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PhosPHITE: Unlocking Root Growth Secrets · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily with me, Dr. Russell Sharp.
• 0:04
  Today we're talking about a, well I don't know how you class this ingredient,
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  let's call it a biostimulant to begin with, and it's phosphites.
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  Not to be confused with phosphates.
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  So phosphites, the chemical structure is HPO3,
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  and that's hydrogen, phosphorus, three oxygens,
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  and phosphates, they had a PO4 and
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  they sound very similar and you think that they
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  might sound similar but they're as different as say water H2O
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  is to peroxide H2O2 or ozone
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  O3 is to normal oxygen
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  O2 they're they're very different and the plants react
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  to them very differently so HPO3 is
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  phosphite easy to misspell easy
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  to spell with a swear word in there as
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  well it's a clear liquid however it can
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  be formulated into other products as
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  well so it might be mixed so you might get a product that's brown that
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  contains phosphate so don't always be
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  looking for a clear liquid and the form that is used
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  as a biostimulant in hydroponics and horticulture
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  in general is potassium phosphate and so
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  it contains potassium and phosphate so you might think that it is used in flowering
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  a pk however it's not it's used primarily in establishments of the crop to stimulate
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  the production of a massive root system and it's really good for this and.
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  In it's used in like potatoes to
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  get a really good root crop root growth so obviously
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  potatoes actually the potato itself the
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  tuba is a is a stem but you want really good root system because
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  you want to outgrow nematodes and
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  outgrow slugs and so
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  getting a really good root system early on is really good for that but lots of
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  other crops you want to be lots of hydroponic crops you want to be producing
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  a really good root system before you get into flowering now there is a number
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  of other proposed reasons for using phosphites some people say that it also
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  induces plant defense mechanisms and therefore can help with pest and disease control there.
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  And other people have claimed that it's directly biocidal and
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  fungicidal however the the evidence for that is pretty slim there was a study
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  by nottingham university that showed that it doesn't have fungicidal effects
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  when applied to crops and it was simply acting as a biostimulant to promoting root growth.
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  Even that said, that didn't stop the EU from banning its use.
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  So in the EU you can't use it, in the UK you can and many other countries.
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  I think in America you can as well.
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  There are people selling it in the UK saying it's a
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  systemic easily available form of phosphorus or
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  phosphate this is not true phosphite doesn't
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  easily convert into phosphate takes a long time and so
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  that is be aware of anyone who's saying that phosphites
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  are a ready a good source of phosphate if you
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  want a good source of phosphate buy some phosphate and so
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  there if you see that then they're probably trying
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  to the the actual salesman will
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  probably be making fungicidal claims for it so as
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  i say it's not allowed in the eu currently it might be
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  in lots of root boosters though that are imported into the to
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  the eu and it might be in the
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  uk and and america as in a root booster that's because it's um pretty non-hazardous
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  in a very in a very concentrated form it's classified as hazardous but you probably
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  get away with not having a hazard symbol or declaring it on an SDS at low levels,
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  or certainly you could disguise it by using a synonym and things like this.
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  So it might be in a lot of root producing elote.
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  Root stimulating products i don't know if that's the case certainly
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  it's in none of the products that we manufacture for hydroponics.
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  We do use or have done in.
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  The past a lot of phosphite in arable and sports
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  turf where it's used for improving root growth in certainly
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  in the spring and so as i say it's
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  not a pk this idea that you need to use pk and
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  flowering in hydroponics is sort of like an idea
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  that's got out of hand so in orchard crops
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  and some of the flowering and fruiting crops you dial back the
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  nitrogen when it comes to flowering because you don't
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  want vegetated growth from interfering with the
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  ripening of the fruit and the flowers however to say
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  that you need to add extra pk because you're dialing
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  back the nitrogen i think that's probably a step too far i
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  personally don't when it comes to flowering i don't add
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  a pk i would add well i
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  personally add we have this product called slugger which is liquid ferric
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  phosphate and i'd probably add that rather than a
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  pk if i wanted to add anything turing flowering
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  i would be adding extra iron personally that would
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  be my tip because if you're selling a product on weight
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  extra iron is always good i think i've said that before on the
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  podcast getting back to phosphites as i
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  say it's a clear it's a clear liquid when it's when it's in its
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  liquid in its pure form but you
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  might find it mixed in with others and another word
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  for it is phosphonates so you'll see
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  phosphonates this is quite commonly and
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  it's manufactured the way they make phosphite is
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  that they react phosphorus acid with
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  potassium hydroxide to get potassium phosphite now the reason i've gone into.
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  So much detail about that you don't need to know that reaction if you're in
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  hydroponics it's simply because the word phosphorus acid is spelled ous at the
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  end not as in phosphorus the element which is just RUS.
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  And that's a great way of seeing if the fertilizer manufacturer you're buying
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  your fertilizer from really knows their onions. Are they really a really good
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  chemist or are they blagging it?
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  Because a lot of people will put their text into say Microsoft Word and it won't
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  spell check correct when people incorrectly spell the element phosphorus with an extra O.
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  And so this is my way of seeing whether these
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  manufacturers really know what they're talking about so if
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  you look on the elemental nutrients of a
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  fertilizer it should be spelled r-u-s but if they
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  are idiots they'll spell r-o-u-s however in
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  this case when it comes to phosphites it is spelled r-o-u-s that's the one time
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  you're allowed to spell phosphorus with r-o-u-s at the end most people listening
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  this couldn't give a flying f about that but i just think it's interesting so
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  So if you are struggling to get establishment,
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  struggling to get root growth, if you've got a pest that is eating your roots,
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  then see if you can get your hands on some phosphite.
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  If you are super paranoid about glyphosate, you might want to avoid phosphite
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  because it's in a very similar chemistry.
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  Obviously, phosphite is not going to kill your plant like glyphosate is because
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  glyphosate is a weed killer a herbicide however glyphosate
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  does have does have that po3 part
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  of its molecule so it's a type of phosphonate or
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  phosphite however phosphite possessing phosphite that's the plant stimulating
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  root stimulating form and glyphosate is the kills your plants or kills the weeds
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  more importantly type of molecule however both are in most scientist dyes are
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  considered safe for use.
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  However, a number of scientists disagree and say that glyphosate is carcinogenic.
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  I don't think anyone's ever said that phosphite or potassium phosphite is carcinogenic.
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  However, I just don't think there's as much of a case to be made against it.
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  It's not used as widely, and certainly
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  there's not big multi-billion pound multinationals making phosphites.
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  It tends to be smaller manufacturers of biostimulants.
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  So make your own mind up whether you would
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  use phosphite or not and whether if you if you're really struggling for root
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  growth obviously it's something to consider other things that stimulate root
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  growth are amino acids and humic acids seaweeds things like this so there are
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  other biostimulants to choose from if you want this phosphite is more of a chemical
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  synthetic chemical type approach it's not going to be,
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  organically registered but it is potentially a powerful way of stimulating extra
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  root growth that's been hydroponics daily for today please like subscribe do
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• 8:44
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  so until tomorrow thank you very much.