What's new
By:
GrowWeedEasy.com
You're browsing as a guest. Sign up to join the conversation, share your grows, and get help from thousands of fellow growers — it's free and takes less than a minute.

Cal mag; bad guess or actual knowledge? soil grows using plain tap water

Toker1

Toker1

New member
What is up with the over use/ over prescribing of cal-mag on this forum? I know it’s one of those formulas that is tough to really over due, but I also know it’s not the penicillin everyone claims it to be on here.
When growers see an issue, “it’s cal-mag time” with out even attempting to figure out what is really wrong in the first place. (Mostly seeing PH issues that cause this initial prescription, but no one asks about PH before Cal-Mag is tossed into the subject.)
Is this just inexperienced growers talking? Any thoughts?
we are talking soil grows, with plain tap water here. If they follow a recommended feed schedule... should be plenty of calcium and magnesium in the diet.
Why all the hype surrounding this product?
Am I missing something here?
 
Don't use plain water - don't use soil pre-mixed with nutes - don't use no feeding schedule - plants tell me what they want - and when. I use CaliMagic cuz it provides necessary calcium and magnesium. Also makes the plants nice and green.
 
But isn’t the calcium bonding with the sulfates an issue? So it’s like 98% non-absorbable in that case, right?
Yes, calcium and magnesium aid in the uptake of nitrogen... that makes plants more green. Got it.
That’s why I was asking about soil grows, that use plain old tap, and have plenty of calcium and magnesium already contained in their diets. Why prescribe more in this case?
Dark green plants are not necessarily a good thing either. Can lead to stunted growth with excess of these products.
 
Last edited:
This is a great chart example
 

Attachments

  • photo75033.png
    photo75033.png
    1.2 MB · Views: 0
All leads to happy plants and lots of buds - what more do you want?
Plus all the other little tricks to make ones plant happy.
 
Yeah... I got that. Been out in the field quite some time.
So seems like you are saying to not include cal-mag on soil grows with tap water that already supliments that provide calcium and magnesium separately. Because over abundance of magnesium leads to unhappy plants. Correct?
 
Anyways - botanists have done lots of scientific research to this endeavor and I'll just digest what they have to say and excrete what I'll call bullshit.
 
Sorry... I meant plain tap water over RO or DI water. I should have been more clear. No pun intended.
 
So if you already added magnesium, in this case, would you add cal-mag in addition to? And if so, then what is the school of thinking behind it?
 
Since the discussion is about following a feeding schedule. When the predetermined time came, magnesium was added.
For discussion purposes, would that individual then add cal-mag in addition to, or hold off?
 
marijuana-symptoms This is from GWE that states when you have a calcium def ? you would add Cal Mag. When a grower reads what has been written in ref to this particular problem based on signs and symptoms, he adds Cal-Mag according to instructions. Considering the signs and symptoms represent 3 different problems that are the most common in growing it is used as a go to too correct any or all of those 3 problems. It's taught, learned and used. It's use is minimal as to a loss of a plant. JMO. I have learned from my time on the forum that PH, under watering /overwatering are the usual cause of the leaf problems we see and usually caused by not following a schedule. (over feed/underfeed) . Just my observation. Good Growing !!
 
Agreed. If they follow the instructions properly, keep ph in control, and water properly most would do just fine.
I also believe, in addition to what is stated above, calcium acts as a ph buffer. This can be helpful to some growers, but not helpful when it comes to actually dealing with/diagnosing PH issues.
 
Its s fine line to have a plant free of issues these days. But if ph is kept in control and a few light nutes added when needed and watering is under control all will be ok. Its hard with these crazy cross breed plants these days. Lots of challenges within each strain.
 
After doing a lot of reading on this, here and other sites, I only use tap water. I read an article on the outdoor garden that said "only use magnesium sparingly every other year". What made me go looking was I sprayed a Bruce Banner 3 with my home mad calmag for it to show toxicity the next morning,, I dumped it BTW.
 
The problem I see, is that everyone's tap water is very different- so a blanket statement is useless!

What follows is my experience with Cal/Mag.
I started with Roots Organic Original (ROO) and tap water-only.

On the very first grow- I had a Cal/Mag deficiency at the same time I switched photo's to flower.
I would take the nutritional issues that arrived and then amend my soil for the next grow to correct whatever was found problematic on the previous grows.

After about a year (of adjusting amendments) I was able to make a simple ammended soil which allowed a reasonable (auto) grow- free of Cal/Mag issues.

At the same time, the "Blurple" light manufacturers recommended adding Cal/Mag indicating it was a result of LED's. <- consistant with my observations- so I added 3mls Cal/Mag to all photo's and long flowering autos.

I have found that strains, which have longer grow times (photo's) would show deficiencies later in the grow cycle, as well as those plants in larger containers (when I switched from 3 gallon to 5 gallon nursery pots).

I was unable to obtain a detailed water analysis, so had to go with what I could test for.
The water ppm was 40ppms from the tap- reduced to 36 ppms after filtering out chlorine,etc.
The tap water pH runs from 5.5-5.8 depending on the season.

I no longer check pH or ppms of any ROO grows- unless I have an issue (or get bored around week 5 of flower- it seems,lol)
When have checked the pH - it was around 6 and the ppms run from 300-2000ppms- but the final results are the same!

All was good until I switched to fabric pots and CoB's/ChilledLogic pucks and my Cal/Mag deficiencies have returned around mid-flower with auto's.

This is where I am now- increasing Cal/Mag to 5mls in the 5 gallon fabric pots and will have to see what develops.

I think routine run off pH testing - is also in the same catagory of "bad guess or actual knowledge?" for soil grows.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top