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Clogged Drip Emitters... silica?
Hey all! So I have a new issue that I am hoping for some perspective on. For context, I fertigate through a pc emitter drip system into coco in my greenhouse. I've been doing this for years without issues. However, more recently I have started having some clogging. Yay. I flushed the system and found what appears to be small silica or quartz in a white substance? I had a deposit in one of my 200 mesh filters and took a pic. Can anyone confirm that the tiny reflective element in the pic is likely silica? If not, any idea what else it might be? There is nothing reflective that I see in any of our ferts. We do inject potassium silicate along with pot carb/hydrox for our pH adjust. It's never been an issue, but I did recently repair the injector/sensor. It is injecting more than it has in the past, but not that much more. My next though is to take the sample that clogged the emitter, mix with some RO and send off for water analysis to confirm. However, Clemson doesn't test for silica I believe...so will need to find a lab that will or maybe a lab that will test the dry material? In the meantime, I have reduced the amount of pot silicate to see if it helps. All thoughts are appreciated!
Update: It appears to be calcium phosphate...a result of higher amounts of MPK and Cal Nitrate in one of my early flower recipes. I have resolved the clogging by lowering my early flower EC and reducing the calcium inputs. Thank you for the assist!
Side note: I recently purchased one of the mid infrared Neospectra units for analysis. It does nutrient analysis in leaves...not just cannabinoids. This thing is a game changer! I tested leaves and made changes to my recipes in under an hour. They also have incredible support.
Allison,
A little late into this thread... we have customers with these same issues in their irrigation systems. Our latest customer that brought this to our attention was having ongoing problems with check valves clogging, servo motor controlled valves breaking and emitters plugging up... In further investigation, it appears that they were getting pieces of sediment and crystalized particles that were breaking loose from somewhere in their irrigation system, but they couldn't track down the exact source. This buildup happened even with periodic line flushes using a number of different acid based products... this particular customer had always thought his lines were clean, but was still had these same issues.
Things really started to change about 2 weeks after starting a regulated injection of PRO-OXINE Horticulture into their irrigation system, At first they were seeing very large pieces of this substance collect in their line filters, then shortly after this observation their entire irrigation system was clean. Since then, with a steady low dose of PRO-OXINE Horticulture their irrigation system is staying clean, with no sign of any sediment deposit buildup. With such good results, they no longer do any after-harvest line soaking/flushing.
I hope this might add a little clarity to this discussion.