Adding Ca, Mg and trace Elements to RO water

[IndoorTropics]

Currently adding Calmag product to buffer my RO water (20ppm) to about 150-250ppm for my organic soil grows. This has 2% Nitrogen which i don't want and I believe is mostly designed for hydro growers in coco. So i would prob prefer to use calcium carbonate, epsom salts and/or others to achieve the same result. My tap water is not usable and not an option.

RO water in my soil seems to strip the plants by about week 3-4 of Ca and Mg.

Would calcium carbonate and epsom salt be enough to add? Am I missing any iron or other important trace elements?

How many grams of each should I add to the RO water?


P.S. I use Biotabs full range..

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Currently adding Calmag product to buffer my RO water (20ppm) to about 150-250ppm for my organic soil grows. This has 2% Nitrogen which i don't want and I believe is mostly designed for hydro growers in coco. So i would prob prefer to use calcium carbonate, epsom salts and/or others to achieve the same result. My tap water is not usable and not an option.

RO water in my soil seems to strip the plants by about week 3-4 of Ca and Mg.

Would calcium carbonate and epsom salt be enough to add? Am I missing any iron or other important trace elements?

How many grams of each should I add to the RO water?


P.S. I use Biotabs full range..

Why do you believe the CalMag with N will negatively affect your plants?

 

[IndoorTropics]

Why do you believe the CalMag with N will negatively affect your plants?

plants have minor nitrogen toxicity. clawed leaves etc. Adding N every time with my water is likely not helping things. Ofc not the main problem of N, but not much i can do about that at this stage, due to using Biotabs and super soil. Yes, I now know better...

 

[Death The Cultivator]

plants have minor nitrogen toxicity. clawed leaves etc. Adding N every time with my water is likely not helping things. Ofc not the main problem of N, but not much i can do about that at this stage, due to using Biotabs and super soil. Yes, I now know better...

I use Mega crop and their CalMag in an inert media, haven't gotten nitrogen toxicity. I believe the N in CalMag is a result of nitrates being present rather than nitrogen itself.

Do you have pictures?

 

[IndoorTropics]

I use Mega crop and their CalMag in an inert media, haven't gotten nitrogen toxicity. I believe the N in CalMag is a result of nitrates being present rather than nitrogen itself.

Do you have pictures?

yes i had read something halfg similar about the calmag. makes sense. thanks for your help. i appreciate you.

here are some pics of what i think is nitrogen clawing and slight yellowing on a separate plant/strain.

 

[IndoorTropics]

First emerged as orange/brown/reddish spots on the leaves...hard to capture in photo but in 2nd pic u can see these spots...
Now on this flushed plant im seeing some light/dark green colors at same time...but these orange/brown rust spots appeared immediately after i added straight RO water and were spreading fast several days ago, so i quickly added another bit of water with calmag on top, and every watering since then has included the highest recommended dose of calmag (5ml per gal). now i started to dose it down again as i read about overdosing and causing other lockouts ha! im not at about a 75% dosage and looking to go to 50% maybe..

P.S white marks are leftover DE...also some of my "female sexing pistols" turned orange after spraying for bugs, mayb e 10-20% orange..should be fine and prob stress from spraying, or not even stress and i just got them wet. i dont hold back when doing foliar lol

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I don't think you had nitrogen toxicity.

 

[Proph]

A handful of variables are in play here.. Why are you adding cal mag to organic soil? If you have a Cal mag issue. 9 times out of 10, adding more isn't the answer. What was ppm of the run off when you did the flush? The light green discoloration looks like an iron issue. My bet is that there is a nutrient lock out. You shouldn't need to add Cal mag in an organic soil..

 

[IndoorTropics]

A handful of variables are in play here.. Why are you adding cal mag to organic soil? If you have a Cal mag issue. 9 times out of 10, adding more isn't the answer. What was ppm of the run off when you did the flush? The light green discoloration looks like an iron issue. My bet is that there is a nutrient lock out. You shouldn't need to add Cal mag in an organic soil..

Ok well the really complicated thing is that esome plants faces a slightly different situation due to screwing up the Biotabs regime several times lol within the same pot. yes i tried to remove Biotabs twice from the same pot lol. They have ALL been getting calmag in the water though. i now realize this contains salts and i have potentially caused more problems...

ok, so i started adding calmag cos at about the 3-4 week mark i gave a big feed of straight RO (as i had done previously in the grow), but the plants quickly started showing brown spots on leaves and spreading VERY FAST. adding the calmag stopped it...i can say this much...

since then i have given all of my waterings with this calmag at quite a high dosage, as i had read that RO water can strip the plants and i am using a loclaly bought super soil which i have no idea what is inside...yes it is not ideal and i have realised most my mistakes but now am trying to see these girls through to the end.

Ok, the plant which you think has an iron deficiency was flushed (the only one and i did cos was shocked at ppm runoff of supersoil - now i know it sort of doesnt matter in super soil) with about 15L of water in a 5-6 gal pot. The starting PPM runoff of this supersoil was about 2500-3500 ppm. i flushed this plant down to about 1000-2000 ppm with straight RO water. Since then as i said been adding calmag every watering. about about 1.2ml per L.

all the other plants have NOT been flushed but did get calmag, this includes the plant showing yellowing leaves in the edges which seems to eventually turn into brown spots. Ok this looks like nutrient lockout, and must be caused by the bloody salts in the calmag?

so i suppose have 2 questions here. how to deal with the nute lockout in most of the other plants? i assume this means flushing them? 6 gal pots lol, how much RO water i need this time hahaha

and 2nd question is what to do about the girl who was flushed and is showing the iron deficiency?

 

[IndoorTropics]

More pictures of plant which had no flush..others look similar but less degrees of yellow but same burning on tips and some brown spots on leaves