so I ordered this to use in a formulation as I thought it was a pretty good deal pure powder. ive never worked with valerian before but a recipe I have calls for valerian and it says 1 oz. so my question is do I need to tincture this powder? or do I use an ounce by weight and not volume? if the recipe calls for 1 oz of liquid what would that amount be in a powder form? I hope this makes sense to someone. description of the powder says it blends and dissolves well in water tea coffee smoothies so I figure is should work in a bait solution just not sure how much and I don't want to go way overboard on the amount.

Pure Valerian Root powder that I have used over the years does have residual and does not dissolve 100% in a tincturing solution. You can use it as a straight powder or tinctured in a liquid form. Tincturing allows for better product distribution throughout a lure or bait. For private use and if the price is right use it as is in the powder form. Just stir it in slowly to assure as good of equal contact as is reasonable.

thanks bob I always appreciate your wealth of knowledge. thank you for sharing

I had always used tincture till rich kasper told me to try powder. I aint going back to tincture

danny sir can you tell me how much powder would be a good starting point if the recipe calls out an oz of valerian? im assuming its talking about tinctured valerian. thanks

Too many variables when working with a time release ingredient to advise amounts to be used. You will have to work in a little at a time and see as it begins to bleed out with aging if it has what you are after in terms of odor in the final batch. This kind of thing takes much time to work thru all the ingredient processes and their effects and the amounts needed per volume of each batch.

Lure and bait making has its challenges and there are many steps and miss-steps along the way before you get some things right on purpose.

I am always skeptical of amounts in lure recipes. especially tincture amounts. There is no way of knowing the strength of the tincture in the formula you are using. Valerian is pretty forgiving. Unlike some things like Asafetida, Castor, skunk juice, or a good Tonquin imitation. Step one is to expose a house cat to your root powder. If its a good product you will know pretty quick.

thank you gentleman I appreciate it. I had thought about the strength of tinctures being different. ill experiment with it and see what happens. don't have any cats out where I live well at least not friendly ones and my dogs don't let them in the yard. ill have to hit up some friends with cats.

Other than SB, are there any other oils, root powder, etc., that can fix a bait/lure? What amount of methyl paraben/gallon. Are there any that can fix and attract predators?

Sodium Benzoate, Zinc Valerate and Methyl paraben are the only preservatives that I'm familiar with. Methyl paraben is inferior to the other two preservatives in my experience, but is great at preventing mold in my baits..

I'm assuming you're referring to agents that will preserve, and not those that are fixatives.

What is the difference between a preservative and a fixative? What are some fixatives?

A preservative neutralizes the bacteria that causes decomposition (rot). A fixative is an ingredient that "fixes" a lure to keep it from changing odors to any great extent. Fixatives are ingredients such as skunk essence, asafetida, etc.

Are there any fixitives that won't change the odor of a formula? Skunk and asafetida will change the odor

How much sb/gal?

All the fixatives that I have worked with over the years have their own unique odor representation. Therefore technically speaking each will leave a footprint within a specific formula to some degree. I haven't found any to be detrimental to a formula in my work over the years.

It is determining how much to use so as not to cause the fixative to dominate the desired end result product odor which takes some experimenting and trial and error.

Thank You