Nutrients Canna Coco, Soft water, Calmag, and Silica Question

[Glidethroughthereceptors]

First of all I believe I should mention my tap water ppm is pretty low. Its around 20-30 ppm by itself. The last few grows have had calcium/magnesium defiencies. I want to help prevent that this grow some if possible. I am using Canna Coco A+B this run, and am wondering with my tap water ppm or even if I were to use RO water what ppm should I be looking to get after adding Calmag. There is one thing that is throwing me off though, and that is adding silica to my water. I noticed that adding silica increased my PPM/EC numbers. As everyone knows silica needs to be added to water first before other nutrients/additives. I believe that I should not count the silica ppm's when wanting to get the water to a certain PPM/EC with the calmag. How should I go about using PPM/EC with Canna coco, silica, and calmag to be sure my plants are getting enough calcium?

In my mind, for example lets use my tap water ppm at 30. Then since I need to add silica first lets do that next. The silica brings my waters ppm up to 80 ppm for example. This means that the silica has accounted for 50 ppm's of the current 80 ppm's of the tap water. I have read online in other post that Canna suggest starting with water that has a PPM of 150 assuming they are not refering to the increase from silica. So to me I would need to subtract the ppm's increased from the silica (50 ppm's) and add enough calmag to get the tap water to 200 ppm. 200 ppm minus the 50ppm from the silica would give me the 150ppms canna suggest. Does this sound like the correct thing to do? If not how should I go about getting the correct amount of ppms of calcium and magnesium for my plants when using silica and Canna Coco?

P.S Just had another thought. Maybe I should do a test with like 5 gallons for example since that is the amount I typical add to my reservior. Skip the silica for this test and just add calmag to determine the amount needed to give me the 150ppms. Then just keep adding this amount after I mix in the silica. Does this sound right?

 

[BII]

Ca, Mg and Si can all be rather efficiently delivered by foliar administration, and works quicker too. This avoids all the issues and uncertainties you're encountering.

Salt content, ppm, EC, etc. are additive. The "in my mind" wishful thinking ignoring and subtracting dissolved salts that are there in the water is simply not the way it works.

Do you really need to add silica with every feeding vs. say just once a week or every few weeks?

 

[JP1]

Have you checked your meters? 20-30ppm tap water is unusually low. Silica also doesn't add anything significant to the ppm since it's just a small amount of K... Have you properly washed and buffered your coco? Cana coco line is made for coco so you shouldn't have to add any calmag to it as long as your coco is good to go from the start

 

[Glidethroughthereceptors]

Have you checked your meters? 20-30ppm tap water is unusually low. Silica also doesn't add anything significant to the ppm since it's just a small amount of K... Have you properly washed and buffered your coco? Cana coco line is made for coco so you shouldn't have to add any calmag to it as long as your coco is good to go from the start

Yup have verified with 2 meters. One being a cheap PPM meter from amazon. Shows the about 27ppm. and the other meter is a bluelabs truncheon EC/PPM meter. It shows as not registering. I live in a small town in the mountains so possibly is why the PPMs are so low. And my Silica does increase the PPMs about 30-40more ppms. The cooc I am using is the Canna coco bricks that are supposed to come buffered so that shouldnt be a problem. I just noticed some deficiencies last two grows that appear to have been calcium deficiencies. Need to know about how much calmag that my plants would need. I am using general hydroponics calimagic and it recommends 4mL/gallon. In 5 gallons with silica and 1mL/gal calmag (5ml) my Truncheon meter shows .3 EC. So I figured that is most likely fine. I saw on Cannas website that thier Canna coco is designed to work with standard water of .2-.4 EC. So wouldnt you think I should be good most likely right?

 

[Glidethroughthereceptors]

Ca, Mg and Si can all be rather efficiently delivered by foliar administration, and works quicker too. This avoids all the issues and uncertainties you're encountering.

Salt content, ppm, EC, etc. are additive. The "in my mind" wishful thinking ignoring and subtracting dissolved salts that are there in the water is simply not the way it works.

Do you really need to add silica with every feeding vs. say just once a week or every few weeks?

I just want to be sure my plants are going to get enough calcium since I have been having deficiencies with my tap water

 

[x00m]

ive been doing canna coco with soft water around 40ppm from the tap. i add calmag till its 400ppm or (0.4ec) then i add the rest.. never heard of adding silica.. is this needed? damn

 

[Olde School Player]

I run pure hydro / hydroton grow media with RO water, which has many of the challenges of coco - if it's not in my nutes the plant won't get any. I've grown approaching 50 autoflower grows using 2mL Armor Si (silicates) & 4mL Cal Mag per gallon of RO water @ 310ppm, with no deficiencies noted. On a few grows I tried reducing my mix to 1.5mL Armor Si & 3mL Cal Mag @ 240ppm, and I did detect a mild deficiency on one strain. So 2 / 4 is time tested & proven.

I highly recommend you use a silicate supplement such as GenHydro's Armor Si. Does it add ppm? Yes, the nute NPK strength is listed as 0-0-4, derived from Potassium Silicate. The potassium part is a fertilizer salt. Fortunately, my recomended dosage with RO water is 2mL per gallon, which has negligible effect on the overall Nitrogen - Phosphorous - K Potassium strength of your solution.
Why add silicates? Your soft water @ 40ppm will have little to no calcium, magnesium, & almpost assuredly no silicates.
Roughly 90% of the earth's crust is made of silicates. Dirt farmers get it naturally. Coco doesn't have any. It's not technically a fertilizer salt (but Potassium in the compound is), but it's a MINERAL that's important to plant health, improves flowering, heat & stress tolerance and light absorption.

 

[BII]

I run pure hydro / hydroton grow media with RO water, which has many of the challenges of coco - if it's not in my nutes the plant won't get any. I've grown approaching 50 autoflower grows using 2mL Armor Si (silicates) & 4mL Cal Mag per gallon of RO water @ 310ppm, with no deficiencies noted. On a few grows I tried reducing my mix to 1.5mL Armor Si & 3mL Cal Mag @ 240ppm, and I did detect a mild deficiency on one strain. So 2 / 4 is time tested & proven.

I highly recommend you use a silicate supplement such as GenHydro's Armor Si. Does it add ppm? Yes, the nute NPK strength is listed as 0-0-4, derived from Potassium Silicate. The potassium part is a fertilizer salt. Fortunately, my recomended dosage with RO water is 2mL per gallon, which has negligible effect on the overall Nitrogen - Phosphorous - K Potassium strength of your solution.
Why add silicates? Your soft water @ 40ppm will have little to no calcium, magnesium, & almpost assuredly no silicates.
Roughly 90% of the earth's crust is made of silicates. Dirt farmers get it naturally. Coco doesn't have any. It's not technically a fertilizer salt (but Potassium in the compound is), but it's a MINERAL that's important to plant health, improves flowering, heat & stress tolerance and light absorption.

Are you recommending inert media and hydro growers in general (vs. the grower being assisted here) add such good amounts of silicates because you assume most base nutes are deficient? Do you see a need for silicates supplementation even if the base nutes (such as MegaCrop) claim to or are known to have a cannabis-suitable amount?

 

[Olde School Player]

Very good points, and yes, I DO assume most base nutes are deficient for inert media growers, including the grower who initiated this thread. And to some extent most dirt farmers as well (with the POSSIBLE exception of experienced organic growers). It's the unknown factors that bug me.
For example, MegaCrop lists 0.1% (1/10 of 1 percent) silicon; an inspection of their "derived from" specs says it is derived from potassium silicate - same as GH's ArmorSi. MegaCrop claims that is an adequate amount; I honestly don't know if I can agree or disagree with that. And I hate not knowing / not being sure.
For example, my formulas increase in strength from the seedling through transition phases, into mid bloom when they start decreasing in overall strength. Yet varying ratios of N-P-K are needed during various grow periodsbased upon the needs of the plant (NOT what the nutrient manufacturers recommend, which we know is usually grossly overstated). During the weaker beginning and ending phases of our plants' life, the amount of minerals (as well as base nutes) may not be adequate, and with the effects that minerals Vs salts have on PPM's being similar, just relying on PPM doesnt accurately prove I have the right amounts.
With an all-in-one such as MegaCrop I lose all control over delivery. If I can add the ingredient individually I can insure enough of each ingredient is present.
That's why I prefer to add my own amounts of minerals, micro and macro nutrients. Generally, the plant's needs for mineral content doesn't vary anywhere near as much as nutrient content. So I can maintain a steady amount of CalMag, Si., etc., while strengthening or weakening my individual base nutrient ratios through the lifecycle of the plant. Rather than trying to diagnose whether a deficiency is nutrient Vs mineral based, I prefer to prevent the deficiency from occurring so I don't have to guess which is missing.

All said, I sometimes am remiss in acknowledging "that's me". Other growers might not want to embrace that level of control. I'm somewhat unique in that I am in a not-legal state, and I only grow single plant crops. If I'm ever discovered, my only defense will be mercy-of-the-court for a single plant grow, never sold but donated to medical users. But my patients count on me to provide their medical needs (which I donate), so I must rely upon maximum single-plant yields to meet their needs. My formulas average 11 to 12 oz. yields from single plants, with several pound+ harvests credited to my formulas. If I ever grew a 3 oz. crop my patients would suffer.