Overall highest quality "nitrate" source, all things considerd.

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Frankster

Frankster

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Alright, I've been collecting a bit of salts of late, and was going to get some potassium nitrate, but I've always steered clear because I don't want to attract attention to myself. Anyhow, I did order some calcium nitrate, and I was doing a bit of maths on which makes a "more available" salt. correct me if I'm wrong here.

Calcium nitrate has a molar mass of 161.1 has a molarity of 6093 um

Potassium nitrate has a molar mass of 101.1 and has a molarity of 9891 um

Dipotassium Phosphate also has a high molar mass of 174.2 which would create a molarity of 5740 um, much lower also.


Keeping molarity to a minimum is a good thing, correct? Thus, requiring less energy for moving ions from here to there. less "pulling" on one another.

For the most part I do a lot of orgainic and kelp during early development, but I do use salts to correct later during flowering, and I think calcium nitrate is the best candidate for fast correcting nitrogen deficiency, because it's almost always accompany by a calcium deficiency also, especially in early flower, and a good boost in "pure nitrate" during a critical stage of development.
 
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MIMedGrower

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Its all always needed in about the same ratio. Any complete balanced fertilizer will work fine. And its ph that keeps the elements in solution. Molar mass is never mentioned. Not sure where you are going with that.
 
Frankster

Frankster

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I'm basically saying you can store more "yielding" ca+ ions and NO3- ions in the solution if it's in this molecular formation, I guess.

The concentration factor.

In terms of amount of substance per unit volume of solution, the molar concentration is less with calcium nitrate vs potassium nitrate. If you get your potassium and phosphorus together with it's "higher" molar mass, (such as the one I listed there), it should also help reduce overall molar concentration. You can adjust things more tightly, ie. have better control.

I not saying it wont hurt to have additional salts to do more ratio's, it seems the more the better, actually. I think I'll just get a few pounds of it and store it separately, KNO3 is inherently dangerous, (I was a naval aviation ordnanceman in the US military) and should never be stored by oxidation agent, because extreme explosions will occur. Even a few pounds is like a hand grenade sitting in a cupboard. I don't have a garage.

I'll be frank, KNO3 scares me, a little.



Essentially what it comes down to is this, your getting 2 for 1 nitrate ratio in each molecule, and the trade-off is the calcium, which you already need. I guess what I'm saying is it's an efficient configuration. Seems like a very versatile salt.
 
Frankster

Frankster

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Yea, I went ahead an got some KNO3 also, 3 lbs of it, but I'll store it safely, all by itself, and I'll always add that one first, then put it away. LOL

Especially around the potassium hydroxide.
 
Frankster

Frankster

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My guess is that
Anyone ever mixed this with sugar before ;)??
Yea, I've used sugars before, shouldn't be a problem with this. That's kinda in the vein I'm contemplating also, I'm mostly organic at the beginning, then slowly morph into organic salts to maintain general health after a good bacteria base has been established and try to ride and maintain it's bacteria though to the end.

I've used blackstrap but I think maybe pure maple syrup might be the perfect choice, actually. (using it now, actually for the first time).

The major carbohydrate found in maple syrup is sucrose (range of ca. 60–66%) along with lesser amounts of glucose and fructose and complex carbohydrates, including high molecular weight polysaccharides.2 Maple syrup also contains minerals (K, Ca, Mg, Na, Mn, Al, Zn, Fe, etc.), vitamins (riboflavin, niacin, thiamine, etc.), amino acids (arginine, threonine, proline, etc.), organic acids (fumaric acid, malic acid, etc.), and phytohormones (abscisic acid and phaseic acid and their metabolites).1,3 A wide range of phytochemicals, most of which are phenolics (belonging to lignan, phenolic acid, stilbene, coumarin, and flavonoid subclasses) have also been identified in maple syrup

aka concentrated tree sap. that sounds like a winner to me.

1 TBSP per 1.5/L has a ph of 7 which raises your ph lightly, so that bacteria can bring it back down though nitrification process, supercharging your microbes.
 
IMG 20201124 013632
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Frankster

Frankster

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A supra-trace sucrose dose (0.002 mol kg-1 (soil)) caused the forest soil's microbial respiration rate to nearly double within 2 h. The peak response took 20 h, and saturation occurred beyond a sucrose dose of 0.05 mol kg-1 (soil). Intact soil cores from the forest had similar respiration rates and responses. For root-free soil samples from the grazed pasture, respiration response to sucrose was nearly immediate, dose dependent, and there was up to a 9-fold increase in the rate. Intact cores from the pasture had much higher respiration rates, but a similar response to sucrose. For both soils, the similarity of sucrose application effects on respiration and relative δ13C enrichment of the respired carbon was striking.
 

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