Brocoli said:
I got it on sale and wanted to see if the hype was real. I didnt get a real chance to check it out last year, we'll see this year
Would I add Calcium Nitrate each water? Dont want my water locking out nutes to my plants.
Thats cool, I wonder if the roots could regulate the ph in aeroponics.
I'll look into a test, I am just renting the house for awhile.
Are egg shells finely crushed an option for my planned soil? I like options.
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LOL. if you are renting... and i hate to be an asshole here, but if you are renting its not your problem. you might mention it to your land lord, but if hes an asshole i wouldnt. my old landlord was real cool and i even consider him a friend... i fixed all sorts of shit for him, but if i didnt like a landlord i wouldnt lift a finger unless you have old copper pipes or something ( lead leaching).
in all likely hood its NOT an issue, but the possibility is always there depending on age, pipe material and water chemistry.
a real well water test is only like 75 bucks + the test kit. you can get crazy testing for all sorts of shit like pesticides and organic solvents... radioneuclides, but a basic test is usually less than 100 bucks, AND alot of water treatment companies will do one for free... but i would not trust their tests. they want to sell you equipment to fix water quality issues.
regarding calcium nitrate... you can do it every watering, but if you are putting plants INTO the groud, this does not really make sense unless you are fertigating or using some other means to inejct fertilizer into your irrigation water.
in your situation you would want either a general field dressed slow release(CRF) or an immediate release regular fertilizer. the immediate release stuff is usually just a prilled salt thats designed to be spread onto row with a machine. think lawn fertilizer... its immediatly available to plants and soil, but you would need to re apply it every 4 weeks maby depending on your situation.
yara makes two calcium nitrate formulations... one is called calcinit. its very pure, with very little if any ammoia. this is made for fertigation... the prills are very small, and the product is very pure, so once its dissolved there is no residual dust or cloudyness etc.
the other is called yara tropicote. "cote" makes you think its a slow release, but its not, its a larger prill thats less pure and it has more ammonia for slow release. its cheaper and its better suited for field broadcasting or incorporation into the soil.
if you want to incorporate into soil or someother, get the tropicote, its supposed to be cheaper, and the small amount of ammonia will give you some long lasting nitrogen, though ammonium uptake can acidify soil a bit.