Pre Soaking PrimeAgra - Orchid Board

Becca · #1 05-07-2007, 03:41 PM

Hi Everyone, I have a quick question on pre soaking PrimeAgra. I have read on Ray's website to soak PrimeAgra overnight. On another website I read to soak it at least 24 hours. Does it really make a big difference how long the PrimeAgra is pre soaked for and why? TIA!

Ross · #2 05-07-2007, 03:44 PM

It's probably more important to assure water exchange during soaking. Several have complained about white deposites on the beads after a short while under S/H. I know I was one that got that and just soaked overnight. Next batch I'm planning to soak overnight, decant the water, soak again with new water and see if that reduces the deposits.

Becca · #3 05-07-2007, 03:50 PM

Let me know how that goes. I soaked my first batch for about 17 hours and I forgot to rinse the dust first so I was trying to rinse the dust off afterwards. The second batch I am soaking for about 24 hours and I rinsed the dust off first this time

I sure do go through alot of this stuff fast! I am working on switching all of my plants over to it since it seems like it will be much less of a headache of determining when I need to water!

Ross · #4 05-07-2007, 04:02 PM

I haven't really been all that enthralled with S/H. I went through just about as much watering, got fairly ho-hum response from most of the plants and moved them back to bark mix and they took off like gang-busters. I still think it has it's place, but I suspect it will be more for a good, airry, inert media rather than a growing regime. We'll see later on.

dennis · #5 05-07-2007, 08:12 PM

i soak all of mine overnight. i have some that has been soaking for a week and a half and have no white spots. i use rainwater if that means anything

Ross · #6 05-07-2007, 08:16 PM

I used RO water (even purer) but I think the deposits were from the medium. I remember the old post somewhere?

cb977 · #7 05-07-2007, 10:03 PM

I use only aliflor and the process goes like this for me:
1. Rinse all the dust from the material.
2. Soak it in rainwater with some KLN or Superthrive. I've soaked it for 8 hrs, 24 hrs and once it was 2 days because I forgot about it!
3. Drain it, store it in a way that allows it to dry and then put it in a separate bucket for storage.

Very rarely, a few of them will get white deposits on them...not a big deal

quiltergal · #8 05-08-2007, 01:11 PM

I just got my starter kit from Rays. If I soak it twice for 24 hrs each soak should I use plain water for the first soak drain/dry and then soak again in KLN water? I don't want to waste the KLN.

Ross · #9 05-08-2007, 01:57 PM

Try just rinsing as suggested above (with lots of pure water like rainwater) then just soak with KLN for 24 hours. I like the sound of Susanne's method. Not sure KLN really leaves a deposite behind, so wonder why one would dry it out before using?

cb977 · #10 05-08-2007, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsfrid

Try just rinsing as suggested above (with lots of pure water like rainwater) then just soak with KLN for 24 hours. I like the sound of Susanne's method. Not sure KLN really leaves a deposite behind, so wonder why one would dry it out before using?

I let it dry enough so there's not lots of moisture sitting in a plastic bucket.