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Cheap Nutrient Line for Commercial and Home Grows?

Dube

Member
For outdoor why not just add bonemeal and dolomite lime or oyster shell etc for calcium? Or just include enough in your feed water if mixing nutes and not making a hot mix..

I already do most of that but I would like to do it to a couple plants and compare the differences. I know tom hill used calcium25 on his plants as a foliar and he said they were noticably more pest and mold/mildew resistant.
 

ButterflyEffect

Well-known member
I already do most of that but I would like to do it to a couple plants and compare the differences. I know tom hill used calcium25 on his plants as a foliar and he said they were noticably more pest and mold/mildew resistant.

The benefits of Calcium25 might be the Boric acid or the Tria that they totally claim isn't in it.
 

indocult

Active member
I think I'm going to try Biomin calcium next.

I really like the results from metalosate calcium, but I hate opening the container due to the consistency of it.

The numbers on Biomin look pretty similar to metalosate.
 

ButterflyEffect

Well-known member
I think I'm going to try Biomin calcium next.

I really like the results from metalosate calcium, but I hate opening the container due to the consistency of it.

The numbers on Biomin look pretty similar to metalosate.

I used it for a short period in my perlite hempys. It jacked up the pH both in the solution and the rootzone. I found it to unpredictable. Maybe the fact that it's a carbonate, I'm not sure. I occasionally use it as a foliar but I've mostly shifted away from it.

I mostly use gypsum in veg and Growmore Calmag in veg through stretch, but as a foliar only.
 

indocult

Active member
The Biomin is unpredictable, or the metalosate?

Personally I'm digging the metalosate, it just smells like shit and the powder gets everywhere.. then absorbs all the water from the air whenever it lands on whatever surface, leaving a sticky mess.

Went ahead and got the growmore, I couldn't find anything bigger than a quart last time I looked.
 

ButterflyEffect

Well-known member
The Biomin is unpredictable, or the metalosate?

Personally I'm digging the metalosate, it just smells like shit and the powder gets everywhere.. then absorbs all the water from the air whenever it lands on whatever surface, leaving a sticky mess.

Went ahead and got the growmore, I couldn't find anything bigger than a quart last time I looked.

The Biomin. Don't take anything I say as gospel, though. I'm still trying to figure out the big Calcium quandry. Running in hempys makes it challenging for me to get adequate levels of Ca into the plants by the end of stretch. I seem to be playing this yoyo game of not enough/too much.

I don't have any metalosate yet. The GM, from what I can tell, only comes in a quart.

Right now I add maybe 1/2tsp of gypsum to my veg mixes, followed by epsom foliars when I see Mg def signs.
 

caljim

I'm on the edge. Of what I'm not sure.
Veteran
I think I'm going to try Biomin calcium next.

I really like the results from metalosate calcium, but I hate opening the container due to the consistency of it.

The numbers on Biomin look pretty similar to metalosate.

The stuff is sticky....like spray dried malt extract ( for home brewing)...I portioned some out into a smaller vessel for use. I do like it as a foliar. It really helped me to keep things green during the transition when using not well buffered coir. Going to work with it some more to get a better feel.


The Mr. Fulvic has proven to be a great replacement for the now unavailable SM-90....keeping my roots whiter than ever and it has really shined as addition to my cloning program.....from cuts standing in cups of water to branches just plugged into 1/2 gals of coir...boom! lots of white fuzzy roots.
 

ButterflyEffect

Well-known member
Their source of humic acid could be unrefined Leonardite or asphaltite for sealing driveways with lots of contaminants for all we know.

I'll stick with refined fulvic acid (no humic), thanks.

Truth.

Meant to ask you BF, I've read that if a fulvic is dark that it is more of a humic. Being that the Mr fulvic is dark, how does that factoid factor in?

I've been using ~2ml/5G every feed. I also noticed a need to cut back the feed. I hadn't been checking my runoff EC and hoo boy was it high!
 

BillFarthing

Active member
Veteran
Truth.

Meant to ask you BF, I've read that if a fulvic is dark that it is more of a humic. Being that the Mr fulvic is dark, how does that factoid factor in?

I've been using ~2ml/5G every feed. I also noticed a need to cut back the feed. I hadn't been checking my runoff EC and hoo boy was it high!

It's like Guinness where 1% black malt makes the entire beer black. I'm assuming small amounts of carbon (it is organic) and whatever humic doesn't fall out at a low pH makes it a dark color.

The company claims you can use 10-25% less fertilizer input with their product. I had to reduce mine with fresh bulbs and CO2 about 10%.
 

ButterflyEffect

Well-known member
It's like Guinness where 1% black malt makes the entire beer black. I'm assuming small amounts of carbon (it is organic) and whatever humic doesn't fall out at a low pH makes it a dark color.

The company claims you can use 10-25% less fertilizer input with their product. I had to reduce mine with fresh bulbs and CO2 about 10%.

I found that the high root zone pH issue I was having was largely in part to overfeeding, which happened because I didn't adjust the EC down after using the Mr Fulvic. If I had to guess, it'd be nitrates or phosphates getting hung up in the media. In fact, I'm gonna be cutting most of the vermiculite out of my mix and going almost straight perlite(Maybe 12:1). The high CEC of the vermi is grabbing these elements and holding on to them. Without it in the mix, I'd at least just be flushing the extra nutes down the drain instead of into the root zone.
 

BillFarthing

Active member
Veteran
The high CEC of the vermi is grabbing these elements and holding on to them. Without it in the mix, I'd at least just be flushing the extra nutes down the drain instead of into the root zone.

I have all my growing medium shipped to me thanks to COVID. It's actually kind of nice.

Anyways, if I have irrigation, I do 70% coco pith, 30% rice hulls. If I want to treat it like hand watered soil, I do 68% coco, 30% rice hulls, 2% vermiculite.
 

ButterflyEffect

Well-known member
I have all my growing medium shipped to me thanks to COVID. It's actually kind of nice.

Anyways, if I have irrigation, I do 70% coco pith, 30% rice hulls. If I want to treat it like hand watered soil, I do 68% coco, 30% rice hulls, 2% vermiculite.

Well, delivery is sure nice! Can't go wrong with that.

I'm just not ready to tackle the nuances of coco. Maybe at some point, but not in the near future. Can you imagine having to deal with the issues I have and then also the coco learning curve?!? No thanks.

I'm setting my flower rooms up to each have a 20G tote as a rez and just pulse 4 cups of feed into the pot in one shot, so that'll be cool.
 

CannaRed

Cannabinerd
Bill, 9 have a question that you can probably answer for me.
if I were to add to my water a dry powder, for instance RecycleSil, and the silica DID NOT properly dissolve, does the ppm still rise?
Just wondering if the substance has to be dissolved in the solution before the Ppm meter is accurate.
Thanks
 

BillFarthing

Active member
Veteran
Bill, 9 have a question that you can probably answer for me.
if I were to add to my water a dry powder, for instance RecycleSil, and the silica DID NOT properly dissolve, does the ppm still rise?
Just wondering if the substance has to be dissolved in the solution before the Ppm meter is accurate.
Thanks

RecycleSil can be suspended, not dissolved. PPM meters measure dissolved ionic charge, so no it should not rise.
 
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