When and why and should i use cal mag?

im running 18 site ebb n flow
50 gal res
GH full expert series grow schedule 5 times daily in veg. 18 hr light.
They have their full sets of leaves and im just now going into week 2 on the schedule.
My well water is 30-40ppm. could cal mag be whats lacking. they just look a little light and not dark dark green yet. id say 6 inches in diameter with 4-6 leafs each, and 3 inch tall max. this is where we jump to 1200 ppm and i just changed my res and started giving them bottle strength. basically what im asking is...cal mag is vital as are alot of the other nutes needed, but without a RO and well water that low in ppm what could i be lacking? they look healthy and are growing good just a little light green for my touch. ill post a pic asap ill be in my room later today.


btw this my 1st grow. ive sank quite a bit of money into the room. 2 1000w mh lamps 10 inch cooling fan for them both. room temps 80 and humid high 40s 10x10x8 outside co2 and exhale bag in room.

I suggest using botanicare's cal-mag. It also has iron in it. The plant needs 9 elements-nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (the main 3) and then calcium and magnesium. These 5 are the "macro" nutrients, or the ones needed in larger amounts. Zinc, iron, copper and molybdenum are the four micro nutrients.

Calcium is essential to plant health, and is found in cellulose, the plant cell walls. Magnesium is a central component of the chlorophyll molecule, and vital for photosynthesis. Usually water is considered hard when its over 150 ppm. If your water is only 30-40 ppm, then you should always start mixing your nutes by adding cal mag first and taking it to 150ppm, then adding the rest of your nutes to whatever strength you want.

That is for veg, tho. Once you start to flower they will start to drink it up, usually there are different feeding options on the bottles; I use botanicares and it has a "seedling" strength, then a "mature" strength, but it also has a "for fast growing plants strength" which is even higher, and probably meant for flower.

Good luck bro

You should be using Calmg from the start to the finish if using a low ppm tap water, RO water or distilled water.

What they wrote ^^^^^ And adding......also if using low ppm well water

R2T

thanks for the explanation guys 100% understood! off to htg to get some as soon as the sun comes up. lol

Bontanicare and GH or GO Calmg are great.

I had to use cal-mag when I used Fox Farms and GH. I'm using Blue Planet Nutrients now and never need it. They already have lots of calcium in the base nutes. Since I found these guys, they're all I use now and bet their Cal-Mag is as awesome as the rest of their line. Good luck to ya! http://www.blueplanetnutrients.com/index.php?option=com_rokecwid&view=ecwid&Itemid=202#!/~/category/id=3699186&inview=product15764166&offset=0&sort=normal

do they start this green or do they eventually green up among later growth? well.......i got to the store and one of the guys who is suppose to be the most reliable guys there said just increase your micro part by 5ml and see if they dont green up for ya. Ok well in a sense hes right. But what thor said about using cal mag for dist well or RO wter makes more sense so got some on the way by GH. But i went to the room checked all the componets and the readings said ph 5.9 ppm 1100 (needed to be about 1200 but was shy some floralicious and added it today) temp 71. grow room temp was 84-85. and my lights 2 1000w are about 15 inches from my plants. no burn on hand or anything as they are very well vented with 2 boosters and 6 inch ducting and an inline. my filter is seperate and boosts into the heat line and goes into another room. anyhow. i took some pictures and some look good but most are really bushy and fat not like ive seen in soil grow. and one pic has 2 big leafs (nirvanas master kush) and some actually have some structure to them but really wide leaves and fat and no height yet and im on 2nd week in GH early growth feed chart. im growing royal queens og kush white widow critical and dinafems blue thai and 2 pres kush pre 98. i can see diff characteristics in each plant but most arent really dark enough for my liking just yet. i took some pictures as best i could with my cell phone ill try to get some more with a digital and upload them tomorow or whenever i go to my room next. but do you think these are signs of cal mag def or since this is the first week ive started them at 1200ppm they need time to grow and green up first since my house water ppm is 20-40. i feed them 1 hr after lights on every 4 hrs and 1 hr before lights off. 5 total feeds. GH expert series nutes. thanks


P.S. Local stores are 3x the price of online vendors. ordred a gallon of everything includ GH cal mag. i have 1/4 of my budget for nutes lol.

I never used to use Calmag for years, now I use it all the time
All mediums, especially coco
4ml/Gal in any nute mix or watering.... also works great as a foilar spray to help speed up recovery of any whoopsies... 4ml/Gal also

Used to use GH... but found out Grotek is superior in results... but use what works best for your plants

Cheers Jimmy.

weee *sulks off to learn to read*

Makes sense to increase the MICRO. That is usually where the Calcium is found, at least with the companies I've used. Calcium is a difficult element because it likes to combine with other elements to form new compounds. So make sure you always add your concentrated nutes to water instead of combining the parts together in concentrated form and then adding the water afterwards.

What about the structuring of them? Does it follow regular characteristics. This is my first ever grow. And it's growing good and put a little more micro in there today. I've ordered plenty of Calmag just in case this doesn't work. Enough to last 4 grows apparently. I have top of he line equipment but I just like having a place to come to so I can talk and discuss this because we can't to everyone we see or goof at a gro store. Maybe I'm just anxious to see something. 1st grow jitters? Just looking for more experienced growers. And only gonna get better from here, But thanks for the info guys!

if by this your meaning like durring a res change. You add your water. add micro, gro, bloom, rapidstart, diamond nectar, flor plus, florablend add airiation tube and disc ran with 2 100gal air pumps and stir well check ph ppm temp and then keep on trucking? let er rip? ........lol like in that order? or is there a common misconception im not getting because this is kinda what ive been going by other logs. (that and some root tea freebies my local hydro guy gave me im kinda just reading on and not used yet)

Your plants look really good great growth form so far. They do look like they are wanting a bit more nitrogen, the leaves are a little pale. Keep it up.

thanks intenseneal!
i have serious light ventilation. we just upgraded 10 min ago. 10 inch fan reduced to 6 inch ducts its pulling ambient room temp 72 deg air across the two 1000w mh. as long as there is no leaf burn or curling tips i can get them as close as i can right? or at this phase the more the light the better? as long as its not too hot correct. we didnt skimp on fans or circulation. an idea were also going to do and wanting some advice on for the scrog... im also putting 2 4ft t12 blubs on each side hanging from the lights for scrog growth. ill include a pic so you can get an idea of where the t12s will hang on the side of the lights its the yellow lines. ive read it helps with scrog. pros cons from this? ideas? ill have 15 plants running this scrog. 3 rows of 6 18 total rows. middle 5 gone for scrog room towards the middle when bloom start. just unhooking the empty rocks.

i also hit them with more micros and some nitrogen nutes to get them around 1250 and let them run a day and since those pics they stretched up and got the dark green im looking for. thanks again for answering questions.

bubbiewubbie said:

if by this your meaning like durring a res change. You add your water. add micro, gro, bloom, rapidstart, diamond nectar, flor plus, florablend add airiation tube and disc ran with 2 100gal air pumps and stir well check ph ppm temp and then keep on trucking? let er rip? ........lol like in that order? or is there a common misconception im not getting because this is kinda what ive been going by other logs. (that and some root tea freebies my local hydro guy gave me im kinda just reading on and not used yet)

Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I'm saying. Water first, then add the MICRO, GROW, BLOOM, ETC... When I first started growing I didn't know this, so I'd just mix my concentrated Grow, Bloom, and Micro... then put the water in. Not sure how quick it happens but you can have problems doing it in that order so its best to always have water there to act as a buffer.

yessir i read that and i do it slowly and stir after each one. so its disolved. the florlicious plus is thick! and gotta be stirred.

You dont want to get the lights too close or you will sun burn them basically. For the 1000w I think 8-12 inched is good. Side lighting is always a good idea but not really needed with your 2 1000w lights. T12 is not the best way to go either go with HO T5 instead if you do add side lighting.

I'm happy you did the right thing with ventilation Bubble
Pulling two or three 6" ducts through a 10" fan via reducer is a good idea.
I think they are getting going in the states, but I recently upgraded to a 'Whisper Silencer Fan' (not Panasonic) 8" fan to pull the air out of 3 4x4 tents running 600's and it works well at keeping temps in check.
Even though I vent and pull from a 70F AC room, just remember to check the grow room temp just before the lights go off and the temps 30mins after they turn on to make sure there is not a large variance is day/night temps.... other than that, if the temps are good... pull the light as close as possible without burn

Cheers Jimmy.

Update. Below are some of the just tips of my plants. seemingly enough its only the w widows that are doing it. the Critical(x anything) and royal queens seeds o.g. kush which is a chemdawg line are growing quickyly, but correct me if im wrong but this does in fact look like calmag def? well i got some finally and added it to the ressy yesterday and we will see. I started the room to see what would grow best to eventually have a 30 plant system same strain. updated 10 inch can max fan for the 2 1000w mh bulbs, a 6inch inline to pull air to the room, a 8 inch on the filter, and 2 240cfm boosters pullin co2 from outside and its starting to get chilly outside now so i may have to put these on a timer and cool air from the inside with screens over them to protect bugs. temps stay at 81deg humidity about 50% Replaced the lumitek digital ballast with a sun leaves magnetic ballasts.....no problems now with tri meter. plants looking good im finally starting to not stress and the girls are looking pretty good. 1st grow ever. input on the pics of leaf and if it looks like calmag def? Love any input from tha pros hawkin newb forums lol. thanks again