Bad Ph And Too Much Calmag?

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MedicalDave

MedicalDave

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Hey guys, thanks for all the tips. Been busy reading like crazy.

Clones are in the dome, want to set up a perpetual grow. Veg 4-6 weeks and flip.

Flushed the pots with ph adjusted tap water 5.9-6.5 until I ran out of water. The ph of the run off was 6.8-7.1 350-550ppm.
Will give them a mild feeding today when The lights come on.

Attached is my local water report, it’s a couple years old though. There’s always water breaks especially in winter so who knows have accurate the report is.

-“The desirable range for irrigation water is 0 to 100 ppm calcium carbonate. Levels between 30 and 60 ppm are considered optimum for most plants.”

Looking at my water report I have a CaCO3 hardness of 65. Which is just above the sweet spot. But it has been building up in my medium raising my ph to lock out the nutrients?

Do I have to get a reverse osmosis filter to deal with this?

Some background info:
I live way up north in Canada. Going to the grow store is a 2000km trip. 1 bag of ocean forest is 130-150$. miracle grow is what they carry here and it’s -40, no garden centre open for months. I’ve been out of the workforce for 2 years so funds are tight. A lot of products on American amazon aren’t available here, or are really marked up.
 
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jumpincactus

jumpincactus

Premium Member
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Hey guys, thanks for all the tips. Been busy reading like crazy.

Clones are in the dome, want to set up a perpetual grow. Veg 4-6 weeks and flip.

Flushed the pots with ph adjusted tap water 5.9-6.5 until I ran out of water. The ph of the run off was 6.8-7.1 350-550ppm.
Will give them a mild feeding today when The lights come on.

Attached is my local water report, it’s a couple years old though. There’s always water breaks especially in winter so who knows have accurate the report is.

-“The desirable range for irrigation water is 0 to 100 ppm calcium carbonate. Levels between 30 and 60 ppm are considered optimum for most plants.”

Looking at my water report I have a CaCO3 hardness of 65. Which is just above the sweet spot. But it has been building up in my medium raising my ph to lock out the nutrients?

Do I have to get a reverse osmosis filter to deal with this?

Some background info:
I live way up north in Canada. Going to the grow store is a 2000km trip. 1 bag of ocean forest is 130-150$. miracle grow is what they carry here and it’s -40, no garden centre open for months. I’ve been out of the workforce for 2 years so funds are tight. A lot of products on American amazon aren’t available here, or are really marked up.
based on your report your water isn't all that bad.
 
MedicalDave

MedicalDave

42
18
Made up 1 gallon of feed for each plant at 5ml cns17 bloom 2-2-5 per gallon. With half RO water to get 6.7 and 586ppm. After ph Down 6.2 622ppm.

Run off from pots was 7.1 600ppm

Made up some mild grow feed for clones. 6.2 ph 250ppm. And transplanted 6 clones to solo cups. Clones are under cfl’s 24hrs at 25 Celsius 70%RH.
 
MedicalDave

MedicalDave

42
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Fed another gallon of 10ml cns17 bloom to each plant. 5.9 ph 1050ppm.
Run off was 7.1ph 800ppm.

Thanks to everyone pointing stuff out with my plants. They are doing much better after the flush and feed. I was surprised some of the leaves on king tut were getting color back and even grew a bud.

I don’t expect a huge harvest on my first run. I’m hoping to achieve 0.2GPW, and improve on the next one!
 
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Dirtbag

Dirtbag

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I didn't read through all the posts except the first one, looks like this is a pretty common issue here.

To me, Again, looks like too much calcium in the media and that's binding up potassium, and causing nutrient lockout.

I really dont get the calmag thing. It's not needed, especially if you have calcium in your water. A quality nutrient will have all the calcium you need.

Cut out the calmag, flush with a low ppm solution (<200ppm) of base nutrients, then recharge the media with a regular feed of about 350-400ppm, or 1.2-1.3ec. Should fix you right up.
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

17,190
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My water is 200ppm out of the tap, and has killed a thousand electric kettles. But I do ok with it, working with it as it is. Have to add a couple of mls of Calmag due to the hardness, but it's usable. I grow in DWC.


150 ppm is considered perfect gardening water for stable ph.

Why would you add cal mag to hard water? It would make it harder.
 
chemistry

chemistry

4,116
263
150 ppm is considered perfect gardening water for stable ph.

Why would you add cal mag to hard water? It would make it harder.

You would think it would increase the hardness, but it doesn't seem to. I can't grow with out it, my plants just don't pick mag up unless it's put in, and fry with out it. Been through all the options too, Calmg is the easiest way to go for me. I could go RO, but who needs the hassle and expense when you can use a drop of Calmag.
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

17,190
438
You would think it would increase the hardness, but it doesn't seem to. I can't grow with out it, my plants just don't pick mag up unless it's put in, and fry with out it. Been through all the options too, Calmg is the easiest way to go for me. I could go RO, but who needs the hassle and expense when you can use a drop of Calmag.


I see. Many times moderately hard water like ours is low on mag.

But it actually makes things worse in my grow.
 
chemistry

chemistry

4,116
263
I see. Many times moderately hard water like ours is low on mag.

But it actually makes things worse in my grow.

Exact same with my water. When we first moved here I was hopping around with joy at the water, thought I could get away without having to PH, and the 200ppm had to have something good in it, but it has no benefits to my plants at all, accept keeping the PH stable at around 6.0/6.2 Had this idea that my seedlings wouldn't need feeding, but they did, so what ever makes up the PPM's in my water, as safe and clean it is to drink, it does jack shit for my plants, and they show it. lol
 
MedicalDave

MedicalDave

42
18
Hey guys, watered again last night at 5.6 ph. It takes 1 gallon to fill the 3 gal pot where water just starts to trickle out the bottom, then I run another half gallon through the pot. The run off was 6.8ph.

The plants have bounced back and the new growth is looking greener and healthier.

You can see where some stems were damaged and the new growth has taken off. I made some stints with old stems and zip ties to help support the buds, but will probably use bamboo later in flower.
 
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MedicalDave

MedicalDave

42
18
Hey guys, day 27 of flower. For the most part the girls have bounced back and are pretty happy. A few of the lower branches are weeping clear fluid where the damaged growth meets healthy growth. I trimmed off lower bud sites and put in bamboo to help support them. Im on the fence whether I should remove the damaged branchs altogether to focus the energy on the healthy top buds.

For consideration: Attached is a pic of damaged branch and the bud growth on that branch.
 
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MedicalDave

MedicalDave

42
18
Day 37 of flower. Things are rolling along nicely with the girls. However some of the damaged growth isn’t going to make it to harvest. The weight of the bud is putting strain on the scar tissue of the stem and it’s bottle-necking nutrients.
 
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MedicalDave

MedicalDave

42
18
Day 60 flowering update.
The damaged branch’s are smaller than the healthy buds and are kind of drying out on the plant. I actually snapped one off by accident watering.
Otherwise the ladies are doing good, still ripening up and waiting for amber trichs.
 
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