Canna Coco A/B - starting water PPM, 250 too high?

[Brandon.Edward]

Hi folks.

I'm about to start my 2nd grow (still learning). Growing in Coco/Perlite. Canna A and B nutes.

I was using a different brand of nutrients last round.
I was using around 40ppm water, adding Calmag in (5ml/gal, I often used less), then my nutes.
Now, I have access to this 40ppm water. Not sure what's in that 40ppm, but my Well Water here is around 250ppm, and I'll post a picture/scan of my water testing results.

I was wondering, could I get away with just using my 250ppm water, cut the Calmag out (or use very little) and use just my nutes?

Or is 250ppm starting off a tad high? I can always cut these and get it to whatever PPMs I want starting out. Doesn't Canna recommend 150ppm or something?

Even my last, and first grow I ran into various issues (mostly PH, I had no way to monitor PH during Veg), but I ended up with a couple ounces off a few small plants. Not a complete failure, but I can do better.

Is it safe to say I'll be good either way? Just use less calmag if I use my well water?


Here's a scan of a water test sample from my well.

 

[LexLuthor]

I know this post is kinda old, but how is the grow going?

Are you using Canna's Calmag agent?

It is supposed to be used with RO water, I believe. Canna Coco part A and B has enough calmag that you shouldn't have to add more when using your tap water.

If you think your well water has too high of an EC, maybe you could mix the 250 ppm water with the 40 ppm water?

 

[Brandon.Edward]

Thanks for the reply, regardless how late it is. I'm still very much learning, and seeing what works right now.

I am not using Canna's calmag stuff. I was using Fox Farm's Bush Doctor, seemed to work fine. Almost out of that, bought General Hydroponics Calmag now (1-0-0), will use that next run.

I've noticed swings in the PPMs of my water. I have 2 sources of water really, but I got tired of walking to one of them to grab a couple gallons every other day. My plants seemed to love it though, but they seem to be fine with the well water here though. The only deficiencies I got this run were due to me I feel.
The PPMs of my water coming out of our well right now in this temperature is around 185-200PPM (usually closer to 200).
I've noticed it drifts up a bit once it sits out for a while (or, that it warms up I've noticed).

My PH also drifts up a couple .1s over night, so if I have any nutes left for the next morning/feed, often times it'll go up .1 or .2 , which is normal I'm reading, along with the drift in PPMs as water warms up apparently. I usually will just bring the PH down with a little more PH Down.


In week 6 of flower, I went to cut Calmag out completely minus whatever I'm getting from Coco A and B, I was immediately seeing deficiencies. Like, the next morning. Tips started to go yellow, and some of the leaves on 2 plants looked like Mg deficiency. Pretty certain on that one by the looks, but I don't know much yet... just going off side by side comparisons.
Neither of those issues progressed once I added CalMag back in.
Currently in Week 8 of flower, I'm only giving them 1ml a gallon of Calmag.
I was giving them 5ml/gallon early on, brought it down to 3ml a gallon in veg, then 1.5ml start of flower, and now I've just been giving them roughly 1ml a gallon @ week 8.


I kinda messed things up again this run though. Only my 2nd time making it to harvest out of 3.

My issue was that I did pre-buffer my Coco just fine, but let it sit in a bucket for probably 2 months or so until my last run finished. I thought I could get away with not buffering it again before use, seems I already did a while ago, but I was quickly running into deficiencies early on. They got better as I transplanted them, and rebuffered my coco. Purple stems/leaves on parts, but you can tell they got better after that, seems the rest of the stems/branches were nice and green after that.

I will try to do the same thing next run, cut out Calmag and see what happens. At least on one plant to see, because this isn't the first time I've read that I shouldn't need Calmag with 150ppmish water with Canna A/B. I've needed to this run, but like I said, probably because I didn't buffer the initial solo cup's worth of Coco properly.