DIY and other hydroponic formulas.

[Three Berries]

I also water to runoff when I do. Never use to but since doing so pH out is not a problem. I'm convinced my problems are all Ca related. Just a cascade of changes made in the last year growing environment. AND going to rainwater vs hard well water without adding back the lost Ca.. Other than adding limestone I never added any Ca in the past.

The local limestone quarry about 10 miles away and uphill, the composition analysis is 93% Ca Carbonate and 7% Magnesium Carbonate and there is some iron in the water too.

So 440 ppm 93/7 is where I start. But I add KSO2 and 2MgSO4 to the soil in the form of Langbeinite.. Not a lot but it is slow release.

 

[Creeperpark]

When you add a lot of ppm that's unknown.. that's also a big part of what the plant gets, it's also harder to judge plants by looking at them when you not sure what they been eating. Having a proper feed content for your plants means you can use a lower ec an plants won't show deficiencies. I will add that I am just learning coco and good nutition, but what I see amazes me!

exploziv you've got me looking that way big time. I'm super interested in learning about coco and when I finish this grow I'm looking at switching. Keep me posted so I can watch as you grow and learn from you friend.

 

[Creeperpark]

Okay here's today's low-wattage, low ppm grow. I put a "16oz soda can" in the photos for the size scale. Over 45 days still to go in flowering, the plants are starting to stink nicely.

 

[Creeperpark]

Forgot the photos sorry,

 

[Three Berries]

I took the big one and flushed it out yesterday. Getting too big for the small tent light wise. But in the natural light the plant looked great. It's a Granddaddy Purple and the big leaf stems and new growth have a bit of purple but not much. It's growing like a weed. I can see under the LEDs a bit of yellowing on the new leaves but it goes away as the leaf develops with some of my homemade calmag. The green window tint further highlights the yellowing too.

The high CO2 must be the issue driving the LED/yellowing/Ca deficiency.. Maybe I need to do a IV

 

[exploziv]

I am pretty sure plants would be ok if the had proper nutrition for their environment. High CO2 would only mean they need even more nutes. So yeah you could say it that way that high co2 is the problem, but I would say the more correct way to put it is not enaugh food and maybe as well lack of good/perfect environment to be able to use that elevated co2 levels.

 

[Three Berries]

I am pretty sure plants would be ok if the had proper nutrition for their environment. High CO2 would only need they need even more nutes. So yeah you could say it that way that high co2 is the problem, but I would say the more correct way to put it is not enaugh food and maybe as well lack of good/perfect environment to be able to use that elevated co2 levels.

My problem was lack of Ca, all the environmental factors just made it all worse. Especially the rain water. As I was getting what Ca I had from the well water in past grows. But still I see now they were lacking in Ca. Always though it was the Mg of K.

In the last two days the transpiration has increased so much the fan is staying on almost all the time to keep the humidity in check.

I'm amazed

Went to half strength nute watering today.

 

[exploziv]

Good to hear you on the right path. Make sure you feed them enaugh, or better said that they have enaugh of what they need. Sometimes when what you feeding is close enaugh to what the plants need, a higher ec will help keep the plants happy. But when you lower EC, you find you need to have a better content in that feed and to.be quite close to the needed ratios for them to be happy. In a way, could be said that many mask an imperfect nutrition by raising EC, some not even knowing they do that. I bet some of the nutrient companies count on this "fix" as well and raise req dose knowing more people will have happier plants like that.
So you should watch for subtle defs to correct them in time if they appear, since you lowered ec. I was just in this trap of feeding high ec weeks ago. Now I am under half of what I was feeding and still going good. Top half of the plants look very happy. I have some Ca issues on lower leaves, but that something that doesn't bother me at this point, as I really want to start the "end flush" soon, since I am like 2-3 weeks from harvest. Them missing a bit of Ca in the lower leaves means they lack it a bit already and they moving it where they need it, and so it will be easier to flush the media during last weeks as they get ready for harvest.

 

[Creeperpark]

My problem was lack of Ca, all the environmental factors just made it all worse. Especially the rain water. As I was getting what Ca I had from the well water in past grows. But still I see now they were lacking in Ca. Always though it was the Mg of K.

In the last two days the transpiration has increased so much the fan is staying on almost all the time to keep the humidity in check.

I'm amazed

Went to half strength nute watering today.

When you use rainwater you have to fortify it with cal-mag unless the soil has a lot of calcium and magnesium in it. It only takes a little cal-mag., a couple of ml a gallon of rainwater.

 

[Three Berries]

When you use rainwater you have to fortify it with cal-mag unless the soil has a lot of calcium and magnesium in it. It only takes a little cal-mag., a couple of ml a gallon of rainwater.

I've given up on rain water. Don't see much sense in not using well water when it's ~400 ppm Ca/40 ppm Mg and a bit of iron. The plant is responding very well to the every other day 1/2 cup top dressing of the 1200/240ppm Ca/Mg mix for the last couple weeks. All the new leaf tips are yellow. If I add the top dressing then the leaf fills out green. If I don't then it stays yellow.

I've never used CalMag so don't know the strength of it other than what, I've read.

The plant that was giving me troubles is now so big it's time for flower. As it is stretching quite a bit now that the Ca has been sorted.. Flushed it and went to flower nutes. It's going on 12/12 after today. Can't keep the humidity down now.

CO2 today is 2200 ppm. One thing I noticed yesterday is when the lights are off the CO2 rises, it was +3000ppm in the tent with lights off.. This must be from transpiration and sugar use. It was 500 ppm higher in the tent even with the door open half way than in the room.

 

[Creeperpark]

I'm lowering the cal-mag from 126 ppm down to only 80 ppm in rainwater and dropped the Grow nutrient completely. I bumped up the Bloom maintaining the same EC as before but only Micro and Bloom now 289 ppm total.

 

[Creeperpark]

Here are the buds starting to get a little frosty 10 days later.

 

[Three Berries]

My first one moved to flower is showing some white hairs and the other I just moved in 6 days ago. The stretch is on for it. Did a lower trim job.

Still giving a heavy dose of CaCl2 once a day for both to keep the yellow tips at a minimum. Up to little over a cup and went to ~1800 ppm with a cup of dissolved langbeinite 2:1MgSO4/KSO4 (9160 ppm!).

Looking to be backing off soon with the flowering. But the yellow tips are a great telltale sign for daily observation.

pre trim, 1 week flower plant

2 week flower

1 week flower

 

[Creeperpark]

My first one moved to flower is showing some white hairs and the other I just moved in 6 days ago. The stretch is on for it. Did a lower trim job.

Still giving a heavy dose of CaCl2 once a day for both to keep the yellow tips at a minimum. Up to little over a cup and went to ~1800 ppm with a cup of dissolved langbeinite 2:1MgSO4/KSO4 (9160 ppm!).

Looking to be backing off soon with the flowering. But the yellow tips are a great telltale sign for daily observation.

pre trim, 1 week flower plant
View attachment 18123952

2 week flower
View attachment 18123953

1 week flower
View attachment 18123954

Filling in nicely and looking good! TB

 

[Creeperpark]

Heres an update on my indoor grow. I have one pot that is heavier than the other because it has more potting soil in the container. The lighter one wants water early but the heavy one wants water later because it holds more soil. They require different watering schedules by weight but I watered them on the same day because of being lazy and not wanting to double mix nutrients.

 

[Creeperpark]

Out of 5 plants, I have one. The one on the left is heavier and takes more water than the other plant. More water exposure has caused excess calcium build-up in the top leaves. More water means more cal-mag exposure or "if a high ppm tap" was used it could be the same. When you see this problem it's from over-watering with a buffer and not a lack of nutrients.

 

[Creeperpark]

I see this in a few grows in late flowering. This is easy to fix and if you see this in your grow don't panic because it's not too late. The way to fix it, is to drop the cal-mag. or tap water and only use pure water with low ppm nutrients from here on out. But most important is to reduce the water intake. I saw this coming but I wanted to share how raising the hydroxyl content in the root zone would affect plants in flowering. I still have a lot of white pistils on these 2 indoor plants so I will reduce the water and lighting to speed things up. Still have a way to go.

 

[Three Berries]

Here's my last grow with a Ca deficiency.

 

[Creeperpark]

Using a commercial potting mix and supplementing with cal-mag would be plenty of calcium for the plants' needs. If one uses both and still has a calcium deficiency then it is caused by a transpiration or translocation problem. The plant is not moving enough fortified water through the xylem in the stem to get the calcium to the tips of the plants. Calcium problems show in the tips of the plants first because the calcium does or doesn't make it to the top of the plant.

When the amount of water the plant needs slows in flowering the calcium uptake can stall. Airtight tents mixed with high humidity, cold temps., and lack of air movement can slow water transpiration way down. It doesn't matter how much calcium you have in the soil and water if a plant is not transpiring it through the xylem can't move the calcium. I moved or transpired too much-fortified water cal-mag. and raised the hydroxyl ion content by over-dosing one plant. You can see how the extra calcium is built up by bronzing the leaf edges.

 

[Creeperpark]

If I had a plant that wasn't transpiring water and I give it water anyway because it's a watering day, "I fucked up". Watering a flowering plant that doesn't need watering will cause a calcium deficiency. If I have a plant that's not moving water, I need to hold back the water, raise the temps, and move or extract the air until the water transpiration is back to normal. After water transpiration is back to normal I can give the plant water with a little cal mag. to fix any deficiencies.