Growers Ark - Extra Traces - cloudy?

[nigelpotter]

I have noticed that when I get to about 1/4 way through 5 litres of extra traces that it loses its transparent yellow/pee colour and then turns red and by about half way through it is cloudy. I have still used to no visibly ill effects but does seem to make the nutrient solution go a little cloudy. I make sure to use clean pipettes etc when using. Takes me around 3/4 months to use up the 5 litres.

 

  I am assuming this the iron in the solution oxidizing? 

[Owderb]

I use the same size and have done for a while now and have never had what you describe?

 

Could it be being kept in extreme conditions like too hot for instance

 

Owd

 

 

[nigelpotter]

I thought it might have been a dud batch but had three now and they have all done it stored at room temp.

 

Maybe I should bottle up in 1l or 2l bottles so I am not going into the 5l all the time.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by nigelpotter

[Guest]

Central heating pipes under my floor caused this a few years back.Infact I think it caused me grief with all the food tbh.It went a rusty colour.If that makes sense.Was fine though.Moved my plant food back to

 

its normal place, next batch  was fine.Youve got to give the traces a bloody good shake ,I find to keep it consistent to the end.

[kronic420]

Mine does the same turns orange and stains the inside of the bottle, doesn’t seem to bother the plants tho.

 

[GSZZ]

I've noticed the liquid going orange, it's always worked and I've never thought nothing of it. I have seen almost like black strands of mold in it, but I put that down to me not being as anal as I could be and using the same measuring cup for everything. 

[kronic420]

@Golden SyrupI get the black stuff as well it’s hard to describe like black stringy stuff like something hasn’t broken down probably when it’s made, the black stuffs been in every bottle of first feed iv used always in the A bottle, this is my first time finding it in extra traces though. 

 

Iv brought direct from growers ark and different grow shops so it can’t be the grow shops storing it incorrectly. 

 

I usally end up poring a bit out at a time a sucking up any of the black stuff into a syringe to dispose off, fuck knows what it is.

[Grimweeder]

 

On 17/04/2018 at 11:05 PM, kronic420 said:

@Golden SyrupI get the black stuff as well it’s hard to describe like black stringy stuff like something hasn’t broken down probably when it’s made, the black stuffs been in every bottle of first feed iv used always in the A bottle, this is my first time finding it in extra traces though. 

 

Iv brought direct from growers ark and different grow shops so it can’t be the grow shops storing it incorrectly. 

 

I usally end up poring a bit out at a time a sucking up any of the black stuff into a syringe to dispose off, fuck knows what it is.

 I know this is an old thread but I wanted to share my experience. I have found the exact same black stuff in my traces and also in my bottle of “spray it.” 

I have found it in every bottle of traces I’ve had in the last year or so an I’ve had a few 1l bottles as they sent me 3 as replacements once. All of which had the black stuff in. It’s like a fungal mould and almost looks like a load of dust got in there which is what I first thought it was but it’s not dust or random fluff.
 

I first thought it was my storage so kept it in the fridge for 6 months, but Both bottles still had it. I then ordered a brand new bottle from them with my next order and checked it straight away and it also had a load of black stuff in it. I have filtered it out of one bottle and it is just a dark grey/mostly black stringy fluffy stuff that really looks like some sort of mould of fungal growth. that same bottle some 6 months later now is unusable and gone all weird. Deep rusty colour but with loads of flakey bits in ice never seen happen before like this. the other bottle I had kept unused but opened  is still fine but has the black stuff in but looks the same as day1 a year later nearly so it seems removing the black stuff had a negative effect on it. 
 

I have also reported this to growers ark on several occasions to just find out what it is and if it’s harmful or just normal ( I think if it’s not fungal spores or growth it’s possible some undissolved ingredients) but they don’t even know what is as they keep saying they can’t find any bottles with it in and have not had anyone else report it. It’s really annoying and so I’ve switched to house and garden nutes as it looks too fungal spore like for my liking. I also had to switch as they were not open during lockdown so there’s that. Can’t say I’m gonna go back tho tbh. I seem to be getting much better results from h&g nutes and I think the black stuff may have effected it as I had great results before I noticed this black mouldy stuff in my nutes

 

i also have a first feed A ( small amount left) ive has that for a while but it’s still clear and has no black stuff in. It’s odd how you have it in that stuff And traces and I have it in spray it and every bottle of traces (about 5) in the last year or so.  Only got spray it once so don’t know if it was common or not. 

[SYZYGY]

@Grimweeder

 

I've had it too. The first time I noticed was with the last 1/4 of a 5l bottle of Traces. Rusty orange and cloudy and with those black bits. I assumed I'd been careless with contamination and ditched it. Happened again during the hot weather and again thought I was at fault - ditched a 3/4 full bottle as I was having some mangled new growth and wanted to play it safe. Replaced with a 10l bottle as I get through a lot. 1/4 way in (I've been militant about cross-contamination and storage temps) and fucker has turned from clear straw piss colour to rusty orange and cloudy again! 

 

I've ditched a 5l of CalMag in the past too for the same reason - rusty with black bits. At the time my plants were showing Mg and Ca deficiencies and again wanted to play it safe. The value of nutes I've thrown away this year is shocking now I think about it. 

 

Worrying that they don't know what it is. Maybe they've had no negative feedback as anyone who's found it is quietly moving away from GA? 

 

I've had good results from GA feed, but it's involved a lot of faffing around, and the use of Boost It to get the balance right. I've been thinking of switching...

Edited July 13, 2020 by SYZYGY

[Grimweeder]

Just now, SYZYGY said:

@Grimweeder

 

I've had it too. The first time I noticed was with the last 1/4 of a 5l bottle of Traces. Rusty orange and cloudy and with those black bits. I assumed I'd been careless with contamination and ditched it. Happened again during the hot weather and again thought my I was at fault, I ditched a 3/4 full bottle as I was having some mangled new growth and wanted to play it safe. Replaced with a 10l bottle as I get through a lot. 1/4 way in (I've been militant about cross-contamination and storage temps) and fucker has turned from clear straw piss colour to rusty orange and cloudy again! 

 

I've ditched a 5l of CalMag in the past too for the same reason - rusty with black bits. At the time my plants were showing Mg and Ca deficiencies and again wanted to play it safe. The value of nutes I've thrown away this year is shocking now I think about it. 

 

Worrying that they don't know what it is. Maybe they've had no negative feedback as anyone who's found it is quietly moving away from GA? 

 

I've had good results from GA feed, but it's involved a lot of faffing around, and the use of Boost It to get the balance right. I've been thinking of switching...

Oh yea those black bits are there without the rust colour too mate. I got brand new bottles of 1 litre so smaller Bottles and you can see the bottom of the bottle when you look in and at the bottom floating on the bottom is all the black stringy stuff even when it’s the nice fresh colour and yellowy greenish/clear and no orange rust or cloudiness.

if you shake it up it will mix a bit but you still can see it when measuring out just in much smaller amounts. They sent replacements once and all 3 1litre bottles had the same problem from the day I received them, So it’s defo not storage mate.
 

Tbh you don’t have much to loose by switching. Try it on a smaller batch and see how you get on if you don’t get on as good then you can switch back easily enough.  I gave up on it an switched as I kept trying to get them to look into it but they didn’t seem to care an I was buying direct from growers ark so wasn’t reporting to a grow shop.

 

All I know is that  If they were my nutes I made I’d want to know wtf was floating at the bottom of my bottles causing customers to complain tho. 
 

glad to know I’m not the only person experiencing it and it’s not something I’ve done along the way with storage or the delivery as I’ve tried storing in various ways at various temps. 

[Grimweeder]

If you want to see some pics let me know an il get some taken and uploaded. I probably already have some taken actually from when I filtered it all out. if I still have them Il post them a bit later today as I’m bit busy right now.

[SYZYGY]

1 minute ago, Grimweeder said:

If you want to see some pics let me know an il get some taken and uploaded. I probably already have some taken actually from when I filtered it all out. if I still have them Il post them a bit later today as I’m bit busy right now.

 

No thanks dude, I've seen it one too many times already!

 

I started off my coco trip with Canna, then Ionic. Results weren't as good but that is more likely down to my inexperience at the time. But it was definitely far less hassle, and far cheaper. 

 

I wanted to love Grower's Ark (they do have lovely branding ) but it definitely feels like time to switch for me, for multiple reasons.

[Guest]

Never had any issues tbh, nothing I can blame on the nutrients anyway. 

[kronic420]

@Grimweederi ended up changing nutes to Dutch pro as I kept getting bad nute separation in my res with lots of sediment blocking up pipework/filters, growers ark did try and help with what could of been going on and sent some custom feed out to me but it didn’t help.

 

since changing nutes I don’t get any more problems with separation. 

 

 

 

[HippyHair]

I'm going to change from growers ark to intense nutes, as i'm getting a lot of sediment as well.

 

I'm going to continue with there extra traces though.

Edited July 14, 2020 by HippyHair