Is this nutrient shit or what?

[aussie1]

I have been having major problems with my plants lately. Curling leaves, yellow veins,

purpling of leaves and stems, then I realised it all started when I had to buy an

unfamiliar nutrient. It is by Growth Technology and is called Optimum.

It has the follow amounts :

 

ANALYSIS (%w/v) ------ Part A -------------------------------- Part B

 

Nitrate -Nitrogen ------- 3.41 ---------------------------------- 0.90

 

Phosphorous------------------------------------------------------ 0.80

 

Potassium-----------------2.50------------------------------------3.51

 

Calcium-------------------3.60

 

Magnesium-------------------------------------------------------- 1.00

 

Sulfur-------------------------------------------------------------- 1.32

 

Iron ----------------------0.044

 

Manganese---------------------------------------------------------0.018

 

Borax---------------------------------------------------------------0.006

 

Zinc-----------------------------------------------------------------0.004

 

Copper-------------------------------------------------------------0.003

 

Molybdenum-------------------------------------------------------0.001

 

 

These levels seem awfully low when I compare them to some old empty bottles of other

brands that I have laying around.

Does anyone know this brand or if levels are too low. Some of the other brands are up to

7 times more than this brand, and, the other brands have things in them not even mentioned

in this brand.

Any help aprreciated

Regards

aussie1

Edited June 9, 2007 by aussie1

[aussie1]

PS Anyone have a veg nute bottle handy to compare, especially the nitrogen.

it sounds very low

[DownUnderDoper]

The NPK (%w/v) content of the nute in the bottle is irrelevant till it's mixed, at which point the strength and PH of the nutes that are actually going to hit the plants roots are decided.

 

An NPK ratio of about 5:1:5 (ie 5 times more N and K than P) is unremarkable, and should not cause any problems in and of itself.

 

Your problems

 

Curling leaves, yellow veins, purpling of leaves and stems,

 

are more likely in other areas like PH lockout causing Iron deficiency which can cause the yellow veins, the purpling can be caused by lower temperatures in some strains (it is winter after all and indoor and outdoor grows are likely to be cooler during the night/lights off than in summer) it can also be caused by Mg deficiency again possibly due to nutrient lockout from incorrect PH. The medium you're growing in (Soil/Perlite/Coco) could also make a difference to the answer, so if you can give us all of the information (the more the better) we might be able to track the problem(s) down for you.

 

 

DUD

[loylty gets u nothing]

i used to use optimum nurtes a good 5 yr ago

in perlite with no dramas at all

u may have a bad batch

id check the batch number and email growth tecnologies meself

atm i got 1 real purple plant

and i think its the strain

as i got 4 others that aint purp next to it..

ph can cause all the probs u de3scribe...

if u in coco or have any part coco as an ammendmant to ya medium

i reckonmend using a coco specific nute

bil

[aussie1]

Ok guys thanks, the old nute bottle that I was looking at had 20% w/v nitrogen, which is way more than this one. I thought maybe they stuck grow label on the front and bloom label on the back. Now I can rest easy and look at the ph problem.

Thank you

aussie1

[mrsmokey1]

If ya need xtra nitrogen can ya piss in the plants? piss is high in nitrogen? Lil sqirt might be good and cheap.

[Luke Skywalker]

You can conceivably do this, but it's not too smart in anything but soil. Urine contains urea, which breaks down into ammonia. (with microbial help) Ammonia is a usuable form of nitrogen, but very, very easily gets to toxic levels. Most 2 part nutrients will contain about 1:10 ratio of ammonia nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen, because the ammonia provides a bit of balance in the pH of the solution. If you had more, you'd end up with a rapidly acidifying solution if you didn't actually harm the plants with this form of N. Any nutrient that provides most of it's nitrogen in ammoniacal form is just asking for problems unless it relies on microbial breakdown into nitrate forms. Some dispense with it altogether, like the canna Aqua and some other nutrients.

 

Besides which, your urine contains all kinds of other substances, most of which I wouldn't think would be very clever to give to a plant. Can you say hormones?

 

It might be an effective way of boosting the N content of deficient soils, (like perth has) if you were growing outdoors and you didn't have something better like a bag of chook poo or soluble fertiliser, but as a general fert, it leaves a lot to be desired. It might not just harm, but could also quickly kill plants if overdone.