BobCajun
Well-Known Member
I've been seeing some stuff that suggests to me that ascorbic acid might just increase growth substantially. First I read in an article called All About Hemp the following.
"2.10 ~ Growth Stimulants
The B-vitamins (1 ppm solution) increase the yield of hempseed and its fat content, but somewhat suppresses the growth of leaves, stems, and seed hulls. Potassium permanganate in weak solutions stimulates the development of cannabis in all its phases. Dilute camphor also stimulates plant growth. Vitamin C (1-5 parts in 10,000 water) has the same effect."
Only the vitamin C part is important but I included the rest for context. The permanganate and camphor parts seem very questionable to me. I suppose in soil it might increase potassium and manganese levels. Pretty toxic though so I wouldn't bother. Anyway, so I started searching about it and the first thing I found was this;
"THE effect of vitamin C on plants was studied with sterile plant cultures. 40 mg of crystalline ascorbic acid was added to the liquid medium. It was found that the dry weight of the treated plants was about 35–75 per cent higher than that of the controls. The differences were greatest during flowering. The treated plants also snowed a much higher content of vitamin C, particularly at the early stages. These results are illustrated by the table below. It is pointed out that the observed increase of growth is specifically due to ascorbic acid, and not merely to an addition of organic material to the inorganic medium, since a similar addition of glucose effected no increase in the growth of the plants." source
That's all I read so far. Looks like it may have potential. I got a bottle of calcium ascorbate so I'll try it out a little and see what happens. It's better than plain ascorbic acid because it's neutral pH and also supplies calcium. Incidentally it also works to convert free chlorine in tap water into chloride. It's pretty much instantaneous. You put about 2 mg, barely enough to see, into a liter/quart of tap water and you can't smell chlorine at all anymore. My only concern is that it may react with nutes in some way. Maybe just occasional applications.
"2.10 ~ Growth Stimulants
The B-vitamins (1 ppm solution) increase the yield of hempseed and its fat content, but somewhat suppresses the growth of leaves, stems, and seed hulls. Potassium permanganate in weak solutions stimulates the development of cannabis in all its phases. Dilute camphor also stimulates plant growth. Vitamin C (1-5 parts in 10,000 water) has the same effect."
Only the vitamin C part is important but I included the rest for context. The permanganate and camphor parts seem very questionable to me. I suppose in soil it might increase potassium and manganese levels. Pretty toxic though so I wouldn't bother. Anyway, so I started searching about it and the first thing I found was this;
"THE effect of vitamin C on plants was studied with sterile plant cultures. 40 mg of crystalline ascorbic acid was added to the liquid medium. It was found that the dry weight of the treated plants was about 35–75 per cent higher than that of the controls. The differences were greatest during flowering. The treated plants also snowed a much higher content of vitamin C, particularly at the early stages. These results are illustrated by the table below. It is pointed out that the observed increase of growth is specifically due to ascorbic acid, and not merely to an addition of organic material to the inorganic medium, since a similar addition of glucose effected no increase in the growth of the plants." source
That's all I read so far. Looks like it may have potential. I got a bottle of calcium ascorbate so I'll try it out a little and see what happens. It's better than plain ascorbic acid because it's neutral pH and also supplies calcium. Incidentally it also works to convert free chlorine in tap water into chloride. It's pretty much instantaneous. You put about 2 mg, barely enough to see, into a liter/quart of tap water and you can't smell chlorine at all anymore. My only concern is that it may react with nutes in some way. Maybe just occasional applications.
