Triacontanol

[Laphroaig]

I've got a couple of grams of this stuff and some polysorbate-20 to dissolve it in. However I'm reading some very varied recommendations for usage in a foliar spray ranging from one part per billion to 25 parts per million. I think the math is:

1 part per million = 1g of Triacontanol dissolved a cubic meter of water or 1,000 litres.

So these 2 grams are going to last a very long time, even at the maximum rate i've found recommended, 25 ppm, by my reckoning it's enough to make 80 litres of foliar spray! If it's one part per billion, a lifetime supply?

So that's the first thing, can anyone tell me what concentration I should use in a foliar spray (and is my math correct so far)?

Should I just apply it once or every few days? One of the papers I saw (coincidentally the one that recommends 1 ppb) said just to apply it once, whereas I've read other people have been spraying every few weeks from seedlings right through to week 5 of 12/12.

Now to the actual practicalities of this adventure, the electronic scales I got only measure hundredths of a gram (and I'm dubious of their accuracy for that). I weighed a king size Rizla at 0.09g and added 0.01g of triacontanol to make it up to 0.1g. I took the 0.01g of triacontanol and dissolved it in 2ml of polysorbate-20. I added the mixture to a litre of water, which by my calculation gives me a 10 ppm solution, which isn't anywhere near halfway between the highest and lowest recommendations, but it's a nice round number and as good as any I've seen so far as a place to start.

I'm going to leave it a couple of days before I start squirting it about so I can pick your brains in an attempt to gain clarity and vision before resorting to a wild stab in the dark.

Peace

[Laphroaig]

Okay I guess I'm on my own then... in that case I'm going to add a few more names to the list and do my due diligence on them all. But this is briefly what I have so far.

Triacontanol - Apparently one of the the magic ingredients in Canna Boost, it enhances not only flower and bud development but the whole plant development too, roots and all, gets the plants metabolism on overtime and brings in an extra shift, allegedly. In the nutrient solution minute amounts are needed for its optimum effect, one part per billion to one part per million.

When used as a foliar spray there seems to be more elbow room, with concentrations ranging from 1 to 25 ppm. Seems to be more effective delivered in a spray too, in tomatoes anyway, it produced twice the increase in yield compared to feeding it to the roots. You can also mix it up a bit and combine it with other plant growth regulators like.

Brassinolide - General growth enhancer for vegetative growth only, enhances root growth and increases resistance to stress and disease. Recommended usage 1 to 5 ppb (yeah that's parts per billion) as a foliar spray every 2-3 weeks.

6-Benzylaminopurine - Has several effects, in vegetative growth it produces stronger vascular system, thicker stronger stems, bigger leaves at 300 ppm. At 2000 ppm it apparently stimulates side branches to grow as if you had pinched the top of the plant. In flowering a 300 ppm spray just at the end of week 4 significantly enhances bud development.

Despite having a low ceiling I'm going to avoid growth regulators like Mepiquat Chloride, they probably do make a difference, but have had a very bad press, so I'm just going to have to judge the canopy naturally I'm inclined to think that there's not much risk actually, I'm sure tobacco poses a far greater health risk for me personally, but for the moment I'll content myself with the "safe" ones.

Because I'm going to be using very small quantities, a gram or two of each is going to last a very long time. Anyway back to the research.

Peace

[Ronnie the roach]

Foliar spraying frequently may not be beneficial due to blocking the stomata gland, once every week should suffice. It may be beneficial to spray 24 hrs after with pure water as a rinse.

[Laphroaig]

Foliar spraying frequently may not be beneficial due to blocking the stomata gland, once every week should suffice. It may be beneficial to spray 24 hrs after with pure water as a rinse.

I agree, Ideally I'd like to spray every couple of weeks, perhaps alternate with nutrient changes. I just need to organise the spraying schedule so they're due for a final spray at the end of week 4 of 12/12, just before I hit them with the PK13/14.

[Laphroaig]

Time for an update.

Dilution rates do my freaking gourd in! Seriously, math has never been one of my strong points but this has to be one of my pet hates. I finally ended up dissolving 0.2g of tria in polysorbate 20 and adding the cooled mixture to a litre of water for my stock solution. For foliar spray I take 5ml of the stock solution and add it to a litre of water which gives a final concerntration of 1ppm or 1mg per litre by my reckoning.

My initial impression from just using tria on its own in vegetative growth is very positive, 24 hours after spraying its effect was evident with the pronounced development of masses of side shoots, it gives the impression that it has stopped growing upwards because the side shoots appear so close together. The effect wears off after a day or two and growth returns to normal again. Has me thinking I could get away with doing it weekly ... maybe.

I've no way to quantify root development but I've no complaints, I decided to strip early this time, just a week into 12/12 whereas I'd usually wait another week but I've been reading that they never really recover their full vigour afterwards with the short growing cycle and that the sooner you can get the trauma of stripping out of the way, the better. As part of the strip I also trim any roots from the bottom of the 11 litre pots as I'm in an IWS flood and drain system and don't want them growing into and blocking the feed pipe. Anyway I removed a nice thick mat of roots from beneath each pot and cleared a couple of feed pipes, I'll do a check in a couple of weeks time but hopefully I won't need to scrape the bottom of the pots again.

A couple of days after stripping I sprayed them again this time I added 1g of 0.1% Brassinolide powder to the Triacontanol solution, nice and easy as it's water soluble for a change. The flowers are just beginning to form and it felt like the appropriate time to hit them again to try to maximise the flowering sites.

Brassinolide is a naturally occurring plant steroid, it's essential for growth, it's deficiency produces dwarfism in plants and it provides added resistance to stress. It degrades very quickly in liquid form so it is best to mix it from powder as you need it.

I'm going to be very interested to see what my yield is like this time as I'm just running with GHE Flora for the first time after swapping from Canna nutrients. No boost, zyme or rhizo, just doing it on the basic nutrients. Plus whatever this wierd and wonderful foliar spraying produces.

Peace

Edited June 29, 2014 by Laphroaig

[Laphroaig]

I feel like Jack, the morning after he took the cow to market. Have no room left, they grew 6" in all directions, not just up but sideways too, literally overnight. Brassinolide is mental stuff, you have to try it ! Branches seem to have thickened noticeably too with lots of new foliage. I'm going to have to try hitting them with the BAP-6 early in an attempt to stop the growth and encourage early flower set whilst I still have a few inches of headroom available.

Peace

[Guest Kipper420]

I feel like Jack, the morning after he took the cow to market. Have no room left, they grew 6" in all directions, not just up but sideways too, literally overnight. Brassinolide is mental stuff, you have to try it ! Branches seem to have thickened noticeably too with lots of new foliage. I'm going to have to try hitting them with the BAP-6 early in an attempt to stop the growth and encourage early flower set whilst I still have a few inches of headroom available.

Peace

Just want to pipe in that I think you're doing some good work mate! I'd be interested in this Brassinolide stuff if it could be used to quicken the veg cycle, especially if its bushing plants out in every which way!

[Laphroaig]

It's scary mental stuff, I literally couldn't believe my eyes, had to close the door, count to ten and then open it again and look just to make sure I wasn't tripping! Just hope I can stop them as easily as I got 'em started. Brassinolide is the plant steroid that makes plants look like they're on steroids!

Peace

[Guest Kipper420]

It's scary mental stuff, I literally couldn't believe my eyes, had to close the door, count to ten and then open it again and look just to make sure I wasn't tripping! Just hope I can stop them as easily as I got 'em started. Brassinolide is the plant steroid that makes plants look like they're on steroids!

Peace

Awesome! Can you shed some light on the differences between these 'safe' PGRs and the unsafe ones? I see shops selling OG/ROX etc and I've seen the result... it looks like its going to cause you harm. How do the safer ones differ? (I do know that tricantonol is safe, and is made from honey?)

I'm treading into unknown territory here.. sorry if I seem a bit slack!

[Laphroaig]

I'm not really that well read or experienced to be giving any advice on the subject. I only began researching them myself a few weeks ago. On subject of "safe" PGR's, that kinda depends on your definition. I just read the blurb and see what effect each has, if it makes 'em hermie or can cause other stuff I don't want I've tended to avoid until I've a little more experience.

What I will say is if you are going to try 'em keep it simple. You don't need to formulate the ultimate foliar spray with a bit of everything in there. Besides I'm fairly certain that their effects are altered when used in conjunction with one another. I've found they seem to work best if you spray with one PGR and then wait a couple of days before spraying with the next.

The growth inhibitors are generally speaking the ones I'm having most problems with as they seem to have the highest associated health risks from consumption/smoking despite the fact that the amounts needed to have an effect as with all PGR's are minute. (To make up a single litre of spray is often impossible without an intermediate step because I can't weigh quantities smaller than 0.01g on my cheap electronic scales and the final dilutions I need are in the 0.001g per litre range.) Still I'm going to have to decide on one to use in future as I need some breaks on this wagon. I spent last night taking the grow room apart and putting it back together so I could squeeze a few more inches of headroom in there. The brassinolide really makes them go mental, bloody things won't stop growing, will have to get my machete out after the weekend if they don't calm down a bit.

If I'm honest, Triacontanol, Brassinolide and 6-Benzylaminopurine seem, at this point anyway, to be everything a body could ever wish for. I've been amazed every time I've got the spray bottle out. The biggest win is the money, buying these PGR's as powders and preparing them yourself will save a fortune. £1 per gram or there abouts compared to the £160+ you shell out for 5 litres of Boost. The other thing is that I can literally see the effects of spraying within a day or two, whereas I've used Boost for years without any real evidence that it does anything at all . It certainly hasn't produced anything like the startling results I've seen from using the PGR's so far anyway.

Tria is a fatty alcohol C₃₀H₆₂O, it is found in beeswax and plant cuticle, but for commercial usage it is manufactured.

Peace

[Happydayz]

Sorry to revive you're old thread here @@Laphroaig , but Triacontanol is gold dust I wasn't that experienced in the field either, but luckily was showed the ropes by a very good friend of mine. The key i've found is smaller amounts worked best, and longer spacing between sprays. do you mix yours with Polysorbate 20? - I've came across several different methods to this, all which work well. Have you any experience with Chlormequat Chloride? - seen good results with slowing down the stretch and bringing on flowering, perfect if you like them lankey buggers

I've been messing around with plant hormones for a while now(have a lot of time on my hands these days), a few things have gone wrong and things have been lost, and granted I haven't got it all correct, but thats the part of life I love, trial and error, no better way to learn. Anyway one thing i'd like to share for anyone who has problems with germinating old seeds, is Gibberellic ACID or (ga3). I've kept many old seeds and strains for longer then is recommended, and they can be a b*stard to crack.. or not crack at all.. lost many to this, before i done research and found people using ga3 to germinate seeds and take off small clones.. and it works a treat.

I soak my seeds which I want to germinate first in a soution of ga3, (200ppm) for 24 hours. Compared to unsoaked seeds, the soaked seeds germinate much faster, and the grow seems alot better.
Also use ga3 for rooted clones, once established (around 10 days) using as a foilar spray (around 30ppm) Which makes them literally take off, the problem with ga3 is most growth is in the form of 'stretching' which isnt always diserable, so except for seeds and clones, i wouldn't advise using it again.

There is said to be other uses for ga3 with the plant, including introducing male flowers on a female plant.. but i don't know or haven't done any research on that.

Anyway my arms starting to hurt now, enough rambling

all the best man,

Bubblez

[ggallin]

Sorry to revive you're old thread here @@Laphroaig , but Triacontanol is gold dust I wasn't that experienced in the field either, but luckily was showed the ropes by a very good friend of mine. The key i've found is smaller amounts worked best, and longer spacing between sprays. do you mix yours with Polysorbate 20? - I've came across several different methods to this, all which work well. Have you any experience with Chlormequat Chloride? - seen good results with slowing down the stretch and bringing on flowering, perfect if you like them lankey buggers

I've been messing around with plant hormones for a while now(have a lot of time on my hands these days), a few things have gone wrong and things have been lost, and granted I haven't got it all correct, but thats the part of life I love, trial and error, no better way to learn. Anyway one thing i'd like to share for anyone who has problems with germinating old seeds, is Gibberellic ACID or (ga3). I've kept many old seeds and strains for longer then is recommended, and they can be a b*stard to crack.. or not crack at all.. lost many to this, before i done research and found people using ga3 to germinate seeds and take off small clones.. and it works a treat.

I soak my seeds which I want to germinate first in a soution of ga3, (200ppm) for 24 hours. Compared to unsoaked seeds, the soaked seeds germinate much faster, and the grow seems alot better.

Also use ga3 for rooted clones, once established (around 10 days) using as a foilar spray (around 30ppm) Which makes them literally take off, the problem with ga3 is most growth is in the form of 'stretching' which isnt always diserable, so except for seeds and clones, i wouldn't advise using it again.

There is said to be other uses for ga3 with the plant, including introducing male flowers on a female plant.. but i don't know or haven't done any research on that.

Anyway my arms starting to hurt now, enough rambling

all the best man,

Bubblez

nice work m8, your a cannabis alchemist by the sounds

[Happydayz]

Hehe I wish mate, I can't take much credit for the things I've learnt. I was fortunate to learn everything from somebody. I still ask him the odd question here and there when I'm stuck but he is very much a cannabis chemist.

All the best man

[SpartaGrow]

How do you recommend using Brassinolide ? Mix it with water and spray it? Can I also mix triacontanol in that water too?

What about use during flowering?

[Guest]

bump. So im going ahead with this triacontanol, at between 1 and 25 ppm. im going for 10-12ish

Are there any other opinions on regularity of application ?

Edited December 30, 2016 by lukio