90 minute Colloidal Silver production tutorial w/pics

After a great deal of research and several batches I have found a quick easy method of making your own colloidal silver for producing feminized seeds. Using this equipment and this method it took 90 minutes for me to produce 24 fl oz (3 cups) of 43 ppm colloidal silver. Here is the equipment and simple process that I used.

The Equipment

(3) 9 volt batteries assembled as shown this gives you a 27 volt power source that will last almost indefinitely


(2) pieces of .9999 pure silver. This was a 1 foot piece of 14 gage silver purchased at the local jeweler for less than $15 and then cut in half
you will also need a regular scotch brite scouring pad for cleaning the silver wire before each use


(2) wire leads with alligator clips on both ends


Electrical tape and Gorilla tape (or something to cover jar and spray bottle)


Large mouth quart jar (jar covered to protect colloidal silver from light)


Distilled water


Coffee warmer


TDS Meter ($3


Strainer and coffee filter


Covered spray bottle to protect the colloidal silver from the light



Assembled generator is shown below




I placed 3 cups of distilled water into a sterile container and microwaved it until it was hot and then placed the quart jar (covered with tape) onto the coffee warmer and put the hot water into it. This kept it at 52.2 C (126 F).

Next I placed the silver wire over the edge of the jar with the wire hanging into the distilled water. MAKE SURE that the wires are approximately 1" apart inside the jar.

I then connected the battery array to the silver wires using the alligator clips. I purposely used yellow to show that the polarity is not important, simply connect the positive terminal to one wire and the negative terminal to the other wire. At this time check the wire inside to ensure they have not moved and are still 1" apart.

I took an initial reading on the distilled water of 0 ppm and then additional ppm readings every 15 minutes with the results graphed below.





When the solution reached the desired ppm I removed the leads from the solution and the jar from the warmer and filtered the solution through a coffee filter. This did not effect the ppm reading but did remove some byproducts of the reaction as seen in the photo below. You can also see discoloration of both silver electrodes, one being grey and the other black. This can be removed before the next use by gently scrubbing with the scotch brite pad until they are shiny again.


The finished Colloidal Silver solution should be stored in a dark place until use. The silver suspension is the same chemical that was used in old time photographic plates and is rapidly degraded by light into something unusable for our purpose.


Please understand that this method is the one I use and prefer for speed, ease, and quality of the finished product. With that in mind......


The coffee warmer is optional but without it the process takes 18 - 24 hours and produces considerably more byproduct.

Some sources I read say that you do not have to use pure silver. Please keep in mind that pure silver is inexpensive and easy to obtain and that attempting to use coins or some other item to save a few dollars will not produce as safe or pure of a finished product.


I will try and keep a journal of my attempt to use colloidal silver on a clone only Trainwreck strain I have had for many years. Happy Growing everyone.

Awesome tutorial I literally just bought some .999 silver wire to make colloidal silver. I didn't know about the hot water trick I would have just left it going overnight. Make sure to keep updating I'd like to see how it works out for you.

Just bumping this after I re-installed the pictures that were locked out.

So the heat speeds up the CS production?
interesting......


My method of speeding up CS is a pinch of salt an some old CS.
Adds coductivity

whoooot

SCARHOLE said:

So the heat speeds up the CS production?
interesting......


My method of speeding up CS is a pinch of salt an some old CS.
Adds coductivity

whoooot

Click to expand...

Not whoooot......WHAAAAT?? Why on earth would you go to the trouble of using distilled water and then introduce impurities? Adding regular table salt (or anything else) to increase conductivity also introduces impurities such as calcium silicate, dextrose, and potassium iodide at a minimum. That is of course in addition to the sodium chloride (salt) which is also an impurity. Even using sea salt which is almost pure sodium chloride (it contains trace organic elements) introduces impurities and changes the chemical composition of the COLLOIDAL SILVER. Deliberately adding impurities to simply speed up the process is NOT AN ACCEPTABLE SHORTCUT and is why it was DELIBERATELY NOT MENTIONED in the tutorial.


And yes it is basic chemistry that applying heat is the laboratory method used to speed up any reaction. I worked for a government paneled USDA biological scientist doing field studies and helping her write papers for peer reviewed journals for several years. The tutorial was meant to be a SAFE and easy method to produce a pure product. Please preface any future suggestions with the actual science involved to save us both some time and aggravation.

For technical reasons (I'm technically challenged) I could not post my beloved graph of the rate of ionization. The information however is actually quite relevant so here it is. Please note that as the number of silver ions in solution increases, the rate of ionization increases. Solution temperature was kept at 126 F and readings were taken at 15 minute intervals.


Minutes PPM
00 0
15 4
30 8
45 13
60 20
75 30
90 43

I just wanted to update this thread with some pertinent information. I re-tested one of the batches after it had cooled and discovered that the heated solution gave a falsely high PPM reading, about 1 1/2 times the actual level. The solution is to run the generator until the reading is 55 - 60 PPM and then filter and let cool to room temperature before taking a reading with your TDS meter. If it happens to read more then you like just add small amounts of distilled water until you reach the desired level. Happy Pollen Making

OK folks, it took a little less then 3 weeks from the time I started spraying the colloidal silver for the plant to start showing pollen sacs. I have removed it from the flower room and will finish it off in a sunny window. I will also try to take some pictures in a few days when the nanners are larger.

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Erm... I have spoken to some chemists not long ago just about this silver hype and they were for starters all very skeptical about this method of introducing silvet to water solution.

First of all, zero EC water means it is an insulator (no electrons pass through it, no electric circuit is made and thus no electrolysis happens. It's like leaving electrodes dangling in air and expecting something to happen.

Second thing is, when you pass current through silver electrodes, no silver ions are released. This is why silver is sometimes used as a cheaper supstitute for gold or platinum eletrodes. One of the reasons those are considered precious metals is that they do not rust. Reason they don't rust is that they do not oxidise easily (oxidation is a reaction where atom releases it's electron, and that is what would happen if it electrolyze this way). In fact, much more energy is needed in order to break away the electron from a silver atom then it is to break apart a water molecule and take away its electron. So what would happen if you placed some silver electrodes into water that does conduct and run a "normal voltage" through it (normal meaning not 100 000 volts or something) is water electrolysis, where water is broken down into an oxigen molecule and two hydrogen molecules.

I don't know why EC would rise in such a situation, but I suspect it could be either the inpurities from the equipment or the CO2 from the air geting disolved and not silver ions geting disolved.
If you really wanted silver ions in water, much easier (and in fact working) solution would be just to get some silver nitrate (thats the thing used in early photography) and dilute it. Have you tried replicating your procedure without any electricity and measuring EC then? Have you tried leting everything sit for an hour and then taking measurements?

Third thing is, I don't really see why anyone would be using silver with their plants. Silver ions do act antimicrobaly and are used on some medical bandages, even house appliances for that propperty, but its effects are not by any means selective. It just oxidises other mater it comes in contact with, like chlorine or hydrogen peroxide do. Other thing is, silver is a big metal atom, and as such will in some senses have the same biological effect as a heavy metal. It will acumulate in biological tissues where it will do damage over time and will be impossible to remove. There are people that have poisoned themselves with silver and now look like a smurf as the silver has acumulated in their skin. Just google argyria. I highly doubt anything bad like that could happen by using it on your plants, but still, I'd avoid using it.

Spanky84,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water#Electrical_properties

You are correct...to a point.
There is a reason the water is heated and the wires are placed at 1" apart...pure water does have a very slight ability to conduct electricity....if it did not the impedance would be much higher than 185k ohms.
This is the reason why it takes 24 hours to produce such an extremely low ppm.

This technique can be found in many places on the internet, and there is alot of information on using collodial silver to change the sex of a plant...very interesting stuff.

Yes, there is a lot of information online, but most are tied to pseudoscientific alternative medicine claims I really don't count as reliable. As I said, even if an electrical current does pass through the electrodes, you would get hydrohen and oxygen, not silver ions as water molecule takes much less energy to break down then a silver atom, so still you would not get much more silver in that water then just by diping silver in water and leting it disolve naturaly (yes, that hapens also). Anyway, the amounts that you'd get would be so miniscule there would be no chance of any biological effect.

Untill I see a double blind study prooving that watering plants with water prepared that way has a biological effect, I remain very skeptical.

No medicinal claims are being made in this thread.
The process by which MANY people make collodial silver has been presented.
The use of this collodial silver is to change the sex of a plant by applying the silver to A BRANCH of the plant at a specific point on the structure of the plant...not by watering the plant with the silver.

The process works by altering the sex of a female branch to male. It is allowed to produce pollen sacs, the pollen is harvested and used to polinate the female flowers on the same plant. The plant has technically just impregnated itself, a process that does not occur often in nature...the resulting seeds are "feminized."

Spanky84 said:

Yes, there is a lot of information online, but most are tied to pseudoscientific alternative medicine claims I really don't count as reliable. As I said, even if an electrical current does pass through the electrodes, you would get hydrohen and oxygen, not silver ions as water molecule takes much less energy to break down then a silver atom, so still you would not get much more silver in that water then just by diping silver in water and leting it disolve naturaly (yes, that hapens also). Anyway, the amounts that you'd get would be so miniscule there would be no chance of any biological effect.
Untill I see a double blind study prooving that watering plants with water prepared that way has a biological effect, I remain very skeptical.

Click to expand...

Dude, really, he's talking about using the colloidal silver to produce male pollen sacs on a female plant. That pollen can then be used to fertilize another (or a bud on the same) female plant. The resulting seeds would be all female.

People do use this shit for "health" purposes but I don't advocate it myself because I'd rather not end up looking like Papa Smurf. It's also said you shouldn't smoke any bud that's been sprayed with colloidal silver...I can't find any valid literature as to why you shouldn't but it would probably taste awful anyway. In any case, he's not advocating that you consume any of the plant matter...so what "double blind test" would you propose? You either spray the plant or you don't. With the former you produce pollen to make female seeds; with the later you don't. Simple. He never said anything about watering the plants with it.

Why bust the OP's balls? And if his DIY idea helps somebody out then where's the harm?

Spanky84 said:

Erm... I have spoken to some chemists not long ago just about this silver hype and they were for starters all very skeptical about this method of introducing silvet to water solution.

First of all, zero EC water means it is an insulator (no electrons pass through it, no electric circuit is made and thus no electrolysis happens. It's like leaving electrodes dangling in air and expecting something to happen.

Second thing is, when you pass current through silver electrodes, no silver ions are released. This is why silver is sometimes used as a cheaper supstitute for gold or platinum eletrodes. One of the reasons those are considered precious metals is that they do not rust. Reason they don't rust is that they do not oxidise easily (oxidation is a reaction where atom releases it's electron, and that is what would happen if it electrolyze this way). In fact, much more energy is needed in order to break away the electron from a silver atom then it is to break apart a water molecule and take away its electron. So what would happen if you placed some silver electrodes into water that does conduct and run a "normal voltage" through it (normal meaning not 100 000 volts or something) is water electrolysis, where water is broken down into an oxigen molecule and two hydrogen molecules.

I don't know why EC would rise in such a situation, but I suspect it could be either the inpurities from the equipment or the CO2 from the air geting disolved and not silver ions geting disolved.
If you really wanted silver ions in water, much easier (and in fact working) solution would be just to get some silver nitrate (thats the thing used in early photography) and dilute it. Have you tried replicating your procedure without any electricity and measuring EC then? Have you tried leting everything sit for an hour and then taking measurements?

Third thing is, I don't really see why anyone would be using silver with their plants. Silver ions do act antimicrobaly and are used on some medical bandages, even house appliances for that propperty, but its effects are not by any means selective. It just oxidises other mater it comes in contact with, like chlorine or hydrogen peroxide do. Other thing is, silver is a big metal atom, and as such will in some senses have the same biological effect as a heavy metal. It will acumulate in biological tissues where it will do damage over time and will be impossible to remove. There are people that have poisoned themselves with silver and now look like a smurf as the silver has acumulated in their skin. Just google argyria. I highly doubt anything bad like that could happen by using it on your plants, but still, I'd avoid using it.

Click to expand...

I will add 2 things to the very vigorous and much appreciated defense of my thread. First is my method is used to produce a relatively pure solution of colloidal sivler. Using silver nitrate or anything other than pure 99.99 silver introduces impurities and in doing so precludes you from producing a standardized solution with a constant silver ion concentration. The second point is your misunderstanding of the process beginning with the mistaken idea that it is used to water the plant, it is not. It is sprayed on the nodes where buds will form as they are forming. The colloidal silver inhibits the production of ethylene which is necessary for making pistils and eventually the flowering plant produces a pollen sac that contains ONLY female chromosomes and can only produce female plants.

It isn't rocket science.....but it is science, not I heard from a guy.

Ok, I'm just saying, I spoke to more then one chemist about this and they all said that they don't see how passing electricity through silver would do anything to produce silver solution or coloid. Chemistry is in practice not as exact as they teach you in a classroom, so there might be some strange machanism that actually makes this work, but as I said, I'm very skeptical. If someone wants to really check, you can make a side by side comparison. make a sollution with this technique, make another but without electricity, and the third with pure distilled water. Put them in identical bottles and have a friend label them with numbers so that only he knows which is which. Then do a side by side comparison with several plants, write down your results and then check which solution have you actually decided worked the best.

THANKS NOW I DO NOT HAVE TO LIGHT STRESS ANYMORE....so the seeds are super stable I am assuming. I am going to do this right away.

Spanky84 said:

Ok, I'm just saying, I spoke to more then one chemist about this and they all said that they don't see how passing electricity through silver would do anything to produce silver solution or coloid. Chemistry is in practice not as exact as they teach you in a classroom, so there might be some strange machanism that actually makes this work, but as I said, I'm very skeptical. If someone wants to really check, you can make a side by side comparison. make a sollution with this technique, make another but without electricity, and the third with pure distilled water. Put them in identical bottles and have a friend label them with numbers so that only he knows which is which. Then do a side by side comparison with several plants, write down your results and then check which solution have you actually decided worked the best.

Click to expand...

So chemistry isn't an exact science eh? Interesting take. Why don't you do your own meaningless comparison and get back to me with the results at a later date. The process works, spraying the colloidal silver that I made using this commonly used and vigorously researched technique has produced several dozen female pollen sacs which I will now use to pollinate an identical clone and produce female seed. You on the other hand should go and talk to some more chemists or meth heads or whomever the F&$k you are getting your bad information from and not actually do anything or offer sound advice.

Spanky84 said:

Ok, I'm just saying, I spoke to more then one chemist about this and they all said that they don't see how passing electricity through silver would do anything to produce silver solution or coloid. Chemistry is in practice not as exact as they teach you in a classroom, so there might be some strange machanism that actually makes this work, but as I said, I'm very skeptical. If someone wants to really check, you can make a side by side comparison. make a sollution with this technique, make another but without electricity, and the third with pure distilled water. Put them in identical bottles and have a friend label them with numbers so that only he knows which is which. Then do a side by side comparison with several plants, write down your results and then check which solution have you actually decided worked the best.

Click to expand...

FYI I found this here ([SIZE=+0] http://educate-yourself.org/cs/csarticle2.shtml ) The method I described is the low voltage electolysis.

The first type of product is the classic, original kind, usually called "electro-colloidal silver." This product is made either by the "electro-arc" method in deionized water, or by the "low voltage electrolysis" method in distilled water. This product is usually found in concentrations between 3-5 ppm (parts per million), but sometimes as high as 100 ppm. Properly made, this product consists of microscopic particles of pure, elemental silver suspended in water, with no other elements present. Each particle of silver carries a POSITIVE electrical charge. Colloidal silver made this way appears either transparent-clear or transparent-light yellow.[/SIZE]

Silver nitrate would definitely be interesting to try. If you have nitric acid based pH down, you could probably put some silver shavings in the nitric acid to make silver nitrate, then dilute that before spraying.

Interesting to know you can use colloidal silver to induce male flowers though.