cal/mag in coco

[RedBeardy5]

so just flush the coco. I hand water every other day with organics and have 30% run off.

 

[Johnny Redthumb]

RedBeardy i also see some early sulfur deficiency. this grow is with RO water?

tsunamy - this is only true if the coco you get isn't already full of sodium. sodium is also a cation and can take the place of potassium. best to first flush coco with low pH clean water, then immediately feed with calmag

 

[tsunamy]

RedBeardy i also see some early sulfur deficiency. this grow is with RO water?

tsunamy - this is only true if the coco you get isn't already full of sodium. sodium is also a cation and can take the place of potassium. best to first flush coco with low pH clean water, then immediately feed with calmag

well i try to avoid sodium rich coco coir in the first place...

peace...

 

[tsunamy]

well i got a Mg deficiency my last cycle, but that was only due to low Mg in my fertilizing scheme.

the pic is from before the deficiency...i use calmag regularly

 

[RedBeardy5]

So flush with RO water then again with cal/ mag mixture. What would cause a sulfer deficiancy

 

[Snow Crash]

So flush with RO water then again with cal/ mag mixture. What would cause a sulfer deficiancy

It's probably not going to help.

The idea with hydroponic nutrition is that you can rinse your media with the exact solution you want and just collect an ample amount of runoff. This will ensure that what is in your media is exactly what you want in there. Not some averaging, or hodgepodging of buildup and residual. What goes in is what comes out, and between that you have balance.

Always use a good solution to rinse coco. Always. Even if it's 1/2 strength pay attention to good ratios of elements that are in balance and just rinse that shit. If the nutrient ratios are dialed your problems will resolve.

 

[Puscifer]

This doesn't make sense.

1 teaspoon = 5 mL

So, 5mL CaliMagic per gallon of RO.

but, 1 gallon = 3.78 liters. So 5ml/3.78.

So it really should be 1.32 mL per liter.


Anyway, not trying to call you out - just trying to draw attention to the fact that these fucks can't even be hassled to get something this simple correct - one of the reasons I stopped using their product and started looking for something else.

They all say that in the directions, not just General Hydroponics. Who's going to sit there and measure out 1.32ml?

 

[Puscifer]

If it is indeed a sulfer def then Epsom salt will clear it up. Epsom salt = Magnesium Sulfate.

 

[Puscifer]

RedBeardy5, what exactly are you feeding your plants? What brand? I reread the whole thread and didn't see it mentioned. Or maybe I'm stoned

 

[Treetroit City]

What do you think of that Photosynthesis Plus? I met the owner at the SF Garden Expo and he gave me the full run down.

Do you use it as a foliar spray? Any negative effects, or side effects, that require adjusting the light height or nutrient strength? I'm going to grab myself a sample and see what it can do.

I think in CA they sell the Photosynthesis Plus as Plus-C, because of labeling, but it is also the same stuff.

Sorry Snow, just saw this.

Well I was having problems with my ladies upon entry to my flower room. Going from 600's to 1150 Gativa's they were just burning up.

I had received some samples of the PP so I figured it couldn't hurt but at the same time I also started turning my Gativa's down to 600 for the first week of flower and starting with shorter plants.

In the end I had my first successful transition but was it the PP? Too many variables to be sure.

Edit: Added it to the feed water at full strength one time.

 

[RedBeardy5]

Im feeding them the H&G brand, drip clean, and silica. Its weird bc my blumats stay at .8EC, anything over 1EC I get high run off. The problem did start when I added the topbooster, I did adjust H&G A and B so I did not burn them. I did a feeding with Epsom salt and no calcium, so far the problem is not getting worse.

 

[RedBeardy5]

The buds are still filling in pretty dense, its just the fan leaves look crispy.

 

[Cannabean]

what happens in the root zone is the plant will uptake the calcium and leave behind the carbonate. the carbonate will sit in the medium and wait until it will bond to any other positive ion available or slowly leach out in runoff. not a big problem when growing outdoors, because it can leach away. also not a problem in peat based soils because the peat degrades and lowers pH and the carbonate promotes alkalinity, so it tends to balance. thats why people add dolomite lime to peat soils as a pH buffer.

however coco is different. coco's pH stays stable is it degrades. all organic mediums including coco degrade as you grow in them. coco degrades and gives off positive potassium ions, which is why coco specific nutes have more cal/mag and less K. excess k floating around can bond to carbonate in a insoluble form, and this will continue to build up in the coco and your root zone pH will start to go higher and higher until its out of range and your plants can no longer uptake water. you can witness this in runoff measurement. it depends on pot size and plant size as to how long it can take for this to occur. if you transplant to bigger pots on a regular basis, you may never see this occur. but you cant keep a mom alive on cal carbonate in the same pot for a long time.

very interesting. I can't say I know much when it comes to this topic, but I feed my moms calmag at 3ml/gal and have kept very healthy mothers in the same size pot for 1-2 years. how long are you referring to?

 

[Johnny Redthumb]

Redbeardy & Puscifer - Sulfur deficiencies are caused by excess calcium in the medium, which can also cause you pH to be unstable. Adding more mag sulfate won't necessarily fix the issue and could make things worse. Most base nutrients also have plenty of magnesium, so unless you are doing lucas or head recipe, you shouldn't have to add more magnesium to your regiment. Ratios are more important than concentrations.

Also, letting you coco get too dry will cause elements to bond and crystalize in an insoluble form, such as calcium sulfate. So long as you have good established roots, you should never let your coco dry out much. Once again, foliar feeding deficienty elements is a much faster and more effective way to fix these problems, and keep your nutrients stable and balanced, stop adding extra shit to your root zone!

Cannabean - What I wrote before only applies to coco and only if your calmag source is carbonate based. As far as I know, only General Organics CalMag and GH CaliMagic contain carbonates. Botanicare Calmag+ and techniflora do not contain carbonates. So read your ingredients. Most likely you are not using carbonate based calmag and havent had these issues. Also if you keep your coco constantly moist and feed everyday with plenty of runoff, you are much less likely to run into these types of issues.

 

[Cereals]

They all say that in the directions, not just General Hydroponics. Who's going to sit there and measure out 1.32ml?

Someone who wants to be as accurate as possible when trying to figure out exactly what they are feeding their plants?

Just because you CAN get away with measuring by "pinch", does that mean you should?

I would argue against it, from my experiences in life in general.

Anyway - the point is not that you can either carefully measure something, or not. The point is that when their are discrepancies in text, it can create confusion. There is enough confusion here already!

 

[Cereals]

very interesting. I can't say I know much when it comes to this topic, but I feed my moms calmag at 3ml/gal and have kept very healthy mothers in the same size pot for 1-2 years. how long are you referring to?

Which CalMag product do you use? Johnny_Redthumb was talking about CaliMagic specifically, or other similar products that use carbonates.

 

[Cereals]

Redbeardy & Puscifer - Sulfur deficiencies are caused by excess calcium in the medium, which can also cause you pH to be unstable. Adding more mag sulfate won't necessarily fix the issue and could make things worse. Most base nutrients also have plenty of magnesium, so unless you are doing lucas or head recipe, you shouldn't have to add more magnesium to your regiment. Ratios are more important than concentrations.

Also, letting you coco get too dry will cause elements to bond and crystalize in an insoluble form, such as calcium sulfate. So long as you have good established roots, you should never let your coco dry out much. Once again, foliar feeding deficienty elements is a much faster and more effective way to fix these problems, and keep your nutrients stable and balanced, stop adding extra shit to your root zone!

Cannabean - What I wrote before only applies to coco and only if your calmag source is carbonate based. As far as I know, only General Organics CalMag and GH CaliMagic contain carbonates. Botanicare Calmag+ and techniflora do not contain carbonates. So read your ingredients. Most likely you are not using carbonate based calmag and havent had these issues. Also if you keep your coco constantly moist and feed everyday with plenty of runoff, you are much less likely to run into these types of issues.

Another brilliant post, thanks @Johnny_Redthumb!

 

[Johnny Redthumb]

sorry for the typos

 

[Cereals]

@RedBeardy - btw, my girls are still looking great after switching over to JUST the H&G Cocos A+B base.

This was after I finally seemingly got the rootzone back in good shape with the epsom salts. (To catch everyone else up).

It's been 3/4 days now - I am seeing a bit of signs of return of the interveinal chlorosis on a couple of the girls - but they are also ones that I also just transplanted into unprepared/charged coco. The rest are looking good so far and are still maintaining on just the base nutes!

 

[RedBeardy5]

Good to hear, I just started female seeds bubblegummer. Gonna precharge the coco and use just base nutes and RO. I appreciate the updates.

Johnney redthumb, thanks for the knowledge. It makes sence because I was hand watering with general hydro cal/mag, which is calcium carbonate. I can see light, now that i'm understanding why my girls did what they did.