Only calcium

Old Person

Active Member
What would be a good source of ONLY calcium for hydro??
I see it in cal/nit form and cal/mag form, but I'm looking for it without anything added to it, water soluble of course.
 

Lou66

Well-Known Member
Pure calcium is a metal. It is neither soluble nor can it be taken up by plants.

Soluble calcium compounds used as fertilizer are salts of calcium as ion and some counterion to balance the charge. Nitrate, sulfate, chloride and EDTA are common.
Chlroide and EDTA (because it also contains sodium) are for niche use as those compounds can be toxic if used in excess.
"CalMag" supplies calcium as calcium nitrate, nothing special there.

I recommend you pick up a general chemistry textbook.
 

Old Person

Active Member
When my plants are drinking more water than feeding, and my ec rises, I top off with ro only……..I will add calmag to the water that I added. My goal is to lower my ec but not initiate a calcium deficiency. I’m not sure that adding magnesium is needed.
 

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
When my plants are drinking more water than feeding, and my ec rises, I top off with ro only……..I will add calmag to the water that I added. My goal is to lower my ec but not initiate a calcium deficiency. I’m not sure that adding magnesium is needed.
2 grams of Cal nit per gal gives a nice calcium base supply and a nice week always usable nitrogen supply. If you are just topping off and adding nothing else using Cal nit at 2 grams a gal should work well in flower or veg
 

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
When my plants are drinking more water than feeding, and my ec rises, I top off with ro only……..I will add calmag to the water that I added. My goal is to lower my ec but not initiate a calcium deficiency. I’m not sure that adding magnesium is needed.
Adjust your feed strength down like 20 % in strength if your plants are not eating and drinking more water. Your in a much better situation if your plants are eating all the nutrients and leaving a half gallon or gallon behind.
 

cage

Well-Known Member
BTW…..thanks for the suggestions……
Not sure about your case, but if you need calcium you could also consider CaSO4, calcium sulfate.
There's plenty info saying it's not soluble, but it most definatly is in the anywhere near required amounts.
With it you get plenty of calcium and some sulfur which has quite tolerant range of ppm.
0,1g of CaSO4 per liter of water gives 23ppm of Ca and 19ppm of S.
 

Billy the Mountain

Well-Known Member
Not sure about your case, but if you need calcium you could also consider CaSO4, calcium sulfate.
There's plenty info saying it's not soluble, but it most definatly is in the anywhere near required amounts.
With it you get plenty of calcium and some sulfur which has quite tolerant range of ppm.
0,1g of CaSO4 per liter of water gives 23ppm of Ca and 19ppm of S.
That's assuming it's dissolved in water. Unfortunately, CaS04 is only slightly soluble in water and a poor choice for hydroponics.
 

SofaKingHigh_

Well-Known Member
What would be a good source of ONLY calcium for hydro??
I see it in cal/nit form and cal/mag form, but I'm looking for it without anything added to it, water soluble of course.
If your using Jacks then part B is calcium nitrate. Just up your feed and you will have more calcium.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
When my plants are drinking more water than feeding, and my ec rises, I top off with ro only……..I will add calmag to the water that I added. My goal is to lower my ec but not initiate a calcium deficiency. I’m not sure that adding magnesium is needed.
You should top off with RO then check your EC after it has a while to mix in well. I grew about 50 rubbermaid tubs in DWC over the years from '01 and would only top up every 3 days then check ppm and add small amounts of nutes using syringes to bring it back up to my target range. Could do a whole grow from clone to chop without ever changing nutes using RO water with AN 3-part nutes. Never having to check pH was a real nice bonus.

A little extra Mg that's in your calmag isn't going to hurt and will help keep the proper ratio of Ca to Mg going.

:peace:
 

cage

Well-Known Member
That's assuming it's dissolved in water. Unfortunately, CaS04 is only slightly soluble in water and a poor choice for hydroponics.
And here we got one spreading false information :)

Like Lou66 pointed out aswell, the solubility is very much enough for the needs.
CaSO4 solubility is at its maximum level of 2150 mg/l at approximately 100 °F (38 °C) and diminishes to 2000 mg/l as it cools to 60 °F (15 °C).
Now isn't that enough for you?
 

Roguedawg

Well-Known Member
Be careful, if you increase the amount of Ca the plant will take up less of one, or all of the other cations. K or Mg, usually Mg deficiency first. You could decrease the amount of K or Mg and keep Ca amount the same and the plant will uptake more Ca than it was.
 

Old Person

Active Member
I’m just wanting to add calcium without raising my nitrogen or my magnesium……
what i’m doing is watching my plants and my ph/ec ……..i have noticed at the suggested mix rate (full strength) i have an ec of 2.0
after a few days my res level drops and my ec gets higher……..so….I add ro water………then….I feel like I should add some calcium back in to offset the additional ro. I’ve been having very good results doing this, but I’ve heard that my plants do not need magnesium during flower.
 
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