why? Jacks and calcium nitrate

[Lbman]

Revisiting this as I'm right back where I was when I originally wrote the thread. Thank you so much for the info. Curious if anyone's learned any new developments?

 

[Lbman]

Youre not alone and youre not wrong, but goin against the grain feels weird. Feels like were the problem. Had same issue (also in canna coco) when i made the assumption it was an all around formula. I tried to copy everyone else that said they had no problems but no dice it was always just the same ratios same problems. Couldnt understand how it was just me either lol. Ive come to realize that its actually a very specific formula and a very good one in its correct environment. It doesnt work for long term veg in 100% coco for me though and took some thought. Always an eventual build up in moms that would look good for a good while in new coco. The bigger the pots the longer the wait before issues like a salt build but couldnt fix it with lower EC. Made no sense. Well, too much K, not enough Ca. Sucks, but also not the end of the world cause you can adjust it easily. The new jacks bags say 4g hydro and 2.5g calnit. Even worse for small container coco grows.

I got this idea after seeing university studies with schools using Jacks hydro to grow crops. A lot of them ran a 1:1 ratio in rock wool!! Try the reverse 3/2/1 formula for pure coco grows in smaller containers. And try it for 4 days before declaring it a loss. Stick with this ratio or slowly back off CalNit until it balances for your particular strains and youre happy with their coloring. The numbers work surprisingly well. That will yield you the following and a much better formula for pure coco.

Dont be afraid of "abnormally" low K in coco. Canna runs less than 56ppm on their low feed and less than 70ppm on their normal feed. This will leave you plenty of room to add P and K boosters for specific clones/seed finds just like canna does, without completely destroying the ratios. If you add P you may need to add a little zinc in flower, it is a smidge low in comparison. 0.01 per 5 gallons of 15% edta zinc will put you at 0.158 ppm. If you lower epsom to 0.7g, lower calnit a tiny bit, add 0.2-0.3 MAP you almost have Canna A/B here at normal feed with some added NH4

2g Hydro 3g CalNit 1g Epsom:
N: 143
P: 28
K: 114
Ca: 143
Mg: 59
S: 79
B: 0.264
Cu: 0.079
Fe: 1.59
Mn: 0.264
Mo: 0.100
Zn: 0.079 (If P heavy ex: Short Boost to 60-80ppm: +0.01g 15% zinc edta per 5 gallons = 0.079 ppm per gal in solution. So 0.01g per 5 gal (0.079 ppm) plus jacks hydro at 2g per gal (0.079 ppm) will net you 0.158ppm Zn and so on)

Ratios:
Ca:Mg - 2.4:1
Ca:K - 1.25:1
K:Mg - 1.9:1

For a 20% stronger mix: 2.4g Hydro 3.6g CalNit and 1.2g Epsom (hehe). This will keep the ratios the same but bump EC. If you prefer a little extra P and N add 0.2g MAP per gallon (7ppm P, 6.3 ammonia N per 0.1g with 12-61-0 MAP)

Veg ratio calculation is too easy, (Grams of CalNit x 1.5 = required Grams of Hydro will let you get any EC you need). For flower you can adjust or flip ratio backwards midstretch or dont and instead use timed P and K boosters. Pull CalNit as normal, add back cal if needed using hydrated lime (51% elemental = ~13.5ppm per 0.1 grams). Theres a guy that goes by YosemiteSam and nMeeks that like to put gypsum in their coco at 3g per litre when their base mix already has about 120ppm Ca. An option to think about and take some calnit out of the mix. Both are fantastic growers. Goodluck, you got some wiggle room now.

Ive got mine now at hydro/calnit 2.9/3.2 with ro in pure coco with a tiny 0.1g micro nutrient boost from bioag cytoplus. Still messing with it but working really well. You can run 2/2.2 hydro/calnit also for the same formula just diluted. Maybe cut the cyto to 0.05g/gal.

Hey, sorry for the delayed reply. Curious if your still using this ratio? Tweeked it at all? Thanks

 

[Lbman]

Ive got mine now at hydro/calnit 2.9/3.2 with ro in pure coco with a tiny 0.1g micro nutrient boost from bioag cytoplus. Still messing with it but working really well. You can run 2/2.2 hydro/calnit also for the same formula just diluted. Maybe cut the cyto to 0.05g/gal.

Hey, sorry for the delayed reply. Curious if your still using this ratio? Tweeked it at all? Thanks

And how bout magsulph? Thanks

 

[pasha.h]

I have been making minor tweaks to my nute formula with a variety of strains in veg. My goal is to find the best recipe for multi strain grow. I have been mixing a 200 gal res of nutes, and using the whole res over a couple weeks in hopes I will see the effects before changing formula. At this point I am having the most success with a formula of 3g jacks 5-12-26, 2.75-3g yara calnit, and .7g mag sulph. I have been using only these 3 things, trying to get it dialed before bringing other supplements back in. The thing I can't seem to figure out is why I always need more cal nit compared to almost everyone else. I have some possible theories. Here is my info

-growing in straight canna coco (loose, not compressed). I was using botinacare bricks, but switched to canna to avoid confusion with buffering/flushing out salts from coco
-lights are sunsystem lec (ceramic metal halide). I have been using one 315w bulb for this experiment. I am using the veg spectrum bulbs.
-ec is 1.3ish
-ph is 5.8
-water is R.O.
-drain to waste
-temp 79-80
-humidity 60-65ish

So I know I am up against it using pure coco, and using R.O. water. I had my well water tested some time ago, and it had higher than advised sodium levels. This is why I use R.O. Another thing to note: I am running this experiment on plants that have been rooted, watered/fed for weeks. There shouldn't be any concern about the coco needing to be cleaned or buffered.

I started with the standard jacks 321 recipie. 3.6/2.4/1.1 (I think. Whatever I used was the formula from jr peters webpage). The plants liked this for a while, but calcium deficiency started to show on almost all of my 20+ strains.

Then I tried the 3g jacks 2.5g calnit that so many seem to do well with. I started out without added magnesium. I had a few strains that showed some mag def, but I was also seeing more calcium deficiency on around half my strains. This seems odd to me, as everything I have read/heard, this ratio should provide enough calcium.

I started by bumping up the mag, and that didn't do much to change things, but when I added more calcium nitrate to a ratio of 3g/2.75g The plants started looking greener and happier in a fairly short time. The really strange thing is that they seem to do even better with 3g/3g ratio, although I do see some negative effects on a few strains, probably from too much nitrogen, or a slight lockout from the high cal levels?


I have been scratching my head trying to come up with ideas why I always need more calcium. I thought maybe my lights? Something like what you will hear people say after switching to led's? I guess I was hoping to hear if anyone else has experience this, or if anyone has any ideas what is going on? Once I get things moved into flower, they are under gavita 1000w de's. I normally drop the calcium after they adjust to the new lights, but even then the 2.5g seems to be a bit low for the first part of flower. Most of my struggles with nutrients happen in veg. I have tried experimenting with calimagic along with jacks, and it did ok, but doesn't really make sense to me aside from lower nitrogen levels. Any ideas/advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

Hello! It might be more convenient for you to just get another CalNit? Check Haifa Cal Prime, it is 17-23,5
Some guys who have tried to create a formula most similar to what athena pro line supplies recommended this.

 

[Three Berries]

I was also using Calcium Chloride. But when you mix it with magnesium sulfate it strips the Ca and settles out as Calcium Sulfate aka gypsum.

And I have some MasterBlend that has a recipe for using CalNit and Mg sulphate. They say to be sure and add the cal nit last after the epsom.

 

[George]

Hey @Lbman how's it going. Ive been doing a lot of reading on SlowNickels approach to growing and have dropped the jacks. Even when I would bring my Ca up the plants still lacked luster to me and would grow slower than I was used to. I was making progress so wanted to offer advice but i could tell they weren't 100 for some reason. Now I'm just doing the raw salts and loving being able to try custom mixes tbh. Its not scary at all. Quite easy in fact, you should give it a go if you continue having problems.

I've actually gone even further on my Ca and am at about 160-180 ppm Ca now vs the 114-119 ppm in jacks but 'm still running 3:1 Ca:Mg. Basically my mix is as follows: 155-35-120-167-56 and I have gone up to 162-35-120-180-60 but I'm limited as I'm using MAP now instead of MKP or a better P source and ammonia is a cation and will compete with Ca. Basically can't get P high enough without excess ammonia but we need more P to work with the Ca. So you can see the issue. Ive subscribed to SlowNickels high Ca, P and metal balance methodology, guy knows what's up., I'm still learning. Its funny how much Cannas approach follows Slows way. Canna has over 80ppm P and about 170ppm Ca on a formula that works for veg and flower, now I understand why they use so much P and also why it works so freaking well in coco.

Now I'm no expert, but it seems the jacks has too much Mg if you add ANY epsom at all which will compete with the already low level of Ca in the standard mix and also will stimulate P use. Then the higher K interferes wth Ca too. Basically how I see it is jacks is pushing the already low Ca out. Then the P is low and the micros are low relatively speaking,yet the P and Micros work together to get uptake. It's weird because the macros looks good (traditionally speaking) but the plants don't look as good with jacks.

Once I get some MKP I will be testing n p k ca 150-80-160-180 with 60 or maybe 52 Mg and always using MOST at 0.1 to 0.15g. As of right now my high Ca, Low K and elevated micros have the plants growing faster than ive ever seen, gave me motivation to keep playing. If you haven't already check out the SlowNickel CEC thread. Great info and the more I experiment the more I see its correct. I was on the too much Ca can cause problems bus, but now i realize you just need to support that level of calcium. The limits are quite freaking high seems like.

Edit: my micros come from MOST which is at 0.1g per gallon: 4.8S .356B .608Cu 1.98Fe 2.11Mn .011Mo 1.19Zn compared to jacks micros, the B is about the same bit some of the micros are 500% higher and the ratios are closer to slows ideas

 

[jackspratt61]

Hey @Lbman how's it going. Ive been doing a lot of reading on SlowNickels approach to growing and have dropped the jacks. Even when I would bring my Ca up the plants still lacked luster to me and would grow slower than I was used to. I was making progress so wanted to offer advice but i could tell they weren't 100 for some reason. Now I'm just doing the raw salts and loving being able to try custom mixes tbh. Its not scary at all. Quite easy in fact, you should give it a go if you continue having problems.

I've actually gone even further on my Ca and am at about 160-180 ppm Ca now vs the 114-119 ppm in jacks but 'm still running 3:1 Ca:Mg. Basically my mix is as follows: 155-35-120-167-56 and I have gone up to 162-35-120-180-60 but I'm limited as I'm using MAP now instead of MKP or a better P source and ammonia is a cation and will compete with Ca. Basically can't get P high enough without excess ammonia but we need more P to work with the Ca. So you can see the issue. Ive subscribed to SlowNickels high Ca, P and metal balance methodology, guy knows what's up., I'm still learning. Its funny how much Cannas approach follows Slows way. Canna has over 80ppm P and about 170ppm Ca on a formula that works for veg and flower, now I understand why they use so much P and also why it works so freaking well in coco.

Now I'm no expert, but it seems the jacks has too much Mg if you add ANY epsom at all which will compete with the already low level of Ca in the standard mix and also will stimulate P use. Then the higher K interferes wth Ca too. Basically how I see it is jacks is pushing the already low Ca out. Then the P is low and the micros are low relatively speaking,yet the P and Micros work together to get uptake. It's weird because the macros looks good (traditionally speaking) but the plants don't look as good with jacks.

Once I get some MKP I will be testing n p k ca 150-80-160-180 with 60 or maybe 52 Mg and always using MOST at 0.1 to 0.15g. As of right now my high Ca, Low K and elevated micros have the plants growing faster than ive ever seen, gave me motivation to keep playing. If you haven't already check out the SlowNickel CEC thread. Great info and the more I experiment the more I see its correct. I was on the too much Ca can cause problems bus, but now i realize you just need to support that level of calcium. The limits are quite freaking high seems like.

Edit: my micros come from MOST which is at 0.1g per gallon: 4.8S .356B .608Cu 1.98Fe 2.11Mn .011Mo 1.19Zn compared to jacks micros, the B is about the same bit some of the micros are 500% higher and the ratios are closer to slows ideas

Experiment with B at .0055 x Ca. It can go higher.

 

[George]

Experiment with B at .0055 x Ca. It can go higher.

Thank you, appreciate a straightforward equation like that . What is your opinion on the rest of the micros?

 

[jackspratt61]

Thank you, appreciate a straightforward equation like that . What is your opinion on the rest of the micros?

MOST has excellent ratios except for B.

 

[George]

MOST has excellent ratios except for B.

Thanks. Ive been doing a lot of researching and the ratios seemed to be pretty good but I wasn't sure. Ive made some misinterpretations before and gone off the wrong direction more than once.

Here's another question if you don't mind. MOST doesn't seem to be chelated. I haven't had any issues growthwise but I did notice there is some orange in my water which I chalked up to possibly the iron falling out of solution? Its something that's been bothering me but I don't see visual cues with any deficiency. How much value is there in buying some DTPA from Fischer and chelating the MOST. The dtpa is kind of pricey but if it must be done then it must be done. I'm in coco as well. I tried an organic chelate but had issues everytime when adding it.

 

[unregistered190]

Very interesting!
Can any of you that play with mixing your own recommend an app that does the calculations?
I am running jacks tap and am interested in starting to make/tweak for better results.
thanks n advance

 

[jackspratt61]

Thanks. Ive been doing a lot of researching and the ratios seemed to be pretty good but I wasn't sure. Ive made some misinterpretations before and gone off the wrong direction more than once.

Here's another question if you don't mind. MOST doesn't seem to be chelated. I haven't had any issues growthwise but I did notice there is some orange in my water which I chalked up to possibly the iron falling out of solution? Its something that's been bothering me but I don't see visual cues with any deficiency. How much value is there in buying some DTPA from Fischer and chelating the MOST. The dtpa is kind of pricey but if it must be done then it must be done. I'm in coco as well. I tried an organic chelate but had issues everytime when adding

Thanks. Ive been doing a lot of researching and the ratios seemed to be pretty good but I wasn't sure. Ive made some misinterpretations before and gone off the wrong direction more than once.

Here's another question if you don't mind. MOST doesn't seem to be chelated. I haven't had any issues growthwise but I did notice there is some orange in my water which I chalked up to possibly the iron falling out of solution? Its something that's been bothering me but I don't see visual cues with any deficiency. How much value is there in buying some DTPA from Fischer and chelating the MOST. The dtpa is kind of pricey but if it must be done then it must be done. I'm in coco as well. I tried an organic chelate but had issues everytime when adding it.

I'm no help here guy. I just use sulfates with HA sometimes or a bit of calcium lignosulfonate

 

[George]

Very interesting!
Can any of you that play with mixing your own recommend an app that does the calculations?
I am running jacks tap and am interested in starting to make/tweak for better results.
thanks n advance

I think most people use hydro buddy or something like that.

 

[Coconaut81]

Hey @Lbman how's it going. Ive been doing a lot of reading on SlowNickels approach to growing and have dropped the jacks. Even when I would bring my Ca up the plants still lacked luster to me and would grow slower than I was used to. I was making progress so wanted to offer advice but i could tell they weren't 100 for some reason. Now I'm just doing the raw salts and loving being able to try custom mixes tbh. Its not scary at all. Quite easy in fact, you should give it a go if you continue having problems.

I've actually gone even further on my Ca and am at about 160-180 ppm Ca now vs the 114-119 ppm in jacks but 'm still running 3:1 Ca:Mg. Basically my mix is as follows: 155-35-120-167-56 and I have gone up to 162-35-120-180-60 but I'm limited as I'm using MAP now instead of MKP or a better P source and ammonia is a cation and will compete with Ca. Basically can't get P high enough without excess ammonia but we need more P to work with the Ca. So you can see the issue. Ive subscribed to SlowNickels high Ca, P and metal balance methodology, guy knows what's up., I'm still learning. Its funny how much Cannas approach follows Slows way. Canna has over 80ppm P and about 170ppm Ca on a formula that works for veg and flower, now I understand why they use so much P and also why it works so freaking well in coco.

Now I'm no expert, but it seems the jacks has too much Mg if you add ANY epsom at all which will compete with the already low level of Ca in the standard mix and also will stimulate P use. Then the higher K interferes wth Ca too. Basically how I see it is jacks is pushing the already low Ca out. Then the P is low and the micros are low relatively speaking,yet the P and Micros work together to get uptake. It's weird because the macros looks good (traditionally speaking) but the plants don't look as good with jacks.

Once I get some MKP I will be testing n p k ca 150-80-160-180 with 60 or maybe 52 Mg and always using MOST at 0.1 to 0.15g. As of right now my high Ca, Low K and elevated micros have the plants growing faster than ive ever seen, gave me motivation to keep playing. If you haven't already check out the SlowNickel CEC thread. Great info and the more I experiment the more I see its correct. I was on the too much Ca can cause problems bus, but now i realize you just need to support that level of calcium. The limits are quite freaking high seems like.

Edit: my micros come from MOST which is at 0.1g per gallon: 4.8S .356B .608Cu 1.98Fe 2.11Mn .011Mo 1.19Zn compared to jacks micros, the B is about the same bit some of the micros are 500% higher and the ratios are closer to slows ideas

Is the 150-80-160-180-60 that your going to try next for veg? This is motivating me to tweak some Masterblend to lower potassium in coco. I may have missed it because my eyes are crossed from taking so many notes, but are you running LEDS?

 

[George]

Is the 150-80-160-180-60 that your going to try next for veg? This is motivating me to tweak some Masterblend to lower potassium in coco. I may have missed it because my eyes are crossed from taking so many notes, but are you running LEDS?

Right now yes. Have not ran it in flower yet, its gonna be a minute for sure unfortunately which sucks cause I want try it so bad lol.. just an FYI 'm kind of still starting this journey, I would hate to give anyone bad advice, but I do like to experiment. I just want to be clear that I'm speaking from limited knowledge, so definitely keep doing research and experiment vs what I tell you. Don't use my numbers as a bonified fact. I don't want to give anyone the idea that I'm an agronomist and then I kill your rare moms.

My veg is about 400w led so nothing crazy just enough to keep 15-20 moms alive. I flower under 630cmh but also 1000w de hps. Just depends on what my plans are.

Which masterblend formula are you using? Hopefully not the tomato blend, thats a lot of K lol.. And youre in pure coco or a mix?

Edit: I am in 0ppm RO

 

[Coconaut81]

Right now yes. Have not ran it in flower yet, its gonna be a minute for sure unfortunately which sucks cause I want try it so bad lol.. just an FYI 'm kind of still starting this journey, I would hate to give anyone bad advice, but I do like to experiment. I just want to be clear that I'm speaking from limited knowledge, so definitely keep doing research and experiment vs what I tell you. Don't use my numbers as a bonified fact. I don't want to give anyone the idea that I'm an agronomist and then I kill your rare moms.

My veg is about 400w led so nothing crazy just enough to keep 15-20 moms alive. I flower under 630cmh but also 1000w de hps. Just depends on what my plans are.

Which masterblend formula are you using? Hopefully not the tomato blend, thats a lot of K lol.. And youre in pure coco or a mix?

Edit: I am in 0ppm RO

I appreciate your concern about my ladies brother! I'm still quite new in this journey with salts/jacks/masterblend as well. And from what I've read from your posts, I'm muuuuch further behind you. Lol. I love experimenting as well, so I whipped a batch up clost to the numbers you posted. They sure love it after a few days and a much greener in a few days than the 2.5MB/2.5CalNit they've been fed for weeks. Let's see what happens during stretch.

I have a few successful runs with the regular jacks 321 under Lm301b leds. I have the masterblend tomato formula, which is much cheaper than jacks now so I'm making it work. Masterblend basically mimics jacks when 3.5g epsom is added, just a bit low in Nitrogen for veg.. This is only a couple weeks into 2nd run with the masterblend, and I'm playing already. I don't like 3 part nutes. I like 10 part nutes lol I want ALL the salts lol

145-77-177-179-60
I got these numbers from this

.1g jacks MOST
1.4g Masterblend
3.2g CalNit
.8g MKP
.4g Gypsum
2.3g Epsom.

 

[pjlive]

I don't know if this is going to help any, but I sometimes use Jack's along with Masterblend. Over time I have evolved into using a much, much, higher concentration of limes to amend my media mix. I almost never deliver high calcium in direct feeds. I typically use at least three and sometimes four different types of calcium in the mix. This has corrected a lot of the slight calcium imbalances I used to get early on when using Jack's in particular. A big part of the trick was to figure out how to go from a media pH of around 5.6 to somewhre in the vicinity of 6.6-7.0. One of the keys there was for me to incorporate a lot more gypsum into the amendment mix. Doing so not only helped to reduce the concentration (clumping, pasting) of the lime but also helped regular fertigations to pass through in a way that also helps manage and maintain a more stable delivery pH level in the pot.

It took some time and tweaking, but I feel I've got it down for now. I've not changed anything to my media in a couple of years and get very good results (for me) using either Jack's, Pete's, or Masterblend -- or any combination of those chem based fertilizers. Doesn't seem to matter what type of cannabis variety I grow, they all seem to do well.

Oh, and I should definitely add that I'm a peat mixer, not a coco mixer.

 

[George]

I appreciate your concern about my ladies brother! I'm still quite new in this journey with salts/jacks/masterblend as well. And from what I've read from your posts, I'm muuuuch further behind you. Lol. I love experimenting as well, so I whipped a batch up clost to the numbers you posted. They sure love it after a few days and a much greener in a few days than the 2.5MB/2.5CalNit they've been fed for weeks. Let's see what happens during stretch.

I have a few successful runs with the regular jacks 321 under Lm301b leds. I have the masterblend tomato formula, which is much cheaper than jacks now so I'm making it work. Masterblend basically mimics jacks when 3.5g epsom is added, just a bit low in Nitrogen for veg.. This is only a couple weeks into 2nd run with the masterblend, and I'm playing already. I don't like 3 part nutes. I like 10 part nutes lol I want ALL the salts lol

145-77-177-179-60
I got these numbers from this

.1g jacks MOST
1.4g Masterblend
3.2g CalNit
.8g MKP
.4g Gypsum
2.3g Epsom.

Of course. People spend a lot of time with their plants and a lot of money. I respect that so don't want to give bad advice.

I like your mix. I wsnt to incorporate gypsum as well. All the info I've read from real respected growers who test their plants, is a high Brix is literally not possible with high nitrates so trying gypsum seems ideal to keep the k:n ratio decent and still getting our Ca.

Be mindful of your micros too. The Masterblend B is at .740ppm at 1.4grams per gallon.. with the MOST you are now at 1.095ppm B which according to the equation posted above, you are actually really close (180ppm x 0.0055 = 0.99ppm B) to optimal and should work well with the calcium levels we are trying. Ideally I would love to do soil/tissue/sap testing so I'm not guessing so much, but for now this is fun and has to do

 

[Coconaut81]

Of course. People spend a lot of time with their plants and a lot of money. I respect that so don't want to give bad advice.

I like your mix. I wsnt to incorporate gypsum as well. All the info I've read from real respected growers who test their plants, is a high Brix is literally not possible with high nitrates so trying gypsum seems ideal to keep the k:n ratio decent and still getting our Ca.

Be mindful of your micros too. The Masterblend B is at .740ppm at 1.4grams per gallon.. with the MOST you are now at 1.095ppm B which according to the equation posted above, you are actually really close (180ppm x 0.0055 = 0.99ppm B) to optimal and should work well with the calcium levels we are trying. Ideally I would love to do soil/tissue/sap testing so I'm not guessing so much, but for now this is fun and has to do

Gypsum is soooooo cheap to top it off as well. I found 50lb sacks for 15 bucks online, but don't want to pay 75 for thr shipping lol. The home brew shop has is it for 2 bucks a pound. That'll do for a good long time at half gram a gallon.

As for the boron equation which I just learned about...

The full strength Masterblend ive been running at 2.5g is 1.32 ppm boron, with 2.5g Calnit(119ppm) and random supplements of gypsum. So according to the equation, Masterblend has 2x the amount of Boron. My question is will that be problematic at some point? I actually gave this run a .01g MOST boost for a couple weeks in the beginning, and absolutely saw negative results I wasn't used to seeing. I went waaaay over with the micros and now I completely understand why.

By the way, the girls on the numbers you came up with are looking amazing. I'm going to be flipping those in a week or so. I'm still trying to figure what numbers I'm going to run after stretch. Nitrogen drop of course, but still deciding what to do what potassium. I've never ran it this low in coco, and have boosted with MKP in the past up to about 250. I may just run the full strength Masterblend as a potassium boost at end 208ppm. I kinda have ADD when I'm crunching these numbers lol. I may want something different tomorrow lol. I sure wish I had 20 different spots to watch such minute changes in nutrient formulas, and the way the girls handle it in REAL time. As fast as they grow, they are still too slow lol

 

[Coconaut81]

I don't know if this is going to help any, but I sometimes use Jack's along with Masterblend. Over time I have evolved into using a much, much, higher concentration of limes to amend my media mix. I almost never deliver high calcium in direct feeds. I typically use at least three and sometimes four different types of calcium in the mix. This has corrected a lot of the slight calcium imbalances I used to get early on when using Jack's in particular. A big part of the trick was to figure out how to go from a media pH of around 5.6 to somewhre in the vicinity of 6.6-7.0. One of the keys there was for me to incorporate a lot more gypsum into the amendment mix. Doing so not only helped to reduce the concentration (clumping, pasting) of the lime but also helped regular fertigations to pass through in a way that also helps manage and maintain a more stable delivery pH level in the pot.

It took some time and tweaking, but I feel I've got it down for now. I've not changed anything to my media in a couple of years and get very good results (for me) using either Jack's, Pete's, or Masterblend -- or any combination of those chem based fertilizers. Doesn't seem to matter what type of cannabis variety I grow, they all seem to do well.

Oh, and I should definitely add that I'm a peat mixer, not a coco mixer.

This absolutely helps, my friend! I appreciate the information. I've never grown in peat mixes indoors before, always coco. When I first started this journey I read coco grows plants faster, so I never tried peat.. it may be time now!. I have a shit ton of peat, vermiculite, perlite,and lime for some outdoor veggies I was playing with. At some point I'm definitely going to try a peat mix, possibly equal parts of those ingredients for sufficient quicker drainage?. Care to share your mix and how often your feeding? I feed 5 times a day on a pump with coco. I know that's not the way way to run peat tho. I'm still a full blown hydro virgin too. Lol. So much to do, so little time lol