then built into bigger organic compounds (3). Scientists tell us in (5) that wheat can adapt to a diet rich in ammonium-chloride and -sulphate but do not tell us if they bake bread and ate it. Mister Schwarz explains that vegetables in Israeli greenhouses are fed salty water: "Tomatos are the floral rats, they eat everything. Lettuce can take a lot of salt, too, but will not reward it with a good taste."
Most elements are mobile which means that the plant can draw them out of wilting matter and recycle them. Ca, S, Fe, B and Cu are rather immobile. Iron is that hard to obtain for plants and that vital to photosynthetical cells that any overshoot is stored in special proteine boxes (3).
Metals tend to precipitate say fall out with phosphate, borate and hydroxide. The remedy is to supply two masses of fertilizer (A and B) which are diluted and mixed for each application. Sea-grass infusion is a natural mix of chelates, free ions and hormones.
The following are my supplies:
N: Nitric acid (pH- for vegetative stage) and ammonium-bi-carbonate
K: Wood-ash infusion
Ca, N, Mg, trace elements: Nitric salt of limestone and wood-ash
P, chelated trace elements: Substral Hydro Nahrung
Mg, S: Epsom salt also called bitter salt (pharmacies)
PH test strips, say advanced litmus paper: Urine test (pharmacies)
Silica promotes firm and shiny nails and hair. Sand sweats silica. Wash your hair with clay or a root stimulizer! Some of these bottles contain organical compounds such as amino-acids, vitamins and sugars. If you know what you are doing as for instance ripening a truck-load of green tomatoes with ethylene then o.k. else it is just a shoot into the dark confusing the plants and staining the expensive hydroponical equipment. Humic acid may constitute urban dreams but I call it root shmulizers of the bullshit bottle buisness.
I use a medium of perligran, sand and moss. Perligran is artificial pumice; chunks of baken perlite, a foam of sand which retains gas and water. Sand adds density and keeps the roots rolling. Strings of sphagnum moss keep the medium as one. This mix is not completely inert; however I am not ready yet for a solid-matter-less grow-op in which roots are trickled by air bubbles, moved by the tides and sprayed with gist. A pump gently waters the pot three times a day. The drain runs back into the reservoir which is cleaned every month.
1: http://www.tll.de/ainfo/pdf/kdro1006.pdf
2: http://www.tll.de/ainfo/pdf/fumi0406.pdf
3: "Plant physiology" by Taiz and Zeiger (1998)
4: http://www.usu.edu/cpl/research_hydroponics3.htm
5: http://www.usu.edu/cpl/research_hydroponics.htm
6: http://hesi.nl/english/objects/schemas/sch_hydro_en.jpg
Uli
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