Calmag + coco, a myth?

Thanks everyone for posting. Lots of good info and plenty of food for thought.

I think boilingoil is right on. I need to play around with just the first few ppms to get a tap water effect going. Canna does say the best way to deal with the problem is to add back unfiltered water. I'll just have to make my own

TheFuture said:

Looking further into the subject now that i am home, Calcium and Magnesium both bind naturally to the coco fiber. Though it might be common sense that if these are at the roots they would be available, but if it is bound to the coco it would indeed be unavailable to the plant. If using RO water it would scavenge. My apologies.

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I didn't go too far into that mate. That's sort of why I went with the bagged coco that is already buffered with calcium and magnesium. I'm not too sure on the info I read about it TBH and was not going to trust it on my first coco grow by trying to prepare it properly to begin with. As I understood, this is why they buffer it to start with. To give it the stuff it will steal and not give back before you even start. Not too sure on the molecular exchange going on there as to how/when/what is released, what flushing/watering does, etc.. etc.. So many questions I will eventually find the answers to. Even if it was the more cumbersome but effective method of good old trial and error

TheFuture said:

Calcium is definitely needed for plant cellular structural growth and will absolutely need more during the flower cycle because of more plant mass. However, when I spray my plants, I use 350ppm of nutrients as soon as they have 5th node and I top them. Of that, in one gallon of water with a base of 7.2pH and 120ppm dissolved solids, only 10ml of that is CalMag. While I do spray in flower, I only do so up until the trichomes appear profusely to avoid any altered taste. (I dont like to taste BioWeed for instance.)

When you NEED to fertilize Ca it will be when your plants start showing an almost reverse burn. In this case, the Calcium is immobile and unable to move to the end of the leaf tip resulting in marginal burns. In my example, my water really provides enough Ca simply from hard water.

Also as a side note, I have a lot of views that differ from other growers. However, I have produced more than $175m as a Commercial Farm Foreman/Grower and my views come from my own experiences at this point. While I do confer with other growers, This season alone I produced more than 110,000 individual plants in a 61 acre facility. Therefore I don't really discuss much with others, heh. Standing on the shoulders of Giants, though. Thank you Mr. Rosenthal et al.

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Thanks for posting! Great to hear from anyone mate. We all got something to learn from each other.

The problems don't need immediate attention. I've been throwing calmag at them for a while now and it has appeared to have helped. But the cover is not what it appears. I fine tooth comb my ladies each day because bugs are friggen insane outside this year and I'm paranoid about that. When doing that, I notice all this weird, isolated, random, non-progressive stuff going on. This is what I sort of mean by borderline.

Another example is the yellowing of the tips I could only see under the hps. It was there. It would freak me out at lights on when I first check them. I'd rip them out, check under normal light, etc... etc... but they looked fine. Sit there and stew over if I should act or not and progressively through the day they would get better. No matter now though. Today was the first day I didn't freak out at lights on. It looks much, much better.

Underfeeding is my problem. Or pigging out on calmag so there was no room left for anything else. Girls are fussy. It's either too much or too little with them. Tut Tut

TheFuture said:

Looking further into the subject now that i am home, Calcium and Magnesium both bind naturally to the coco fiber. Though it might be common sense that if these are at the roots they would be available, but if it is bound to the coco it would indeed be unavailable to the plant. If using RO water it would scavenge. My apologies.

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Oh right I see... maybe a bit heavy for me on a Friday morning but I will bookmark and read it one day, thanks chap. So did you get fired from the 175 million dollar job lol

Oh yes, im not saying that I don't LIKE talking to others... which is why im here haha. As a farm foreman you kinda just get stuck on the farm/inthe greenhouse/ in the clone bay... and pretty much forgotten until its time to harvest or something goes wrong.

And nope, im still here! We still have more than 10,000 pounds of product to bring out of the drying nets, more projects, more money, never fired. =)

The bigwigs want to do 1,000,000 plants next year. Thats $1,260,000,000.00 roundabouts. Not going anywhere =D

On the subject again though, Couldnt you always water with some Calimag -- 2ml/gallon perhaps -- charged plain water, let it soak in for about 3-5min, and then feed your plants as needed?

TheFuture said:

On the subject again though, Couldnt you always water with some Calimag -- 2ml/gallon perhaps -- charged plain water, let it soak in for about 3-5min, and then feed your plants as needed?

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That's how I started with calmag. Recommended dose on the bottle is 0.5 - 1ml per litre or 2ml - 4ml per gal. I started with 2ml per gal and still had problems so I upped it to the full dose of 4ml per gal. I think what may have happened is that I OD'ed on calmag to begin with. To get 100ppm, I'd probably have to use 0.5 - 1ml per gal, maybe less. It's strong shit ppm wise and if I use 4ml per gal. I get about 200-220ppm left for nutes. Any more and I burn.

After reading boiling's post, I am thinking it is more than likely that I OD'ed on calmag to begin with. I reckon I only need to buffer that first 100ppm max. That will give me plenty of room for nutes and I'll be able to get full doses into them. Maybe switching between calmag mixes and aggressive nutes. I can get aggressive levels if I don't add any calmag.

It also makes sense. 200ppm seems to be the standard used for tap water. Canna say to add 50% back so that's about 100ppm which lines up with what burning has said.

I am in first week of bloom on the nute schedule which is 50/50 of both A + B @ 5ml per gal. This takes me close to my ec limit so I'm just feeding this. Next week is 2.5ml A / 5ml B so that will give me ppms to play with.

After reading up on silica, I am getting some and using it like boiling suggested. Thanks @boilingoil