Crepe
Aquarium Advice Addict
So I've gotten tired of paying for Seachem's hunks of gold (which are essentially mashed hunks of clay nutrient wise) and decided to make my own root tabs!
I couldn't find a recipe online so I guess I'm just experimenting right now. Most people I hear of for root tabs use Osmocote Plus frozen into icecubes so they can be dosed en-masse. I have gone another more time consuming (but cheaper) route.
Clay-based root tabs.
I guess I'll tell you how I made em first:
Ingredients
Regular clay from the back yard, you need about 8 oz of it volume wise. The less plant matter and the more red it is the better, that denotes lots of iron and minerals and less plant matter= less ammonia from decaying stuff.
Powdered CSM +B or other trace ( you may not need this, I need the extra Boron and I'm out of boric acid [can't find any suppliers either, I'll look for some at the hardware store next time])
10ml of Seachem Iron, skip this if you're using iron rich clay.
50ml of water tap is better in this case
1 tsp of KNO3
2 tsp of K2SO4(Or K2O or KCL)
1/2 tsp of KHPO4 (you can substitute for the Molar Equivalent in Fleet enema and subtract the liquid volume from the volume of water you would require)
These numbers seem kind of low, but considering my clay is really black and obviously has a good deal of humus in it, I think I'm pretty well set on nitrogen and micros.
I know I'm missing magnesium, but I don't want to overdose on this element and I haven't seen any Mg deficiency in my plants before.
Lots of K in this formula. (good thing)
Okay the first step after gathering your ingredients is to completely dry your clay, bone dry. I do this with 20minutes at 450 in the oven. You could probably sun dry.
Pound the clay into powder and mix your dry ingredients with the powder clay. Then slowly add the wet, starting with what has nutrients and then moisturizing with the tap water.
Mash it all together and you're done. Shape the clay mixture into whatever shapes you want. I made flat disks, spheroids and spikes to fit my needs: area fertilization, large rooted plants, and hard to reach stem plant areas.
You will have to rebake for about 15minutes at 450 after you've made your shapes. Then you're done. All that's left is to let it cool for an hour or two.
I'll let you guys now how my results are in a few weeks!
I couldn't find a recipe online so I guess I'm just experimenting right now. Most people I hear of for root tabs use Osmocote Plus frozen into icecubes so they can be dosed en-masse. I have gone another more time consuming (but cheaper) route.
Clay-based root tabs.
I guess I'll tell you how I made em first:
Ingredients
Regular clay from the back yard, you need about 8 oz of it volume wise. The less plant matter and the more red it is the better, that denotes lots of iron and minerals and less plant matter= less ammonia from decaying stuff.
Powdered CSM +B or other trace ( you may not need this, I need the extra Boron and I'm out of boric acid [can't find any suppliers either, I'll look for some at the hardware store next time])
10ml of Seachem Iron, skip this if you're using iron rich clay.
50ml of water tap is better in this case
1 tsp of KNO3
2 tsp of K2SO4(Or K2O or KCL)
1/2 tsp of KHPO4 (you can substitute for the Molar Equivalent in Fleet enema and subtract the liquid volume from the volume of water you would require)
These numbers seem kind of low, but considering my clay is really black and obviously has a good deal of humus in it, I think I'm pretty well set on nitrogen and micros.
I know I'm missing magnesium, but I don't want to overdose on this element and I haven't seen any Mg deficiency in my plants before.
Lots of K in this formula. (good thing)
Okay the first step after gathering your ingredients is to completely dry your clay, bone dry. I do this with 20minutes at 450 in the oven. You could probably sun dry.
Pound the clay into powder and mix your dry ingredients with the powder clay. Then slowly add the wet, starting with what has nutrients and then moisturizing with the tap water.
Mash it all together and you're done. Shape the clay mixture into whatever shapes you want. I made flat disks, spheroids and spikes to fit my needs: area fertilization, large rooted plants, and hard to reach stem plant areas.
You will have to rebake for about 15minutes at 450 after you've made your shapes. Then you're done. All that's left is to let it cool for an hour or two.
I'll let you guys now how my results are in a few weeks!
