best calmag options

[sweettooth]

This was my result:

 

We have analysed your water results and comments are below, values in parts per million (ppm) except pH.

Calcium        86

Magnesium   6

Sulphate       2

Alkalinity       280

pH                 7.90

 

This is a moderate to very hard water, with moderate-high  Calcium high alkalinity and low Magnesium and Sulphate.

 

 

I use hard water nutes (vitalink) and dont use cal mag, been growing under led for the past 2 years now. only get issues in veg when im lazy and not adding extra Mg or letting RH get too low affecting uptake. . Upping my Mg levels and keeping RH in check has worked a treat and the cal-mag has gone down the drain. You do post a lot about cal mag, personally, i would fuck it off.

 

ive never buffered my canna pro coco as its already buffered. the whole talk about buffering it seems illogical to me but if you've found the answer than congrats, ive never had to do it

 

read lots of reports of leds requiring more cal mag - its bullshit. maybe higher levels of Mg as magnesium is responsible for chlorophyll production but as long as temps and RH are sport on plants are happy

 

[ratdog]

2 hours ago, mysticriver said:

nutrient buffered with calmag for 8hrs X 2

 

 

what do you mean mate, can you explain a bit more please?

[sweettooth]

3 hours ago, ratdog said:

 

 

what do you mean mate, can you explain a bit more please?

I think he soaks his coco in a cal mag nutrient solution before using it 

[SnakePlissken]

On 5/13/2022 at 6:32 AM, mysticriver said:

its just suprising that no-one has come up with a definitive answer by now

about where the calmag strength should be in coco under 24hr led lighting conditions

to prevent these Ca problems

 

 

mystic

95-125 ppm Ca for cannabis.

[catweazle1]

The way I do it is water coco through with around 1.5ec, 6pH calmag and leave it overnight. Water through with my normal feed and then plant my seed in it.

[mysticriver]

21 hours ago, ratdog said:

what do you mean mate

I used the cocoforcannabis method which is to soak the coco in a strong calmag solution, mine is about 1.6 EC, I use tap water for this, I added 3ml/L calmag, pH of 6.2 - 6.4, the coco is in the fabric pots then into 8 £1 buckets from bee & kew so I dont have to mess about with wet coco afterwards, fill it up to the very top of the coco for 8 hrs, drain and dump the solution, repeat with fresh solution for another 8 hrs, drain & dump solution again and what I did was sit the fabric pot under the bath tap for a minute-or-so, wash the fucker through till clear coming out, test the EC of the run-off, I ran water through until there was virtually just the tap water but the dude says u can wash through so there is  <0.4 EC in the coco, for seedlings.

 

on cation exchange, as well as the coco, 'nicking' - lets call it, the Ca & Mg elements from your feed and making them not available to ur plant, when it does that, it releases in that exchange (the cation exchange) potassium & sodium, as the Ca & Mg have a double + charge and they are favoured over the K/Na. so we end up with hardly any Ca & Mg going to the plant, and an overabundance of K & Na in the root zone. at least thats the way I understand it

so in doing all this malarky, I am forcing the coco to do all its fuckery with Ca & Mg before I plant, im filling up the cation exchange sites with Ca & Mg, then washing all the salts out afterwards [where the Ca & Mg obviously remain locked-on]

 

for me, not doing this has always led to early signs of brown marks which develop into Ca deficiency - it seems to then go away until mid/late flower and ruins the crop

 

I appreciate that not everyone has to nutrient buffer their coco. oh and canna coco pro+ may be pH buffered, but I dont think its nutrient buffered.

an so what if ive asked a lot about calmag - if u dont need it, more power to ya @sweettooth - I cant 'fcuk it off' like u say as im using RO  water and need to add it back

 

 

mystic

 

 

mystic

Edited July 28, 2022 by mysticriver

[mysticriver]

21 hours ago, sweettooth said:

Upping my Mg levels

I would like to be able to use tap water, it would be easier & cheaper than this RO

and I tried almost everything before I switched, resisted switching for ages - neat; mixing 50:50 tap:RO; adding various amounts calmag; changing nutrient lines; adding Ca on its own as an additive.... edit- as it is a Ca deficiency, that was my thinking 'add more Ca' but if the ratio's are out with the 2 elements, 1 can cause problems with the other, and therefore adding Mg could have sorted the Ca issue

 

now u mention it, I cant remember trying adding just the Mg salts

its sods law that that would prolly work...

 

 

mystic

Edited July 28, 2022 by mysticriver

[ratdog]

4 hours ago, mysticriver said:

I used the cocoforcannabis method which is to soak the coco in a strong calmag solution

 

 

so have you run a crop through this yet?

[catweazle1]

3 hours ago, ratdog said:

 

 

so have you run a crop through this yet?

Done loads with the method and takes away all the issues. I ave found you only need to soak the coco in the calmag then drain it away. Just water through with weak feed ands plant your seeds or plants. No need to wash it first when doing DTW. As you continue to give them their daily feed with runoff, you'll be washing it out anyway over the next few days.

Edited July 28, 2022 by catweazle1

[lennyd79]

@ratdog I presume you have very soft water like myself. I did organic with compost for a few years with various levels of success (some great grows and some shit) then switched to coco. I've been doing coco now for 5 or 6 years and I use Vita link A&B coco soft water, their root stim and the canna enzyme on occasion. I decided when I started in coco I was going to try it without ph-ing at first and not test ec either and I've never needed to, my plants are consistently healthier and yield better. I stuck to organics for long enough but I couldn't perfect it. I did find a couple of table spoons of fine dolomite lime mixed in the compost would help any cal/mag issues and fishmix instead of grow was better and kept them greener. If you go coco also go for a plant start formula as it starts the cuttings or seeds off quicker than a weaker solution of A&B. 

Ps- I don't miss battling plant deficiencies anymore for sure. 

Edited July 28, 2022 by lennyd79

[Baron von greenback]

Jesus glad I didn't go with Coco now that's seem a lot of messing about my iws is easier I would never had figured that lot out well done who ever worked all that soaking out 

[mysticriver]

19 hours ago, ratdog said:

so have you run a crop through this yet?

im 11 days in with no issues - the brown marks/spots always have appeared at around 5/6 days

I know ive jumped the gun and declared success too early

its been relief to get this far. the 2 last set(s) of 8 seedlings n' there pots n medium were binned at just over a week old for both, because the dreaded happened at the 5/6 day mark. I didn't even feel like seeing them through as the crop before those attempts was ruined. which was also the state of play for the 2, 3 previous finished crops, just not as bad. so in fairness, although ive prolly 'effed' it up now by saying its sorted, I do feel like im gettin' somewhere

 

 

mystic

[mysticriver]

11 hours ago, lennyd79 said:

go for a plant start formula

im doin this next time, and was thinking of 'shogun start' - as I already use shogun nutrients

do I still use calmag? or do u not know

what do you use for ur seedlings?

 

 

mystic

Edited July 29, 2022 by mysticriver

[mysticriver]

I wasnt being a dick before @sweettooth bro, with the so-what & whatnot, dont know why its got me all defensive...

 

 

mystic

[ratdog]

16 hours ago, lennyd79 said:

@ratdog I presume you have very soft water like myself.

 

 

hello mate, yes, soft as a babies bum! i'm using GA nutes now and the problem seems to have been sorted, the last run was my best in years. so it's a mix of coco and compost with cal mag to start and then fishmix atm but come flower it's GA nutes all the way.

 

 

4 hours ago, mysticriver said:

im doin this next time, and was thinking of 'shogun start' - as I already use shogun nutrients

do I still use calmag? or do u not know

what do you use for ur seedlings?

 

 

mystic

 

 

i found formulex is very good and doesn't need extra cal mag