I know they are your source from some of your posts. And I have been aware of them and their work for a long time. However, we all know what works well for one species, or the target values of one species may not carry over to other species. So, having someone who has applied their knowledge and experience to cannabis with the data-driven and scientific approach you take is invaluable.
Once I have the time, I will dive into their work and create a spot in my drive for them. But for now, learning vicariously through you suites me well. You do the heavy lifting, and I sit back drinking Mai-Tais!
Also, it shows considerable character when someone doesn’t try to take credit for others’ work - props and respect to you for pointing out the source of your knowledge on brix.
I can’t send him a Mai Tai, but I think @emdub27 should at least be shown gratitude in a real way for his efforts to help others level up. Who wants to join me in voting @emdub27 as June’s MoM? Can I get a second? Once the poll is released, let’s vote bomb this MoFo!
@emdub27 has been by far the biggest help with my cultivation in the last two years, I’m grateful for his help every day. I hope one day to be knowledgeable like him.
Hell, I’d keep this guy on paid retainer if I could! Someday. I check this thread every 20 seconds just to see if he posted any tidbits of information. I get all excited like a teenage girl at a BTS concert when I see he replied. He’s got my vote for Member of the year!
I understand the importance of calcium, but I LOVE this strategy.
It’s kind of what brix is measuring. High ec sap contains a bunch of uncomplexed ions and will be low brix. When the ions are complexed, the ec drops and brix goes up.
Hi Guys. I am Daniel Fernandez, the creator of HydroBuddy.
I have to say that I’ve reproduced the compositions and chemistry derived from Athena nutrients probably half a dozen times for clients. Since they are all independent and the contracts under NDA, I always need each one to carry out their own analysis to reproduce the nutrients. I always have them send stocks prepared with full bags to analyze them and we have always been able to arrive at stocks with identical compositions and chemistries (as far as we can test).
However, this way of growing - extremely high EC with high runoff - is incredibly wasteful. For the long term clients I’ve had using Athena, we have always ended up changing to custom formulations that use more efficient growing techniques. For example, you can rely on the natural accumulation of EC in media to build up the EC, and use wetting agents and irrigation techniques to decrease runoff to achieve this accumulation. In the end we reduce nutrient usage 70%, decrease water usage 50% and keep or improve the quality and yield of the crops.
There are many ways to grow cannabis plants and many different ways to cause stress to plants. I dislike wasteful shotgun approaches to growing. I fell in love with hydroponics building highly efficient recirculating tomato growing systems in South America and it breaks my heart to see how many of these nutrient companies just want to formulate something that works for most people, regardless of what the environmental impact, cost or energy efficiency of the approach might be.
In my opinion, the focus should be on developing the most economical, functioning and environmentally efficient approach for every grow, rather than just trying to reproduce an approach that works, however it might do so.
Hello @danielfp! Good to see you here at the other forum I frequent besides the basement lol! I guess it’s safe to say now that your the scientist I tell everyone I talk with over at another forum lol! Just didn’t want to out you myself but, I’m sure everyone here has had you on they’re radar much longer than I have! Welcome and good to have you here! Now I got the two guys who’ve upped my grow game beyond measure all in one place. @emdub27, and now @danielfp! Man, am I glad I found this place!
I agree with all points. I abandoned cloning it after seeing tissue analysis of plants grown on it. The biggest reason I think a lot of operations use Athena is due to stability in a fertigation system. I’ve had a jar test on my desk for months now at 7.0pH and it’s still stable, so there pretty much has to be a polyphosphate in it.
What would the rate be to clone it for Future without an NDA?
@emdub27 I would be happy to discuss that over a zoom call . If you PM me we can arrange that. From your posts it seems you are experienced and professional, so I would greatly enjoy if we can chat.
I like to have professional relationships with as many consultants in the field as I can. I am not the best guy for every job and I like to direct my clients to other professionals when appropriate.
I’m curious what surfactants you have tried and used successfully over a entire grow. I have tested many nonionic surfactants (synthetic and natural) and found that some cause phytotoxicity (leaf narcosis and death) when used in every irrigation event. My tests included rock wool and coco coir drip irrigation and hydro using rock wool and DWC. I have found Tween 80 works well, and I like that’s it biodegradable. Plus, due to root uptake and translocation to aerial tissues, I am less concerned about smoking/processing flowers grown using Tween 80 than other synthetic surfactants (e.g., Tween 20 and AquaGro L). Some natural surfactants have shown compatibility issues and seem to increase biofilm; plus, they aren’t terribly effective.
I plan to test polyglycoside surfactants. However, I use automated stock solution injection and a single mainline fill batch tanks for each room (for automatic irrigation by substate VWC). Therefore, I worry about their stability in solution and impact on microbial growth and biofilm.
I am especially interested in your experience with surfactants for irrigation because I plan to use O2 (and test CO2) nanobubbles for solution DO2 supersaturation (15-20 ppm) with drip irrigation using rock wool. Many published papers found that a surfactant helps increase DO2 concentration and maintenance of DO2 ppm over time and lateral pipe length.
@Ralf It depends on several factors, including which media, which watering frequency and what the media was treated with before (for example grodan treats their rockwool with a surfactant).
As general advise, alkylated polyol surfactants are great overall. Tweens can get the job done as well, from this family I would pick from Polysorbate 20/40/60, those work better than Tween 80 in most applications I have tested.
At 100 ppm of Tween 20 in this study, water use efficiency - measured in how many umoles of carbon you fix per mmole of water transpired - was increased more than 2x (2.38 to 5.86) in the best case.
. If you PM me we can arrange that. From your posts it seems you are experienced and professional, so I would greatly enjoy if we can chat.