Azomite Folar Spray

[Conrad Chin-Yee]

Has anyone used Azomite Folar Spray. It is a rock dust that suppose to have lots of trace mineral elements. The hydroponic store that I go to for some supplies gave me a small jar as a sample. Since my plants in my raft bed are all yellow, I have been using Maxicrop and more recently some  Azomite as folar sprays.I havent noticed any difference yet.

[TCLynx]

I don't know this Azomite stuff but yellowing plants in aquaponics are usually due to either iron lock out or deficiency or nitrogen deficiency and perhaps a few others.

 

What do your water tests say?

pH has a huge impact on iron uptake and some chelated iron or maxicrop with iron may be more appropriate if your plants are yellowing from the new leaves first but the veins stay green longer than the space in between.

 

If your nitrates are reading 0 and your plants are yellowing from the oldest leaves first, then it sounds more like nitrate deficiency.  If your system is well cycled up to it's fish load and your ammonia/nitrites are 0 then you might want to feed your fish more or a higher protein feed or get more fish.  If the system is not cycled up yet, have patience and get through the cycling process before worrying too much about the yellowing plants.

[Carey Ma]

Great advice from TC. 

Hi Condrad, Better more detailed descriptions and photos would help us understand your situation better and narrow the wild variables, so we can give more specific advice.

 

Cheers

BTW Are you Chinese by chance?

[Conrad Chin-Yee]

Thanks,

From TC's comments, It appears that my problem might be lack of iron so I just applied a very light  folar spray of trace minerals to the leaves. I figured that that small amount wouldnt hurt the fish due to the large dilution factor. I tested my PH using a soil pH meter and it is about 7+ which I know is not suitable for the DWC plants-hence the folar spray. I have used maxicrop, but unfortunately I didnt get the one with iron so that is why I  followed up with the trace minerals with cheliated iron. Hope this works!

[TCLynx]

I don't know if a soil pH meter is going to be accurate for testing water pH.

7+ is not necessarily bad for DWC, need to know how much + it is though.  Many DWC systems run in the 7.2-7.4 range for lettuce and stuff like that.  However if 7+ actually means 8.2 then yes you are likely to have problems.  I've had a system that has run a pH of 7.6 for most of the past 3 years and I grow plenty of things.  It is a media based system which seems to help the plants find the trace minerals they need in among the worm castings in the gravel but it is still a productive system provided I chose plants that will tolerate the somewhat high pH.

 

Watercress actually seems to prefer the higher pH.

[Conrad Chin-Yee]

Yes, actually second generation chinese born in Jamaica.

Carey Ma said:

Great advice from TC. 

Hi Condrad, Better more detailed descriptions and photos would help us understand your situation better and narrow the wild variables, so we can give more specific advice.

 

Cheers

BTW Are you Chinese by chance?

[Conrad Chin-Yee]

TC

Since it is summer in humid florida now I am not yet trying to plant  cool weather vegetables. I have mostly some ung choy as it likes water and tolerates the heat. I am in the process of rooting some water cress in hydroton in net potsby standing the planted cress in water until the roots emerge from the bottom of the hydroton. I made the mistake of putting cuttings and rooted cuttings in the hydroton netpots but they dried up since there was no wicking up of water to the roots. My foam is 2" thick so the netpots are flush with the bottom of the foam. Not really serious about plants yet and just trying to get some to grow to purify the fish water. I just completed my filtration system and am just now placed an order for
WaterTek MB³ Moving Bed Media, and am anxiously awaiting delivery. I will try the settling filter & moving bed biofilter for awhile before attempting to hybridize my system by adding media beds to the system. I was pondering using some tires lined with shower curtains as easy growbeds as I have the tires already with sidewalls cut out(I use them in my tire garden).

Thanks for all the knowledgeable help you give to me and to so many others on the forum.

Sincerely

Conrad

I don't know if a soil pH meter is going to be accurate for testing water pH.

7+ is not necessarily bad for DWC, need to know how much + it is though.  Many DWC systems run in the 7.2-7.4 range for lettuce and stuff like that.  However if 7+ actually means 8.2 then yes you are likely to have problems.  I've had a system that has run a pH of 7.6 for most of the past 3 years and I grow plenty of things.  It is a media based system which seems to help the plants find the trace minerals they need in among the worm castings in the gravel but it is still a productive system provided I chose plants that will tolerate the somewhat high pH.

 

Watercress actually seems to prefer the higher pH.

[Carey Ma]

As to your question: I'm not familiar with that product but I would wonder how dissolvable it might be, ground up raw mineral and all. I think it would be a great additive in the grow beds if it takes a while to dissolve. Never mind what I just said if it dissolves easily. Anyway,

There are many advantages of using a foliar spray or drench. Foliage sprays are good quick fixes as well as for regular maintenance and as long as you know what you are doing and preferably know why. Although more forgiving most of the time, you could just as easily “overdose” your plant/s as well as injure them in other ways. Remember, too much of anything becomes waste and never spray at noon or when its bright out.

The purpose of foliar sprays is to feed the stomata, an opening in leaves that lets water vapor and oxygen (respiration) out while absorbing water (dew) and free flowing elements like carbon dioxide. These stomata usually open largest during sun up and sundown. Since I mostly use bottom fed wick supplied by my AP sys. I usually top-feed (organic drench/ heavy spray but not heavy like can watering to soak soil) my veggies, flowers and fruit trees in succession, at around 4-5am every four days or so mainly to give the top layer of mulch/compost (10 cm) and shallow roots (rhizosphere) some moisture and microbes to help it break down.

I make special “tea” formulas and use different teas each time I spray depending what the garden or specific set of plants seem to need (but overall I think I do it more out of habit from years of top watering than any real need), (most of the time). In between, I still mist all my ladies most every morning just to get in tune with how things are going, take note of priorities and let them know I care. Actually that’s my favorite part of the day; watering and the first smoke, picking, eating all those delectably different jewels of nature in the cool of each dawn, then petting all those loving animals scampering around ones legs begging for attention; puts one in a good mood for a hearty breakfast at 8-9am.

Sorry, back to FSs. I liken foliar spraying to frosting on a cake - I never ate a piece of cake that was all frosting and no cake, but I have eaten cakes without any frosting. I must admit cakes with frosting taste a lot better! A good foliar spray program is like frosting on the cake. It must be applied on top of the foundation of a solid soil program (in your case a well stocked, mature and balanced AP system).

Cheers