Need Information on Cal/Mag Deficiencies When Using Led Lights

theslipperbandit

Well-Known Member
Great pics! Any info on how often you apply the foliar and what is your mix rate? I will be reading your thread tonight after I get my outside house chores done. I installed the Blumat system last night so I'm tickled about that. I also have their moisture meter on the way. It was shipped a week ago but they tied it to the back of one of their slower tortoises so I am still waiting.



I can't say I haven't had the urge to cut my losses and do the same but since I have a considerable amount of money invested now I am determined to make it work although I still have all of my hid equipment. If all it takes is supplementing some Mag or Cal/mag that really is easy enough to do.
Better yet, I'll just put Slipperbandit in charge of my garden and take a vacation. What you say? You can manage a commute, right?
From Ireland..I'll work for u lol ur being 2 modest ur a good grower u take positive Criticism with a smile and u weigh out the advice given by others...I can see ur passionate so keep at it bruv
 

BB Boomer

Well-Known Member
From Ireland? I can do that. Money is no object, I will just tell my magical unicorn to go out to the money tree in back and pick what I need. So first class I assume? bongsmilie

Things are on the upswing so I am feeling better but it is still more of a cautious optimism. I have been growing for the last 14 years with never ever having a problem when growing with hid and that includes anywhere from a 100% sativa to 100% indica and hybrids. Then after switching to led and seeing my own 1st Mag def instead of reading about other peoples it was a shock. I am hoping others will see this thread who also are discouraged and be able to find a solution as well.

The one thing I messed up on using the Epsom salt foliar is not getting the underside and doing it just before lights out although the problem still cleared up. The last point does bring up a question though. What about the increased risk of foliar diseases by going into the dark period when the leaves are misted?
 
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Los Reefersaurus

Well-Known Member
Things are on the upswing so I am feeling better but it is still more of a cautious optimism. I have been growing for the last 14 years with never ever having a problem when growing with hid and that includes anywhere from a 100% sativa to 100% indica and hybrids. Then after switching to led and seeing my own 1st Mag def instead of reading about other peoples it was a shock. I am hoping others will see this thread who also are discouraged and be able to find a solution as well.

The one thing I messed up on using the Epsom salt foliar is not getting the underside and doing it just before lights out although the problem still cleared up. The last point does bring up a question though. What about the increased risk of foliar diseases by going into the dark period when the leaves are misted?
I'm in exactly the same boat, I do my room in 2 week intervals and everything looks like shit , but is recovering except the plants that are 2 weeks from coming out of the clone dome, some of them are growing so fast and are looking fantastic, I swear some of them grew 2 inches or 25% in 6 hours. Th
e Hempstar might not be dead just yet.

About folar, what I have been doing is added epson salt, and Superthrive (b1, kelp, a bit of N), plus H2O2 to kill off any chance of pathogen. Spraying odd days just after lights out, for a week then nothing for a week. I haven't had any mold issues and I was spraying up to 9 days before harvest on some plants. These nearly done plants I wasnt drenching or anything, AND a drop of soap



IT should also be noted I as using a sprayer.jpg to foliar feed
 
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BB Boomer

Well-Known Member
I like the idea of adding the H2O2. I'm going to do that with the next application. That's quite a mister, how many acres does it cover? :mrgreen:
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
From Ireland? I can do that. Money is no object, I will just tell my magical unicorn to go out to the money tree in back and pick what I need. So first class I assume? bongsmilie

Things are on the upswing so I am feeling better but it is still more of a cautious optimism. I have been growing for the last 14 years with never ever having a problem when growing with hid and that includes anywhere from a 100% sativa to 100% indica and hybrids. Then after switching to led and seeing my own 1st Mag def instead of reading about other peoples it was a shock. I am hoping others will see this thread who also are discouraged and be able to find a solution as well.

The one thing I messed up on using the Epsom salt foliar is not getting the underside and doing it just before lights out although the problem still cleared up. The last point does bring up a question though. What about the increased risk of foliar diseases by going into the dark period when the leaves are misted?
If you dim your LEDs and use a surfactant in your foliar spray you can water with the lights on.
 

TheChemist77

Well-Known Member
if you took 10 seconds to read what i wrote, you would see that i very much said using cobs increases the chance of a deficiency.... im saying its not selective to magnesium and calcium

you guys are entitled to your opinion, as am i. you should learn how to present yours without trashing others, its not a good look
what jacks are u using and at what amount per gallon? i just bought jacks classic citrus and potassium sulfate,, i 3was told to use 1/4 tsp per gallon of jacks alone in veg then in flower 1/4 tsp of both...i seen jacks hydro 5-12-26 and wonder if this is a better deal if using the hydro dont u have to add somthing to it??
 

BB Boomer

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info MrTwist1. Mine isn't dimmable though. I can do them just before lights off easy enough now that I know it should be done.
 

DesertHydro

Well-Known Member
How do you dial them in? I have mine running for a week now.
i haven't run mine in a while but heres what you do in coco or soil. water the pots pretty heavily by hand with the blumat installed and the valve CLOSED. wait 24 hours till the media is at moist but not wet stage. open valve slowly and adjust till you get a clinging droplet, you should get a droplet about every 20 seconds. no more than that or YOU WILL OVERFLOW lol. put saucers under each individual plant so when you do get a run away while tuning(and you probably will) it will be easy to pick out which one over watered. the saucers are extremely important. make sure you don't have a big enough res to flood your floor when tuning lol.

there is a learning curve but once dialed they are MONEY. best invention ever for coco plants. the plants decide when and how much water they get. not a one size fits all watering schedule. I left coco behind when I did a side by side of coco vs rockwool but I absolutely LOVE blumats.
 

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
How do you dial them in? I have mine running for a week now.
After you have set them and let them settle for a week or so, I like to go through and lift them all and roughly check for weight and moisture levels. I use fabric pots, so I find at optimum dialage - the fabric pots feel fairly heavy and just slightly wet to the touch on the bottom and the lower part of the pot's side. So normally a few might get adjusted just by like 1 or 2 lines to either open them up or close them down slightly. Experience led me to believe they like it just slightly wetter than dry. You will figure it out. Just make sure you adjust by tiny increments and then just observe.

Try and keep your Res level fairly stable - that is to say, try and avoid a large change in pressure between full and empty. Smaller/Flatter Res makes this easier. Other people use a double res system with a float valve system (or similar) to refill itself and make sure Res level doesn't fluctuate much.

Most importantly never let your res empty. As soon as the drip stops your sensor carrot is starting to dry out and this is a problem. Resetting is a hassle. You will need to make sure you get any air out of the carrot or you will have ongoing problems from here on. In the same vein, check your tubes/connections/pathways/drips regularly to make sure you don't get any blockages/airlocks. Obviously if you're feeding salt based nutes you need to consider adding dripclean or equivalent to minimise buildup in the drip hose etc.
 

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
After you have set them and let them settle for a week or so, I like to go through and lift them all and roughly check for weight and moisture levels. I use fabric pots, so I find at optimum dialage - the fabric pots feel fairly heavy and just slightly wet to the touch on the bottom and the lower part of the pot's side. So normally a few might get adjusted just by like 1 or 2 lines to either open them up or close them down slightly. Experience led me to believe they like it just slightly wetter than dry. You will figure it out. Just make sure you adjust by tiny increments and then just observe.

Try and keep your Res level fairly stable - that is to say, try and avoid a large change in pressure between full and empty. Smaller/Flatter Res makes this easier. Other people use a double res system with a float valve system (or similar) to refill itself and make sure Res level doesn't fluctuate much.

Most importantly never let your res empty. As soon as the drip stops your sensor carrot is starting to dry out and this is a problem. Resetting is a hassle. You will need to make sure you get any air out of the carrot or you will have ongoing problems from here on. In the same vein, check your tubes/connections/pathways/drips regularly to make sure you don't get any blockages/airlocks. Obviously if you're feeding salt based nutes you need to consider adding dripclean or equivalent to minimise buildup in the drip hose etc.
Thank you!
 

BB Boomer

Well-Known Member
I followed the directions provided in the package. It too mentioned getting the soil good and saturated but right after doing so you are suppose to insert the carrot. It didn't mention already having the carrot in. Also, the directions say that after adjusting for the hanging drop, you are then suppose to fine tune the carrots right away by closing the valve another 2 "arrows" (even shows this in a picture). Then after a watering you can fine tune the carrots further according to individual pots.

Does this mean that my initial set up settings are incorrect? I have 9 carrots set up. Four of them I followed the directions exactly and went the 2 arrows. The other 5 carrots I set at 1.5 arrows after reading another thread where the person felt going 2 full arrows left the pots too dry.

Did you try the directions first and then come up with this method after finding the instruction book was incorrect?
 
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CobKits

Well-Known Member
what i see above looks intriguing

so whats the deetz? zero runoff? do you flush? if you had an existing tray and res system would you keep it or throw the pots on the ground with blumats? i used to use slabs in RW but at this point 6x6 hugo blocks are all i need start to finish. looks like thats a go from the post above. interestingly enough the top of the cube is dry, look zero covering, zero algae. usually i have roots filling the block top to bottom (and then some so i wonder if thats a step backwards on rootmass

do the digi blumats pay for themselves or are they just a novelty relative to the manual drip ones?

say you were using 1.6 EC watering 4 times a day, how does that convert to blumat world?
 
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