I downloaded the 2009 Water Quality Analysis for my area and have been giving it a look today in the interest of making a better nutrient solution mix for my garden.
In the past I've had great success with Cal Mag and Pureblend at 5&15ml/gal tap water, but had limited success (if any at all) using the same recipes that were highly regarded by others. A few years ago I tried Floranova Bloom at Lucas dosage and ended up sending my entire garden into hardcore Mg Def which killed most everything. I went back to what I knew but eventually got handed a gift pack of Iguana Juice Grow and Bloom which I tried out, and things started to go south in the garden with a quickness. I played with the Iguana dosage trying to get the plants happy, but they progressively got worse till I went back to Calmag and Pureblend. Then I saw the KISS thread and it looked like I couldn't go wrong, things went well for a while but once again my garden went to shit even though all of my environmental variables are in check. I also tried a variety of nutes while I was fighting the famed Hydro tent offgassing issue way back when, but I've disregarded most of those experiences (except the smell of Earth Juice which will keep me from ever using that sludge again indoors.)
The one thing all of these experiences had in common was with the Pureblend I used Cal-Mag, the other regiments claimed not to need it.
In any event I've been sticking with 1tsp Maxibloom per gallon as of late and have been supplementing with a hefty dose of Cal-Mag to combat the Mg def and other issues I've been seeing. The girls have improved quite a bit, but I'm still fighting Mg issues so I've gradually been upping the Cal-Mag. Since I'm using more Cal-Mag than ever (10ml/gal tap water, approx 500ppm at .5 as of my last res change earlier today) I began to worry about potentially overdosing them with all of the N and Ca the Cal-Mag was adding. I began to consider using Epsom Salts, but I really have no idea how much I'd need to add, nor do I know if my fear of overdosing on Ca and N from the Cal-Mag is even a justified fear.
So, I downloaded that Water Quality Analysis I mentioned earlier. Best I can tell my water has a small amount of Calcium and a very low amount of Magnesium, but honestly I'm a bit over my head in sorting all of this out. I was hoping that someone proficient with nutrient profiles could take a look at my water analysis and tell me whether I should just stick to Cal-Mag, drop the Cal-Mag and switch to just Epsom Salts, some mixture of Cal-Mag and Epsom Salts, and roughly how much I'm gonna need to keep the girls happy while using Maxibloom. I'm running a drip system with Hydroton, as well as LP Aero Tables, fwiw.
Any experts wanna chime in and give me some scientifically based, reliable results?
Here is my local water report. Tried to upload it, but no go. : http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/watersewers/water/pdf/WQReport_2009.pdf
In the past I've had great success with Cal Mag and Pureblend at 5&15ml/gal tap water, but had limited success (if any at all) using the same recipes that were highly regarded by others. A few years ago I tried Floranova Bloom at Lucas dosage and ended up sending my entire garden into hardcore Mg Def which killed most everything. I went back to what I knew but eventually got handed a gift pack of Iguana Juice Grow and Bloom which I tried out, and things started to go south in the garden with a quickness. I played with the Iguana dosage trying to get the plants happy, but they progressively got worse till I went back to Calmag and Pureblend. Then I saw the KISS thread and it looked like I couldn't go wrong, things went well for a while but once again my garden went to shit even though all of my environmental variables are in check. I also tried a variety of nutes while I was fighting the famed Hydro tent offgassing issue way back when, but I've disregarded most of those experiences (except the smell of Earth Juice which will keep me from ever using that sludge again indoors.)
The one thing all of these experiences had in common was with the Pureblend I used Cal-Mag, the other regiments claimed not to need it.
In any event I've been sticking with 1tsp Maxibloom per gallon as of late and have been supplementing with a hefty dose of Cal-Mag to combat the Mg def and other issues I've been seeing. The girls have improved quite a bit, but I'm still fighting Mg issues so I've gradually been upping the Cal-Mag. Since I'm using more Cal-Mag than ever (10ml/gal tap water, approx 500ppm at .5 as of my last res change earlier today) I began to worry about potentially overdosing them with all of the N and Ca the Cal-Mag was adding. I began to consider using Epsom Salts, but I really have no idea how much I'd need to add, nor do I know if my fear of overdosing on Ca and N from the Cal-Mag is even a justified fear.
So, I downloaded that Water Quality Analysis I mentioned earlier. Best I can tell my water has a small amount of Calcium and a very low amount of Magnesium, but honestly I'm a bit over my head in sorting all of this out. I was hoping that someone proficient with nutrient profiles could take a look at my water analysis and tell me whether I should just stick to Cal-Mag, drop the Cal-Mag and switch to just Epsom Salts, some mixture of Cal-Mag and Epsom Salts, and roughly how much I'm gonna need to keep the girls happy while using Maxibloom. I'm running a drip system with Hydroton, as well as LP Aero Tables, fwiw.
Any experts wanna chime in and give me some scientifically based, reliable results?
Here is my local water report. Tried to upload it, but no go. : http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/watersewers/water/pdf/WQReport_2009.pdf
