RO water with GHE tripart nutrients = calcium defiency?

Hey guys, simple questions if you have any experience on the matter:

So my tap water is essentially RO, with only 0.08 EC.
Now I got 2x plants in hydro (2x NFT) and the other plant is showing decent amount of Calcium defiency while the other doesn't virtually have any defiency.
I'm just wondering if the other plant is just overly hungry for Cal? (plant with defiency = barneys Sweeth tooth#1 and the happy plant is barneys Pineapple Chunk)

Have you guys had calcium defiency with RO water with GHE nutrients?
Do you use Cal-Mag supplement?

I'm using GHE tripart (softwater), but I also got maxibloom in the shelf and it says it should have enough calcium for even RO water.
Does the maxibloom have more Calcium than the Tripart solution (softwater)?

Thank you for any replies

TL;DR

Is it possible or how common would it be to have Calcium defiency in hydro with RO water? Using GHE tripart softwater nutes.
Defiency showed itself during the calcium hungry weeks of 3-5 flowering.

Ty

cage said:

while the other doesn't virtually have any defiency.

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maybe it has "hidden hunger"... or pH right etc many variables...

Your maxibloom has 5% Ca

But the stuff seems to totally lack Nickel, which is essential. Wonder how that in rockwool fares...

cage said:

TL;DR

Is it possible or how common would it be to have Calcium defiency in hydro with RO water? Using GHE tripart softwater nutes.
Defiency showed itself during the calcium hungry weeks of 3-5 flowering.

Ty

Click to expand...

seems like you answered your own question.

i would say Mg is a more common defic but Ca would be next in line.

Thanks, yes I had very strong suspicion of the Cal. Just didn't have any good remedy for it, added some extra flora micro as a quick fix, but probably should've done that earlier too.
I got some cal-mag ordered, but it wasn't available for this.

I had new LED lights for this grow and they packed quite a punch.
As for pH's I've had them closer to 6.0 than 5.5, and I've let them drift to 6.2 to help out the calcium issue.

If anyone have had experiences of the calcium defiency with RO water and softwater nutes, I'm still interested to know about 'em.
Just to know that it isnt uncommon to run to this issue without Cal-Mag supplement.

cage said:

Thanks, yes I had very strong suspicion of the Cal. Just didn't have any good remedy for it, added some extra flora micro as a quick fix, but probably should've done that earlier too.
I got some cal-mag ordered, but it wasn't available for this.

I had new LED lights for this grow and they packed quite a punch.
As for pH's I've had them closer to 6.0 than 5.5, and I've let them drift to 6.2 to help out the calcium issue.

If anyone have had experiences of the calcium defiency with RO water and softwater nutes, I'm still interested to know about 'em.
Just to know that it isnt uncommon to run to this issue without Cal-Mag supplement.

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the problem with using cal/mg to fix just a cal problem is then you get more N and Mg too. cutting edge solutions makes just a cal additive. i use well water so i generally have plenty of cal.

How often are you changing out your rez? Those look like its not a singular absence. Maybe try changing out your solution more often. Calcium is the first element engineered into ferts. If you follow @rkymtnman advice you will be pleased with plant amp which is 1 % ca chloride. Note initial ph range will disturb you 4.5 to 5.5 however if you trust it the acids used in it will give a beautiful swing feed. Plants gobble it up but ph range is going to mess with your head just have to trust and let rise. Ph your solution prior to adding plant amp and just roll with what ever reading post dosage. Your stems will be absolutely solid. You're to far along for a foliar however you'll want a sprayer just for plant amp.. much success...

Calcium chloride foliar spray. You’re welcome.

pinner420 said:

How often are you changing out your rez? Those look like its not a singular absence. Maybe try changing out your solution more often. Calcium is the first element engineered into ferts. If you follow @rkymtnman advice you will be pleased with plant amp which is 1 % ca chloride. Note initial ph range will disturb you 4.5 to 5.5 however if you trust it the acids used in it will give a beautiful swing feed. Plants gobble it up but ph range is going to mess with your head just have to trust and let rise. Ph your solution prior to adding plant amp and just roll with what ever reading post dosage. Your stems will be absolutely solid. You're to far along for a foliar however you'll want a sprayer just for plant amp.. much success...

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so you've used it??? nice.

i've mentioned it here a few times but i think you're the 1st that actually uses it.

i'm using their Si: bulletproof si based on silicon dioxide, so it doesn't raise K values like most Si additives

rkymtnman said:

so you've used it??? nice.

i've mentioned it here a few times but i think you're the 1st that actually uses it.

i'm using their Si: bulletproof si based on silicon dioxide, so it doesn't raise K values like most Si additives

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5 years experience with those guys worth every penny. Outside of the 3 part all the add ons in my opinion can be ran in any style of grow. Ujb however is the only one to be cautious of. I only use it after week 4 and wouldn't use in an ebb and flow system.

As to the bullet proof si that stuff is from heaven... my heater in my green house failed 3 years ago and had 300 cherry tomatoe starts survive a 28 degree cold snap didn't loose a single plant.

pinner420 said:

How often are you changing out your rez? Those look like its not a singular absence. Maybe try changing out your solution more often. Calcium is the first element engineered into ferts. If you follow @rkymtnman advice you will be pleased with plant amp which is 1 % ca chloride. Note initial ph range will disturb you 4.5 to 5.5 however if you trust it the acids used in it will give a beautiful swing feed. Plants gobble it up but ph range is going to mess with your head just have to trust and let rise. Ph your solution prior to adding plant amp and just roll with what ever reading post dosage. Your stems will be absolutely solid. You're to far along for a foliar however you'll want a sprayer just for plant amp.. much success...

Click to expand...

Changed rez when I switched 12/12 lights and then after ~3weeks so it should've been pretty fresh batch when defiency started to raise its head.
I had the classic leaf tip pulling on otherside and the spots in the middle of the leave.
I'm sure the lack of calcium could've lead to some other secondary defiencys as well, kinda ashamed how slow I reacted with this .

Cutting edge solutions looks like a nice line of products. Shame they don't seem to be available this side of the pond.
Was looking for some liquid SiO2 at some point, but went with GHE/T.A Silicate (old mineral magic).

But thank you all for replies, I think I have good tools and ideas for next time.

Out of curiosity what ratio are you mixing?

not sure if @pinner420 is thinking what i am, but Lucas formula with just micro and bloom with RO should be plenty of Ca and Mg too.

rkymtnman said:

not sure if @pinner420 is thinking what i am, but Lucas formula with just micro and bloom with RO should be plenty of Ca and Mg too.

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I've done vegging with ratio from the label which includes the flora gro. But close to 12/12 lights and bloom phase I go without flora gro, so just flora micro/bloom with 1:2 ratio.
Yeah even GHE site says you shouldn't use cal-mag with their softwater products, which is part of the reason I was confused here.
But the strong signs of Cal defiency and the time when it started 3-5weeks into flowering, got me doubting.

Strong lights and the plants are quite big for their rez..
edit* My math fails me at trying to calculate the calcium content with that 1:2 micro/bloom ratio.
If micro contains 6% and I calc it with 0.333 micro and 0.666 bloom, so 0.333*6%= 2% calcium?
Just so I can compare it to the maxi bloom.

if micro contains 6%, that's what you compare to maxi label

rkymtnman said:

if micro contains 6%, that's what you compare to maxi label

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Well the lucas formula atleast isn't really comparable to the maxibloom.

"Lucas"1:2 = N 50ppm
P 44ppm
K 77ppm
Ca 50ppm
Mg 36ppm
S 33ppm

MaxiBloom
N 50 ppm
P 64.5 ppm
K 116.2ppm
Ca 50 ppm
Mg 35 ppm
S 40 ppm

Ppm's might be off but this is more for the ratios.

As for the previous calcium problem, it seem to be confirmed and I'm now at 3½weeks without any visible defiencies.



My LED's seem to induce more stretching compared to my 600w HPS setup,
I'm thinking this is more about the far-red spectrum than the blue.
Here's also the spectrum graph for the LED's if peeps are interested.

cage said:

"Lucas"1:2 = N 50ppm
P 44ppm
K 77ppm

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what nutrient calc are you using?
1ml micro and 2ml of bloom should be 16--13-23

rkymtnman said:

what nutrient calc are you using?
1ml micro and 2ml of bloom should be 16--13-23

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Well I did calculate them myself, with my newly acquired skills, so take them with little grain of salt.
Although if u 3x my numbers, u get same as you 15-13-23, so I'm thinking I got it right.

cage said:

Well I did calculate them myself, with my newly acquired skills, so take them with little grain of salt.
Although if u 3x my numbers, u get same as you 15-13-23, so I'm thinking I got it right.

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my bad. i thought you were using 1mL of micro and 2mL of bloom to calculate

although micro/bloom Lucas and maxibloom Lucas are slightly different, they are close enough to work the same. same with FloraNova Bloom.