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Chitosan

Anybody using Chitosan? Have you heard of it before? It's a brand new product for this person.

Here's a link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitosan

As some of you may remember; I've been dealing with soil problems for almost 2 years. Basically; my plants do well for the first 9 months and then go into a steady decline until they finally die. Nothing, including composting, H2o2, wood vinegar, and EM have altered the cycle of life, fruiting, and death.

I'm now 4 days in from my first application of Chitosan; 4 young (60 days) Costa Rican Red Habaneros and 1 very sick chocolate Habanero. Next Sunday I'll apply another dose. So far so good.

Any feedback is welcome, cheers. :)
 
the only chitosan i have used is for wine making it's a stuff to add to the wine to help clarify it in the final stages...

cant wait to see if anyone use that here !

thanks for the info
 
the only chitosan i have used is for wine making it's a stuff to add to the wine to help clarify it in the final stages...

cant wait to see if anyone use that here !

thanks for the info

The Chitosan I'm using is in a liquid form; 10ml/10 liters of water. I was given this by a chemist who works for an Aqua Culture company here in Thailand, so I've yet to try to buy it. I have enough (about a liter of concentrate) to be able to know if it's having an effect, but as I said I'm only a week into application.
 
i thought chitosan was for weightloss.

who'd knew?

Sure wish I could figure out the multi-quote function! :(

Yes, a product of many uses. I'm only interested in its application for bad bacteria and nematodes. Cheers.
 
Sure wish I could figure out the multi-quote function!
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Yes, a product of many uses. I'm only interested in its application for bad bacteria and nematodes. Cheers.

Hmm, maybe a new way for us to dispose of shrimp and crab shells, just grind them up and dump them in the garden. I remember reading about it before but thank you for bringing it to our attention!
 
seeing the reply from Jetchuka has given me some ideas.

Will grind up dried shrimp shells for my plants now and see if there's any results.
 
Kiddc i'm thinking it can't be that bad. They might need to be sterilized first to get rid of the possible nasty bacteria/virus/molds, the kind that festers inside spoiled seafood (?). You wouldn't want to get sick handling the stuff and you wouldn't want to introduce a breeding population of those nasties into your soil.

Peaceful valley has some on-the-shelf products, but i'm thinking we can just grind some of our own, sterilized first, just enough to spread around or combine with other fertilizer products (i'm using espoma).

http://www.groworgan...-4-0-35-lb.html
http://www.groworgan...meal-50-lb.html
http://www.groworgan...ea-1-liter.html
 
Chitosan is what the makers of Stacker3 used to replace ephedrine when the US put restrictions on it due to the idiots making meth. The Chitosan still keeps you awake. I didn't know it helped plants.
 
I know of chitin (shellfish, insects, etc). Chitosan seems to be just the water soluble form. In FL, some people recommend burying shrimp and crab shells in the soil to attract the beneficial nematodes which also feed on the bad nematodes. We have bad nematode problems here.
 
I know of chitin (shellfish, insects, etc). Chitosan seems to be just the water soluble form. In FL, some people recommend burying shrimp and crab shells in the soil to attract the beneficial nematodes which also feed on the bad nematodes. We have bad nematode problems here.

Well, we've also got a very bad problems; I'm hoping this will be a remedy. This coming Sunday will be the 2nd treatment for my plants in the ground. If this works, it'll be wonderful... :beer:
 
By nematodes do you mean root knot nematodes?
Like if you pull the plant up the roots are full of bumps and bulges?
Nasty stuff, the last place I live at had them. Great soil, but everything died after a few months.
When looking up 'cures', seemed popular opinion to treat the soil with molasses, add extra organic matter like manure and compost which may have organisms that kill nematodes, grow mustard for a green manure, plant marigolds for green manure, or use neem.
I was only living there temporarily so just switched to growing tomatoes and chillies in pots though.
 
By nematodes do you mean root knot nematodes?
Like if you pull the plant up the roots are full of bumps and bulges?
Nasty stuff, the last place I live at had them. Great soil, but everything died after a few months.
When looking up 'cures', seemed popular opinion to treat the soil with molasses, add extra organic matter like manure and compost which may have organisms that kill nematodes, grow mustard for a green manure, plant marigolds for green manure, or use neem.
I was only living there temporarily so just switched to growing tomatoes and chillies in pots though.

I'm using a liquid concentrate; it's supposed to promote the growth of "good" nematodes and bacteria while killing the "bad" nematodes and bacteria. We're using compost, coir, and cow manure and have been for almost 2 years now.
I can see a difference in the new plants; they look much healthier than our first attempts. My only surviving plant from last year is hanging in there so far. If it survives that will be a very positive sign the Chitosan is working. We'll see...
 
It's Monday evening here; yesterday I applied my second application of Chitosan liquid to the garden bed. We've been a few days without rain so I applied about 2-1/2 liters of dilute mixture (10ml/5liter water) per plant. The whole bed has been effectively treated.
This is only 1 week in, so I don't expect to see any results for at least 2 more weeks. Cheers.

PS; my almost dead chocolate Hab is not worse. :dance:
 
Does anyone know if treatment of aqueous chitosan (or chitin, purified or simply using insect and crustacean shells) has had any success with their plants. There are many reported benefits of using this chemical, similar in a way to the action of bioflavanoids on the immune system but for plants. According to wiki "Chitosan increases photosynthesis, promotes and enhances plant growth, stimulates nutrient uptake, increases germination and sprouting, and boosts plant vigor". Not to mention the immune response to parasitic cyst nematodes (don't believe this is a problem here).

That's quite a number of exciting promises.

I'm having problems with near 100% bud/flower drop, although I'm pretty sure it's down to low light levels here during winter. Wondering if this could help, or at least supplement plant growth.

Anyone with experience using this care to shed some light?
 
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