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EC too high after adding Mg and Ca

Brugge

Member
Quick question. When adding Mg and Ca at the recommended (on the canna bottle) 1 ml/L to the nutrient solution the EC naturally goes way up. From say EC 1.5 to EC 2.9. Is this ok or should I just water with pH'ed Mg and Ca once in a while?
 

stoned40yrs

Ripped since 1965
Veteran
Your ec pen is whack. But that calmag is also some whack stuff. I just took a L of water 0.15ec and added 1ml of GH calmagic and the ec shot up to .7 which is only 1/2 as high as what 1ml did to you. There is no way I would give the plant 2.9 ec. Maybe use 1ml or less for every 4l?
 

Miraculous Meds

Well-known member
Im not a big fan of adding anything extra in coco if ur using a coco line it already has the ca mg adjusted to be effective without extra. So if ur using a coco nute and ur seeing a deficiency it is not the nutes and adding more usually makes the npk go off further. Usually its ph, too wet/dry or too cold in root zone.
 

stoned40yrs

Ripped since 1965
Veteran
Im not a big fan of adding anything extra in coco if ur using a coco line it already has the ca mg adjusted to be effective without extra. So if ur using a coco nute and ur seeing a deficiency it is not the nutes and adding more usually makes the npk go off further. Usually its ph, too wet/dry or too cold in root zone.

I'm fairly certain I read on here a few times people say you need to add cal mag with canna nutes.
 

Miraculous Meds

Well-known member
I'm fairly certain I read on here a few times people say you need to add cal mag with canna nutes.

Fair enough as I have not used canna. If its in there coco nute line than I suppose it makes sense that it needs it. Just kinda weird how all the other coco nute lines gear the npk to adjust for the ca mg.
 

theother

Member
Canna has enough ca in the bottle. If you use ro and want to use it you can go like 150-200 ppm. Some strains can use the extra ca. There is a relationship I believe between nitrogen and ca and most people are satisfied with where canna cocos ab ends up.
 

Weeded1s

Member
Either way measure out the cal mag by ec so if its comming out hot for whatever reason adjust to the ec you need not their rec.
 

Brugge

Member
Yeah this is driving me mad. I've been following Cannas schedule for light feeding as per their calculator. Soft water at EC 0,2. Had yellowing during veg but it's so uh worse now during flowering. pH I keep around 5,7 to 6,0. A male that I had was doing fine and growing so much more than this female. Seen that before too. The yellowing looks burned but I've never been higher than EC 1,5 (except once). I have let her dry out a little before watering again so can't be overwatering either. Feels like she wants more Ca Mg now in flowering so I'm trying that. :watchplant:
 

Brugge

Member
Maybe she's root bound. Not that big but only in 6 litre pot. That's it. Will give her the 11 litre pot ASAP.
 

DropDropDrop

Active member
I dont think you can get really rootbound with coco, just have to water & feed more frequently. However i know that if you will feed your plants with bottles recommended doses it's way, way too much (at least Canna a+b for coco).
Im getting good results with around 1ml/l, sometimes going for around 2ml/l for a watering or too if they seem to need it. Canna is saying what, 3-4ml/l ? If i do that i will have all burnt, waxy, filled with nitrogen, toodarkgreen plants. No thanks.
 

theother

Member
Ya, run the cal mag like 100-150, really I would add calmag to the ro until it's like .3- .4 ec. Consider dropping the overall feed strength with canna to like 1.2. I have had no problem getting great growth at that ec with that line, don't think I really added much calmag either.

Are they drying out at all? I have had way more problems from coco drying out than anything else, are you on multi feed or are you hand watering?
 

Miraculous Meds

Well-known member
I don't know canna so I cant speak to the npk ratio, but I would think if I could crush it with 1.0 to 1.2 ec then adding .3 or .4 ec or 150 to 400 ppm of extra ca mg would just fuck the npk ratios up for cec of coco. that would be like making there diet 20 to 40% added ca, and mg, just 2 of ur micro nutes. If ur gonna use the ca mg do it in smaller doses. But the yellowing sounds like to dry between cycles usually concentrates nutes in the medium and ph raises when coco drys I believe. Focus on keeping them evenly moist, then when full of roots u can multi water more often.
 

Miraculous Meds

Well-known member
Some plants act different to root spacing but u can get 5' plants with 6 to 8 zips out of a 6 ltr pot. If ur roots aren't completely filled Id wait.
 

DropDropDrop

Active member
And yeah, big pot with small plants with coco is asking for problems. At least if you dont really know what you're doing. I start my plants in 0,4l pots and I try to keep them in them as long as they manage to get by with max. one watering a day.
 

LSWM

Active member
Quick question. When adding Mg and Ca at the recommended (on the canna bottle) 1 ml/L to the nutrient solution the EC naturally goes way up. From say EC 1.5 to EC 2.9. Is this ok or should I just water with pH'ed Mg and Ca once in a while?

What product are you using to add Ca/Mg? CalMag certainly contains a grip of nitrogen and I've found doesn't really do squat to fix my deficiencies. Epsom Salts or CaliMagic may be better options.
 

Brugge

Member
Hand watering. Using Canna Mono Ca and Mg. Tap water that is at EC 0,2. The 6 litre pot would get dry on top in 3 days and soak up 1,5 litres of fluid. Lately I've been watering 1 litre every day and having about 50% run off. To be fair the pot was 6 litres but I had maybe a litre of clay pebbles in nylon stockings at the bottom. It's in 11 litres now. When transplanting I got a look at the roots. They bind everything together (even had that bag of clay pepples attached. But not very tight with roots. Didn't seem like root rot either. The male I killed off 3-4 weeks ago had much better root development. I was feeding those two the same. Might not have been the best idea, but it's done now.

Good to hear people have gotten good results with EC around 1.2. What I'm feeding now is (in addition to the 0,2 EC from the water) 0,9 EC A+B (1,6 ml each) and 0,1 EC Ca/Mg (1ml each mixed in 5 litres of water). Using citric acid to pH.

picture.php
 

RonSmooth

Member
Veteran
Calcium & Magnesium supplements are made for people using reverse osmosis, or "soft" tap water. Most people probably have sufficient levels in their water and dont need it.

Also recall reading that the calcium reacts with the acidic nutrient solution making it difficult to manufacture.

I have soft tap water ( >50 ppm). I had to use cal-mag with dynagro and fox farm nutrients or I would get Ca def in bloom.

I switched to Maxibloom a few runs ago and under advice from someone around here, ditched the cal-mag. Not sure of the ratios but I know MB contains Ca & Mg and I have been using it in coco with basically RO water w/no problems (at least not CaMg related)
 
1 ml/l (or 4 ml per gallon) sounds like a heck of a lot of cal-mag to me. When I used RO water I was using 1-2 ml per gallon tops.
 

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