Help with nutrients and additives

[Thunderstrut]

I've been looking into the nutrients and additives i have for my plants for soil grow, but some things don't make a lot of sense to me.

Currently I have silica, humic acid, raw up(it says peat moss, but i read it was just fulvic acid..not sure), the floragro GH series, and koolbloom(0-10-10, just for flower, but I figure id throw it all in).

From what I gather silica and the acids need an alkaline ph to even work. So, by adding everything together i bring my ph down to around 6.7..would that mean that the silica and acids are no longer effective? Should I water with just the silica, then wait and add just the acids, then wait again for the rest?

Very confused by all of this.

 

[PipeCarver]

I've been looking into the nutrients and additives i have for my plants for soil grow, but some things don't make a lot of sense to me.

Currently I have silica, humic acid, raw up(it says peat moss, but i read it was just fulvic acid..not sure), the floragro GH series, and koolbloom(0-10-10, just for flower, but I figure id throw it all in).

From what I gather silica and the acids need an alkaline ph to even work. So, by adding everything together i bring my ph down to around 6.7..would that mean that the silica and acids are no longer effective? Should I water with just the silica, then wait and add just the acids, then wait again for the rest?

Very confused by all of this.

Hi, I use the same nutes and just started adding silicate to my grows. as I understand it the silicate gets added first 5ml/gal, mixed very well then the micro 5ml / gal/ then grow 5ml/gal then bloom 5ml / gal up until 5-6 weeks then I go to 7.5 mil with all but silicate stays at 5ml/gal. with my well water at 7,2 ph I don't need to add ph up or down and I get a runoff in the mid 6's (6.5 ish) Once into flower and showing buds I up the Bloom to 10 & add 5ml Kool bloom but with these 2 added I need 1-2ml ph up / gal or my ph goes down 6.1 - 6.2 ish . I do tweek that some but that works for me.

 

[Thunderstrut]

Hi, I use the same nutes and just started adding silicate to my grows. as I understand it the silicate gets added first 5ml/gal, mixed very well then the micro 5ml / gal/ then grow 5ml/gal then bloom 5ml / gal up until 5-6 weeks then I go to 7.5 mil with all but silicate stays at 5ml/gal. with my well water at 7,2 ph I don't need to add ph up or down and I get a runoff in the mid 6's (6.5 ish) Once into flower and showing buds I up the Bloom to 10 & add 5ml Kool bloom but with these 2 added I need 1-2ml ph up / gal or my ph goes down 6.1 - 6.2 ish . I do tweek that some but that works for me.

That's basically what I do as well, except I was adding the silica and acids last so I've been basically wasting it from what I read.
So what I'm gathering is to add the silica and acids first letting them dissolve fully at the correct ph.

 

[Aqua Man]

Ok with a 3 part nutrient you have 0 reason to run pk booster unless they contain something else your looking for. A fee like massive, big bud, heavy 16 fire contain triacontanol so yeah in those cases you may want to but if your using it only for the pk boost there is 0 reason.

This is because you can change your NPK to pretty much an ratio you like with your 3 part base. I have seen countless issues of ppl running a 3 part in bloom ratios then adding a pk booster on top of that which absolutely puts your NPK ratios into an ungodly bad place.

Silica is an absolute benefit and imo should be run feom start until after stretch but not beyond than that. If using potassium silicate or a non flow able source it will raise ph greatly (like over 10). So when mixing it needs to be added first and because it raises the ph so high it need to be ph adjusted after mixing to around 6.5 before adding anything else. This is because at that ph of over 10 it can cause other nutrients added to precipitate out of the solution.

 

[Aqua Man]

Hi, I use the same nutes and just started adding silicate to my grows. as I understand it the silicate gets added first 5ml/gal, mixed very well then the micro 5ml / gal/ then grow 5ml/gal then bloom 5ml / gal up until 5-6 weeks then I go to 7.5 mil with all but silicate stays at 5ml/gal. with my well water at 7,2 ph I don't need to add ph up or down and I get a runoff in the mid 6's (6.5 ish) Once into flower and showing buds I up the Bloom to 10 & add 5ml Kool bloom but with these 2 added I need 1-2ml ph up / gal or my ph goes down 6.1 - 6.2 ish . I do tweek that some but that works for me.

Yes if adding equal parts then you can still add some PK. But you could also change the ratios of grow micro bloom. One thing is for sure.... if you have it working then that's all that matters.

 

[Thunderstrut]

Ok with a 3 part nutrient you have 0 reason to run pk booster unless they contain something else your looking for. A fee like massive, big bud, heavy 16 fire contain triacontanol so yeah in those cases you may want to but if your using it only for the pk boost there is 0 reason.

This is because you can change your NPK to pretty much an ratio you like with your 3 part base. I have seen countless issues of ppl running a 3 part in bloom ratios then adding a pk booster on top of that which absolutely puts your NPK ratios into an ungodly bad place.

Silica is an absolute benefit and imo should be run feom start until after stretch but not beyond than that. If using potassium silicate or a non flow able source it will raise ph greatly (like over 10). So when mixing it needs to be added first and because it raises the ph so high it need to be ph adjusted after mixing to around 6.5 before adding anything else. This is because at that ph of over 10 it can cause other nutrients added to precipitate out of the solution.

Never really thought about that, does make sense. I typically only put 2ml of that anyway so I guess I could just use less of the others to achieve the same goal since i already bought it.

Its silicone dioxide, I'm not sure if that's any different, but I dont currently have anything to ph the solution so that's another thing on my list.

To get around that would I be able to water a half gallon with silica and then a half gallon with the other stuff? Or would that still throw it off?

 

[Aqua Man]

Never really thought about that, does make sense. I typically only put 2ml of that anyway so I guess I could just use less of the others to achieve the same goal since i already bought it.

Its silicone dioxide, I'm not sure if that's any different, but I dont currently have anything to ph the solution so that's another thing on my list.

To get around that would I be able to water a half gallon with silica and then a half gallon with the other stuff? Or would that still throw it off?

Silicone dioxide will not affect the ph

 

[Thunderstrut]

Silicone dioxide will not affect the ph

Perfect, that makes things a lot easier then. Thank again!

 

[PipeCarver]

Yes if adding equal parts then you can still add some PK. But you could also change the ratios of grow micro bloom. One thing is for sure.... if you have it working then that's all that matters.

I started adding the Kool Bloom years ago and I do notice larger tighter buds than when I didn't use it. GH feed schedule says I can go to 15ml /gal in flower with Bloom and I've done that without the KB but I didn't like the light airy buds...Could be the placebo effect. thinking I'm doing something good for my plants and I see them through rose colored glasses afterwards. I'm staying with it until the bottles gone...then we'll see...thanks for the input.