Auto pots, thoughts please.

[Olderfart]

You should pop round and sort this for me hahah. But cheers for the advice, in going to use coco I think, I'm trying to get my head around the feeding though, I'm going to use shogun nutes a and b and bloom for flowering and I'll need to add cal mag won't i, but how much cal mag or do I just follow the guidelines, and another thing do I feed 500ppm strength nutes soon as I've planted some clones into the pots or do I just feed them light till established?? Then turn the system on and give 500ppm strength, if you or anyone can give me a round guide on all this would be awesome.

Ah yes, the cal mag question. For starters, make absolutely sure that your coco is buffered, and if in doubt, buffer it yourself. Most of the higher end stuff is washed and buffered nowadays, but not all brick is trustworthy.

Once the coco is buffered, whether further cal mag is useful depends on the nutes. Coco specific nutes usually may not need more calcium or magnesium, Nutes not designed for coco often will. In any case as the coco ages, it breaks down and exposes more cation binding sites, so the need for calcium or magnesium can increase over the grow. Also, cal mag is not a nutrient. Calcium is, so is Magnesium. And the plant will rarely need a standard mix of the two. If you are using tap water, calcium is not usually what is lacking, Magnesium is, and I gather from the Canna website that Iron can be as well. If you use RO or distilled, the situation is entirely different. To make things more interesting, uptake of Calcium and Magnesium are a bit antagonistic, so if you overdo one, you lock out the other.

The cal mag dance is interesting.

On another decision you are making, if the clay pebble/coco mix used by @St. Tom is available where you are located, it seems to work really well. I would not hesitate to go that way rather than a coco perlite mix.

Good luck with it mate, you are doing your homework, so with the help available here, you should have a great grow.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I am familiar with the Canna Line not the Shogun. With your hard water be sure not to use any Cal-Mag. Use the Canna Line at about 60% of their custom light feed chart.

 

[St. Tom]

Ah yes, the cal mag question. For starters, make absolutely sure that your coco is buffered, and if in doubt, buffer it yourself. Most of the higher end stuff is washed and buffered nowadays, but not all brick is trustworthy.

Once the coco is buffered, whether further cal mag is useful depends on the nutes. Coco specific nutes usually may not need more calcium or magnesium, Nutes not designed for coco often will. In any case as the coco ages, it breaks down and exposes more cation binding sites, so the need for calcium or magnesium can increase over the grow. Also, cal mag is not a nutrient. Calcium is, so is Magnesium. And the plant will rarely need a standard mix of the two. If you are using tap water, calcium is not usually what is lacking, Magnesium is, and I gather from the Canna website that Iron can be as well. If you use RO or distilled, the situation is entirely different. To make things more interesting, uptake of Calcium and Magnesium are a bit antagonistic, so if you overdo one, you lock out the other.

The cal mag dance is interesting.

On another decision you are making, if the clay pebble/coco mix used by @St. Tom is available where you are located, it seems to work really well. I would not hesitate to go that way rather than a coco perlite mix.

Good luck with it mate, you are doing your homework, so with the help available here, you should have a great grow.

the canna stuff is pre buffered also their pebbles or clay balls are treated also so your good right out of the bag and its my chosen media for everything but this run for my couple of autopots Im trying 2 full coco pots just for a change and your very clued up my brother probably more than I am and you make a load of great points also big thanks to @Mañ'O'Green also for his wisdom

 

[Watweed_2009]

Ah yes, the cal mag question. For starters, make absolutely sure that your coco is buffered, and if in doubt, buffer it yourself. Most of the higher end stuff is washed and buffered nowadays, but not all brick is trustworthy.

Once the coco is buffered, whether further cal mag is useful depends on the nutes. Coco specific nutes usually may not need more calcium or magnesium, Nutes not designed for coco often will. In any case as the coco ages, it breaks down and exposes more cation binding sites, so the need for calcium or magnesium can increase over the grow. Also, cal mag is not a nutrient. Calcium is, so is Magnesium. And the plant will rarely need a standard mix of the two. If you are using tap water, calcium is not usually what is lacking, Magnesium is, and I gather from the Canna website that Iron can be as well. If you use RO or distilled, the situation is entirely different. To make things more interesting, uptake of Calcium and Magnesium are a bit antagonistic, so if you overdo one, you lock out the other.

The cal mag dance is interesting.

On another decision you are making, if the clay pebble/coco mix used by @St. Tom is available where you are located, it seems to work really well. I would not hesitate to go that way rather than a coco perlite mix.

Good luck with it mate, you are doing your homework, so with the help available here, you should have a great grow.

Thanks a lot everyone on here are great to talk to. And have very good advice. So thanks again guys and girls.