Pauly Cicero
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So it all starts from here....The calcium and magnesium lockouts that everyone in the industry stresses over is because most nutrient lines are either salt based or have salt preservatives. Most of the cal/mag issues we see in the use of coir is blamed on the coir fiber for consuming or tying up the calcium. The funny thing is is that it's not the coco robbing them of calcium rather then the salts building up and blocking the calcium from entering the plant. That is when the industry cal/mag products come in to play. Most of those cal/mag products are Nitrate based, which require a lower pH to enter into the plant. This lower pH allows the plant to fix its cal/mag deficiency by absorbing the nitrogen as a salt. Hence why the industry says you need to run a lower pH in coco. But with the Nectar, our calcium forms don't change from a soil garden to a soilless garden. The calcium forms we use are much large then that of a calcium nitrate and require a larger stomata to be absorbed through. And because calcium is such a reactive molecule it wants to bond to anything it can get a hold of. We still would like to see the addition of a compost tea, microbial tea or some form of microbial inoculate to speed up the chelation process. The microbes will aid in breaking down the calcium bonds and make those portions and elements available through microbial digestion. So I still recommend treating a coco/perlite mix as a soil as far as the pH and feedings of. The roots will still need that pH stimulation to promote more aggressive uptake. But keep in mind that a lot of soilless and coco manufacturers (branded companies) in our industry also charge their coco fiber with products like cal/mag, or salt water composting. These additive can add unwanted slats into the medium and that is where the slurry test is helpful. I always check the new coir fibers PPM's before planting in it and have found fresh coco, right off the brick to be anywhere from 150-1300PPMs. Hence why I always check. And mid way through veg and midway through bloom I check the soil from the containers and have found that taking a couple of TBLS of soil from about 1.5 to 2 inches down next to the container wall gives me a good reference of what is going on through out the entire medium.