# How many times to rise with botanicare's clearex



## muaythaibanger (Jul 29, 2010)

I'v bought 2 bottles of clearex to use in some of my soil outdoors I had used the soil to grow in last year .The plants aren't doing very well.About one third smaller than ones in fresh soil i put in the holes this year because of nutrient salts.

My question to anyone who's used clearex or a similar product is how many soaks should I use? And can you overuse this stuff like nutes and damage plants?

I used it once so far.I'v used the max (15 ml per gallon) it says on the directions. ​


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## muaythaibanger (Jul 30, 2010)

Anybody got anything?


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## buraka415 (Aug 1, 2010)

how long did you grow in the original soil mix? what size containers? 

you might need to re-amend the soil. 

i've been told anywhere from every month to every 7 - 10 days. Supposed to get significant run-off according to the label and ppl I knew. 

You can't really 'over-fert' with Clearex - its a salt leaching solution. 

i tried re-using soil 1 cycle, and it wasnt good. I even did re-amend, but maybe not enough, maybe not the right thing(s) - who knows.

what are you feeding the current plants? how often? etc.


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## muaythaibanger (Aug 1, 2010)

buraka415 said:


> how long did you grow in the original soil mix? what size containers?
> 
> you might need to re-amend the soil.
> 
> ...


Its holes in the ground.Large.Like 8 cubic feet(1 bale each hole)

I grew in them last year.Figured they do OK this year,but I guess there's to much nutrient salt build up and have nutrient lock.When I loosened the soil this spring before I put the plants in,there wasn't any earthworms in the holes.They Probably stay away from the salts.

I know I can't "over fert" with clearex.What I meant was can you damage plants with to much use.

I'm feeding AN 3 part mix every 10-14 days or so and gave them a handfull of AN heavy harvest slow release after they were in in late june.

After this years growing season,I think I'm going to spent about 200-300 dollars on clearex and flush maybe half the holes.The other holes I will add about half the amount of new soil.I have about 80 holes so it's alot of work to replace all the soil.

I think the clearex would work after a 3-4 rinses as far as the nutrient salt problem.
But do you think have to add so kind of beneficial bacteria and microorganism solutiuon to the soil like mycorrhaizae or something like that?


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## sixstring2112 (Aug 1, 2010)

3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks is all you need.sounds like you need to remove all that crap soil, and start fresh next season.You really dont want much ferts of any kind outdoors unless your in the desert.And yes too much clearex will make your plants sick as all get out.


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## iscrog4food (Aug 2, 2010)

what i would do is give them a good solid flush with the clearex. Then next planting season simply take 80 or 160 bags of soil (depending on the size of your plants) and simply lay the bags down on top of each hole. IF you really dont want to do much leave the soil in the bag and just cut open the bottom and plant in the top. when you harvest remove the bags and each year you will build up more soil and the base soil will get better and better. ALso do you ph your water before watering or is it straight tap?


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## muaythaibanger (Aug 2, 2010)

iscrog4food said:


> what i would do is give them a good solid flush with the clearex. Then next planting season simply take 80 or 160 bags of soil (depending on the size of your plants) and simply lay the bags down on top of each hole. IF you really dont want to do much leave the soil in the bag and just cut open the bottom and plant in the top. when you harvest remove the bags and each year you will build up more soil and the base soil will get better and better. ALso do you ph your water before watering or is it straight tap?


My holes are about 7-8 cubic ft.I think I'll haul some soil back there this fall and replace with about one quarter or one third new soil.
I'm going to try with just clearex on a few holes and no new soil just to see how they'll grow.See if I can get the salts leached out.
Maybe try add mycorrhaizae. I always lime my soil with dolomite lime in the fall.
I was PHing the water when I was vegging indoors for about 2 months while using tapwater.Now I use rain water.


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## muaythaibanger (Aug 2, 2010)

sixstring2112 said:


> 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks is all you need.sounds like you need to remove all that crap soil, and start fresh next season.You really dont want much ferts of any kind outdoors unless your in the desert.And yes too much clearex will make your plants sick as all get out.


Well,the reason I'm doing it now is to try and get the plants to grow better and absorb nutrients.They somewhat have nute lockout. I have fresh soil in new holes and there's no comparison with the same sized plants I put in fresh soil compared to last years soil.The PH is good because I used lots of dolomite lime last fall.

And yes,I absolutely need nutrients.I'm growing in progro#4 which is just spagnum peatmoss,vermiculite,and perlite.If the soil was a mixture of say compost,topsoil,and manure or something like that,then yeah,I could do without nutes.


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## sixstring2112 (Aug 2, 2010)

just a thought but maybe next year you should use all organic ferts so you dont wreck your soil for the following year. i know they are not cheap but it sounds like you are making alot more work for yourself using chem ferts.even with pro-gro#4 if you mix that in with the native soil you should be fine on nutrients, unless the native soil is sand.when you pull your plants in the fall, see if they are rooted in to the native soil, if they are its good. if they just turn around and stay in the pro-gro the soil sucks or they just dont want to work so hard to get into it, thats why you mix them.


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## muaythaibanger (Aug 2, 2010)

Yeah,I was thinking on using a mixture of compost,chicken shit and horse shit mixed with perlite for aerating the soil.But plants the next year probably wouldn't grow as good as the fresh soil.
My cousin had a potting soil mixture her bought of shellfish compost,blackearth,cow manure,and peatmoss last season for 4 plants in large holes.He gave it only 2 very light feedings all last season.He's using the holes again this year and his 4 plants aren't doing any better than the plants in my holes with progro.Maybe those 2 light feedings were the difference.

No one can grow in native soil here.The holes are like clay pots,which comes in handy holding water from draining faster than say sand.Less work with watering all summer.


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## buraka415 (Aug 4, 2010)

sixstring2112 said:


> 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks is all you need.sounds like you need to remove all that crap soil, and start fresh next season.You really dont want much ferts of any kind outdoors unless your in the desert.And yes too much clearex will make your plants sick as all get out.


hey im curious re: this statement. The product label wants you to get like 60 - 70% runoff with this thing. that said, wouldnt that push a shit TON of clearex through your medium then? I'm in 2gal/3gal containers, that would be a lot of water+ clearex going through there. what does it do thats harmful btw?


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## sixstring2112 (Aug 5, 2010)

buraka415 said:


> hey im curious re: this statement. The product label wants you to get like 60 - 70% runoff with this thing. that said, wouldnt that push a shit TON of clearex through your medium then? I'm in 2gal/3gal containers, that would be a lot of water+ clearex going through there. what does it do thats harmful btw?


you do want lots of runoff, the stuff is for removing all the ferts so if you use it alot it WILL strip your medium of everything. they say to use it more than you need so you will buy more,I use it between veg and flower 1 time because i use chem ferts to get rid of any salts, then i use it 1 time at the end of flower(week 7) to remove everything.then i use just ph water and molassas for the last week and a half for flavor.the way i use it is just water the plant to get the soil good and wet and loosen the salts, then hit it with the floracleen or clearex to remove the loosened salts.also floracleen works in hydro like right now,you will see your plants change color in just a few hours.so after 1 day you dump the res and refill with water or water and molassas for the last4-7 days.


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## buraka415 (Aug 5, 2010)

I remember being told, back when I used to do soil, that it was advisable to Clearex like once every 7 - 10 days. I was in the practice of doing it every 2 - 3 weeks. Sounds like that was overkill possibly. I'm using 100% coco now, and everything that I've read indicates you don't really need to flush - unless you fuck up (which right now, I apparently have.. still waiting on some feedback on next steps). 

I definitely plan on flushing near the end of flowering, but was just wondering about the clearex.

What molasses/sugar products have you used? I was using EarthJuice Hi-Brix, also used regular Blackstrap molasses. The blackstrap stuff is just SO expensive. $7 for a 440ml bottle.. if you're doing 30ml/gal, and you got a 40gal rez, that shit adds up fast. What about Botanicare's Sweet?


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## sixstring2112 (Aug 6, 2010)

i have heard good things about sweet,but i use the hi-brix. it works and its cheap as hell.some of my plants look so good going into flower that i dont do a flush, i just start slowly changing over to bloom ferts.then my normal flush at the end of week 6.I think even every 2 weeks is way too much clearex. hope this helps.


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## buraka415 (Aug 6, 2010)

just seems like the Hi-brix attracts MAD gnats. Seems to be a good product though. I only had a sample of the Sweet that I got at the Expo - haven't gone out and bought it though.

How much Hi-Brix do you use each time? 30 - 45ml/gal? you use it each time you water/feed?

Yeh - seems like flushing that much is sort of a waste - but I've had many problems over my experience with indoor, and I was just trying it as it was recommended to me. I actually did do a basic water flush with minimal nutes last night b/c ive got a potassium or Ca lockout right now - due to using some old ass Nitrex a few times. UGH. feel like such a dumbass. 

Thanks again.


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## muaythaibanger (Aug 7, 2010)

Sixstring.Did you ever use these flushing products after a grow to clean the soil up?
Or do you just replace with new soil?


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## sixstring2112 (Aug 7, 2010)

buraka415 said:


> just seems like the Hi-brix attracts MAD gnats. Seems to be a good product though. I only had a sample of the Sweet that I got at the Expo - haven't gone out and bought it though.
> 
> How much Hi-Brix do you use each time? 30 - 45ml/gal? you use it each time you water/feed?
> 
> ...


I use a little less than they recomend usually 15 mil per gallon and i use it 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks but try to give them nothing but water a couple days before i chop.I have cut plants that just got water and molassas and they taste good to.my thoughts on flushing is just use ph water and get rid of everything, then you can start with a clean slate.better to use too much water than to not get rid of all the salts.


muaythaibanger said:


> Sixstring.Did you ever use these flushing products after a grow to clean the soil up?
> Or do you just replace with new soil?


No i use pro-mix-bx and it is cheap enough that i throw it in the garden with all my roots to get tilled next spring.i do know that my soil is still good after harvest because where i dump it i have lost of weeds popping up in it.I know you said you have terrible soil, if it where me i would pull my plants in the fall,shovel out the hole real good and put some cheap topsoil and peatmoss in there to over winter, then in spring i would mix in something good. foxfarms,pro-mix, or something along those lines.sounds like alot of work but you only do it once and your all set.good luck


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## muaythaibanger (Aug 7, 2010)

where I live,we can't get promix.
I use what's called progro #4.i think it's the same.It's spagnum peat moss,vermiculite and perlite.

After i chop the plants this fall, I'll dig about a third of the soil out then flush a few times with clearex. Then I'll add fresh soil in the spring.
Hopefully that improves the soil a great deal from what it is now.


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## sixstring2112 (Aug 8, 2010)

muaythaibanger said:


> where I live,we can't get promix.
> I use what's called progro #4.i think it's the same.It's spagnum peat moss,vermiculite and perlite.
> 
> After i chop the plants this fall, I'll dig about a third of the soil out then flush a few times with clearex. Then I'll add fresh soil in the spring.
> Hopefully that improves the soil a great deal from what it is now.


sounds like a plan,i think your right on progrow being very close to pro-mix.


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## buraka415 (Aug 10, 2010)

sixstring2112 said:


> I use a little less than they recomend usually 15 mil per gallon and i use it 3 or 4 times in the last 2 weeks but try to give them nothing but water a couple days before i chop.I have cut plants that just got water and molassas and they taste good to.my thoughts on flushing is just use ph water and get rid of everything, then you can start with a clean slate.better to use too much water than to not get rid of all the salts.


hey - would using the Hi-Brix with every water+feed screw up them up? can you "overuse" hi-brix/molasses based products?


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## sixstring2112 (Aug 10, 2010)

buraka415 said:


> hey - would using the Hi-Brix with every water+feed screw up them up? can you "overuse" hi-brix/molasses based products?


I personally dont use anything every watering.If you were to use it all the time you would be giving too much K imo.alot of organic growers use it in there teas all the time but even then most good growers use the water, water, water, feed method.really good organic growers dont need anything but water because there soil has everything the plants need.I only use the molassas for the last 2 weeks dirt, and last week or so in hydro, and mostly for taste.If you use it only for feed waterings you would be fine as long as your not using other stuff high in K.


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