SALT WARS
Comparing Dry Salt Fertilizer Options for Cannabis Production
Comparing Dry Salt Fertilizer Options
for Cannabis Production
Article for Cannabis Business Times →
Article contents
Introduction
DIY vs Manufactured Salts
Not All Salts are Created Equal
Working Toward Best Use Practices
Cultivating Curiosity:
Salt Wars! (video)
An exciting event focused on dry salt fertilizers for cannabis cultivation took place in Los Angeles on February 22, 2024.
Organized by Sergio Picazo of The Connect Community and moderated by Grow World’s Nick Morin, the event featured several Cultivators & salt manufacturer teams prepared to battle it out to determine the best products on the market.
What actually transpired was a thoughtful and lively discussion across a diverse panel of experts that reinforced industry best practices using dry salts to grow the highest quality cannabis.
“First and foremost, The Connect Community is super grateful for all of these industry leaders being a part of Salt Wars.
The purpose is not to prove who’s better, rather to educate and provide perspective on each organization’s value proposition while collaborating with real world commercial cultivators at scale who use each program.
This was a huge win for the community to come together and level up together. This is how the Connect continues to organically grow and evolve as a worldwide community to continue the path of growing better Cannabis”
Sergio Picazo – Founder of The Connect Community.
Continue reading for a first-hand account of key learnings & takeaways from one of the night’s featured pair of professionals – Director of Cultivation at Maven and Kush Alley, Chad Salute, and General Hydroponics R&D scientist, Dr. Craig Yendrek (see Figure 1).
DIY vs Manufactured Salts
The goal of a hydroponic nutrient program is to provide all essential nutrients for plant growth and development.
That requires formulating a dry salt blend consisting of macronutrients (N, P & K), secondary nutrients (Ca, Mg & S) and micronutrients (Fe, B, Zn, Cu, Mn & Mo) each at an appropriate level based on crop-specific needs.
Through collaboration with growers, as well as internal research trials, General Hydroponics has a 48 year history of understanding the nutrient needs of cannabis.
For growers considering making their own dry salt blends, it is important to know that sourcing individual fertilizer ingredients can be complicated, especially because there are often disruptions in supply.
At General Hydroponics, the policy is to have multiple suppliers approved for each fertilizer raw material. This makes it possible for seamless manufacturing changes, ensuring continuous product availability to customers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Another aspect of dry salt manufacturing is quality control. Consistent grow room performance over time depends on delivering precise levels of plant nutrients. Any unintended changes due to measuring errors or improper mixing can have catastrophic effects.
As Dr. Yendrek said during the event, “On a batch-to-batch basis we are analyzing the finished products [so] what’s in that bag is going to be the same every time.” To make that possible, a large-capacity blender mixes multi-ton production runs after accurately measuring each fertilizer ingredient.
After the final dry salt fertilizer is blended, an on-site lab analyzes the product in real-time to ensure specifications are compliant with the label Guaranteed Analysis (see Figure 2).
While it is possible for a cultivator to go the DIY route for dry salts, considering all that goes into sourcing, blending, quality control and packaging, it makes sense to take risk out of the equation and leave it to the experts.
Not All Salts are Created Equal
At one point during the event, the discussion delved deep into the fundamentals of chemistry that impact dry salt purity and sso4ility.
Because many common fertilizer ingredients are mined, they contain variable levels of insoluble materials that do not dissolve in water and leave a sand-like grit residue on the bottom of fertilizer reservoirs.
Other blended fertilizers can, in certain storage conditions, solidify into hard clumps that make it difficult to dissolve when added to water. These phenomena are due to the chemical form of the dry salt and how it interacts with moisture.
Take magnesium sulfate as an example. It is a common ingredient in many hydroponic fertilizers and is available without water (anhydrous) or with seven H2O groups bonded to the magnesium (heptahydrate). Based on cost, many dry salt manufacturers prefer to use the anhydrous form of magnesium sulfate.
This is due to the higher percentage of magnesium and sulfur (see Table 1) which means less is needed to achieve desired nutrient targets. However, the anhydrous form can have purity issues and typically has a higher percentage of insoluble contaminants.
Without frequent clean-out procedures, grit accumulation can become an issue causing clogging of fertigation dosers, filters, lines and emitters.
The heptahydrate form of magnesium sulfate is desirable because it dissolves more rapidly, making it easier for growers to work with. However, it can cause problems with caking.
If stored at high temperatures, the water units in the structure are released to recombine with other compounds in the dry salt blend. The mixture then solidifies into a rock-hard block. Therefore, a balanced approach is needed when formulating hydroponic dry salt fertilizer blends.
Internal research at General Hydroponics has developed a testing protocol to assess these interactions between raw materials, including blends of anhydrous and heptahydrate forms of magnesium sulfate within a formula, for example.
This process ensures that the final product is optimized: easy to dissolve while minimizing caking and insolubles.
MgSO4 Form Comparison
| Anhydrous | Hepta- hydrate | |
| Mg (%) | 19.8 | 9.8 |
| S (%) | 26.0 | 13.0 |
| $ per lb | $0.51 | $0.45 |
| $ per lb Mg | $2.58 | $4.59 |
| Insolubles | High | Low |
Working Toward Best Use Practices
By far, the most refreshing aspect of Salt Wars was seeing the community of growers come together to share tips on best practices.
There was unanimous agreement from the entire panel that the following topics are critical for consistent yield and quality when using dry salts for commercial cannabis production.
“Don’t use bro science”
As was seen during the Salt Wars panel discussion (see video below), there are many options available for dry salt fertilizers. That is why it is important to take the time to learn about each company’s philosophy.
At General Hydroponics, we are confident growers will be successful using our nutrient products – because we understand the needs of cannabis, work closely with growers to ensure products like FloraPro are effective & easy to use, and thoroughly test each product via internal R&D grow trials.
Chad Salute said it best,
“You have these companies that want you to succeed. Use these experts [don’t use Bro Science].”
The Connect Community
More event info can be found on the Salt Wars event overview page.
Cultivating Curiosity:
Salt Wars!
LA, Ca | 2/22/24
Article contents
○ Introduction
○ DIY vs Manufactured Salts
○ Not All Salts are Created Equal
○ Working Toward Best Use Practices
○ Cultivating Curiosity: Salt Wars! (video)
An exciting event focused on dry salt fertilizers for cannabis cultivation took place in Los Angeles on February 22, 2024.
Organized by Sergio Picazo of The Connect Community and moderated by Grow World’s Nick Morin, the event featured several Cultivators & salt manufacturer teams prepared to battle it out to determine the best products on the market.
What actually transpired was a thoughtful and lively discussion across a diverse panel of experts that reinforced industry best practices using dry salts to grow the highest quality cannabis.
“First and foremost, The Connect Community is super grateful for all of these industry leaders being a part of Salt Wars. The purpose is not to prove who’s better, rather to educate and provide perspective on each organization’s value proposition while collaborating with real world commercial cultivators at scale who use each program. This was a huge win for the community to come together and level up together. This is how the Connect continues to organically grow and evolve as a worldwide community to continue the path of growing better Cannabis”
Sergio Picazo – Founder of The Connect Community.
Continue reading for a first-hand account of key learnings & takeaways from one of the night’s featured pair of professionals – Director of Cultivation at Maven and Kush Alley, Chad Salute, and General Hydroponics R&D scientist, Dr. Craig Yendrek (see Figure 1).
DIY vs Manufactured Salts
The goal of a hydroponic nutrient program is to provide all essential nutrients for plant growth and development. That requires formulating a dry salt blend consisting of macronutrients (N, P & K), secondary nutrients (Ca, Mg & S) and micronutrients (Fe, B, Zn, Cu, Mn & Mo) each at an appropriate level based on crop-specific needs.
Through collaboration with growers, as well as internal research trials, General Hydroponics has a 48 year history of understanding the nutrient needs of cannabis.
For growers considering making their own dry salt blends, it is important to know that sourcing individual fertilizer ingredients can be complicated, especially because there are often disruptions in supply.
At General Hydroponics, the policy is to have multiple suppliers approved for each fertilizer raw material. This makes it possible for seamless manufacturing changes, ensuring continuous product availability to customers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Another aspect of dry salt manufacturing is quality control. Consistent grow room performance over time depends on delivering precise levels of plant nutrients. Any unintended changes due to measuring errors or improper mixing can have catastrophic effects.
As Dr. Yendrek said during the event, “On a batch-to-batch basis we are analyzing the finished products [so] what’s in that bag is going to be the same every time.”
To make that possible, a large-capacity blender mixes multi-ton production runs after accurately measuring each fertilizer ingredient.
After the final dry salt fertilizer is blended, an on-site lab analyzes the product in real-time to ensure specifications are compliant with the label Guaranteed Analysis (see Figure 2). While it is possible for a cultivator to go the DIY route for dry salts, considering all that goes into sourcing, blending, quality control and packaging, it makes sense to take risk out of the equation and leave it to the experts.
Not All Salts are Created Equal
At one point during the event, the discussion delved deep into the fundamentals of chemistry that impact dry salt purity and stability. Because many common fertilizer ingredients are mined, they contain variable levels of insoluble materials that do not dissolve in water and leave a sand-like grit residue on the bottom of fertilizer reservoirs.
Other blended fertilizers can, in certain storage conditions, solidify into hard clumps that make it difficult to dissolve when added to water. These phenomena are due to the chemical form of the dry salt and how it interacts with moisture.
Take magnesium sulfate as an example. It is a common ingredient in many hydroponic fertilizers and is available without water (anhydrous) or with seven H2O groups bonded to the magnesium (heptahydrate). Based on cost, many dry salt manufacturers prefer to use the anhydrous form of magnesium sulfate. This is due to the higher percentage of magnesium and sulfur (see Table 1) which means less is needed to achieve desired nutrient targets. However, the anhydrous form can have purity issues and typically has a higher percentage of insoluble contaminants. Without frequent clean-out procedures, grit accumulation can become an issue causing clogging of fertigation dosers, filters, lines and emitters.
The heptahydrate form of magnesium sulfate is desirable because it dissolves more rapidly, making it easier for growers to work with. However, it can cause problems with caking. If stored at high temperatures, the water units in the structure are released to recombine with other compounds in the dry salt blend. The mixture then solidifies into a rock-hard block.
Therefore, a balanced approach is needed when formulating hydroponic dry salt fertilizer blends. Internal research at General Hydroponics has developed a testing protocol to assess these interactions between raw materials, including blends of anhydrous and heptahydrate forms of magnesium sulfate within a formula, for example. This process ensures that the final product is optimized: easy to dissolve while minimizing caking and insolubles.
MgSO4 Form Comparison
| Mg (%) | S (%) | $ per lb | $ per lb Mg | Insolubles | |
| Anhydrous | 19.8 | 26.0 | $0.51 | $2.58 | High |
| Heptahydrate | 9.8 | 13.0 | $0.45 | $4.59 | Low |
Working Toward Best Use Practices
By far, the most refreshing aspect of Salt Wars was seeing the community of growers come together to share tips on best practices.
There was unanimous agreement from the entire panel that the following topics are critical for consistent yield and quality when using dry salts for commercial cannabis production.
Don’t use Bro Science
As was seen during the Salt Wars panel discussion, there are many options available for dry salt fertilizers. That is why it is important to take the time to learn about each company’s philosophy.
At General Hydroponics, we are confident growers will be successful using our nutrient products – because we understand the needs of cannabis, work closely with growers to ensure products like FloraPro are effective & easy to use, and thoroughly test each product via internal R&D grow trials.
Chad Salute said it best, “You have these companies that want you to succeed. Use these experts [don’t use Bro Science].”
Cultivating Curiosity: Salt Wars!
LA, Ca | 2/22/24
