The Blue color is just a dye and nothing to worry about. according to this, it should be Blue. I believe only the Solufeed TEC doesn't contain dye and should be in Brown Color. But, someone please confirm this because I do not have them on hand to validate this.Excited to report my Solufeed 2:1:4 arrived today, and am making up my solution per Happi's recommendation.
Only thing is that the stuff is a lot blue-r than I was expecting based on my very limited experience... Blue powder, and blue in the bottle. I assume blue is good?
Let me know how can I help. So what would you like to learn ?
Horticultural liquid feeds are <"coloured blue">, it just gives you <"a visual indication of feed strength"> for the <"guestimative index">.
do you have a water report ?
I'll do that tonight. Would you prefer a new thread to save clogging this one?Yes that would be great and we can always link this thread to that one.Thanks
Some nutrients are less available in harder water, but this mainly effects iron (Fe), purely because most iron (FeII(I)) compounds <"are insoluble"> in hard water.
As @Myrtle is not that far away from me as the crow flies, I'll guess similar to mine, lowest about 30 microS in the winter and up to 120 microS in the summer, most of that conductivity from calcium (Ca++) and (bi)carbonate (2HCO3)- ions.
I've <"got on well with Solufeed 2 : 1 : 4">, I haven't purchased the micro-elements, but I add a <"little extra"> FeEDTA and Epsom Salts (MgSO4.7H2O).
cheers Darrel
Darrel, do you know what kind of Dye they use? for example Tropica uses E123, which is listed as quite unhealthy according to some research.
<"I assume it"> is one of these <"Dyes for Fertilizers & Agricultural Compounds - Chromatech"> and presumably <"D15003 Chromatint Blue AZ 50% Liquid - Chromatech">.
Synthetic Azo dyes <"aren't great">, but you should be fine as long as you don't drink the concentrate. Using food colours would make sense because they have already been through the <"regulatory H&S process">.
Sorry, I meant do you know the chemical structure or the name of the chemical being used? I couldn't find much information on that.
No I don't, you could try asking Solufeed? Although I guess that neither they, nor Chromatech, will give you a name.
Thank you! I'd forgotten I'd bookmarked that calculation and was getting in a right mess with the IFC calculatorHi all,
Some nutrients are less available in harder water, but this mainly effects iron (Fe), purely because most iron (FeII(I)) compounds <"are insoluble"> in hard water.
As @Myrtle is not that far away from me as the crow flies, I'll guess similar to mine, lowest about 30 microS in the winter and up to 120 microS in the summer, most of that conductivity from calcium (Ca++) and (bi)carbonate (2HCO3)- ions.
I've <"got on well with Solufeed 2 : 1 : 4">, I haven't purchased the micro-elements, but I add a <"little extra"> FeEDTA and Epsom Salts (MgSO4.7H2O).
In terms of how much you need to add, all you need is the composition of the fertiliser (below) and the size of the tank.
I'm going to assume a tank size of 30 litres, and we want to add 20 ppm nitrate (NO3) via our fertiliser, which is a dry dose of 0.9g
This is <"from a thread we both contributed to"> and the maths would be:
Wwe want 20 ppm NO3 (2 x 10 ppm), so that is the weight in grams (below) x 2 and our tank is a 1/6 of the volume (180 / 30), which means that we need to divide our weight be 6. Multiply by 2 and divide by 6 is the same as divide by 3 , so we have 2.71g / 3 = 0.9g.
cheers Darrel
The tds sounds about right, though I also use DI water when I run out of rain. I need to work out remineralisation of that too at some point but that's a different topic.That would be for 10 ppm NO3, to give you 20 ppm (mg / L) nitrate (NO3-) it would be 0.3g of Solufeed 2:1:4 in every 10 litres of tank water.
I don't add a set amount of fertiliser, I use the <"Duckweed Index"> and <"occasional slosh method">, but I should <"really do better">. I might start with 20 ppm and <"see how you get on">.
I just use a <"splash tap water"> for some dGH (purely as calcium (Ca)) and alkalinity (dKH). I'm going to add magnesium (Mg) with the fertiliser and <"possibly top it up"> with "Epsom Salts" (MgSO4.7H2O) if I suspect deficiency.
I must admit that I'm not the kind of person (especially right now) who can manage a tight regime, which is part of the reason I stay away from CO2 as well. I think your methods may be pretty much what I need at the moment so I'll have a play and keep an eye on stuff. To be honest, at the moment I dose when I remember, though I'm trying to sync that with turning the lights on in the morning to try to get a bit of consistency at least!
