Hello Dude, Scotty, Guru and the DGC,
Much appreciation for all the love. Glad to be apart of the community and to share my knowledge, and appreciate all the feedback and ability to have a question answered in the blink of an eye. Shout out to J Mystro and the rest of the boys for putting up with me during all my technical problems.
Lets get into it. I’ve been doing some research on Cal-mag and I came across this article which is a pretty good read (I found it on a forum but it looks like it was a MaxYield article by one of their contributors):
http://www.rollitup.org/t/interesting-read-on-cal-mag-check-it-out.505993/
I know this has been brought up before (and sorry if any of this has been gone over before) but are all Cal-mag products the same? Should we be using 1 cal-mag product for veg and another for flower?
Here’s why I ask. I was doing some research on just the NPK ratios on different brands heres what I came up with:
Botanicare cal-mag – 2-0-0
Technaflora magical – 2-0-0
Growmore NCal-maag – 2.2-0-0
Advanced Sensical – 4-0-0
GH CaliMagic – 1-0-0
Then you have the coloring of some are different, Botanicare’s is an orangish, technaflora a yellow, Advanced is black. I would assume because each company decides to derive their calcium from a different source?
What should we be looking for on the label that would help us choose the right one for us growers?
What form of calcium is best to be the most readily available to the cannabis plant?
Is one source of calcium better during the vegetative stage and is one better during the Flower stage?
My PPM’s out of the tap (well water) is 370 at last check. I have a big need to RO my water, and I always want to add Cal-mag back in.
Thanks for the insight crew,
Michigan Matt
I had a similar question to this and I’m still kinda waiting on an answer for it. I was questioning if cannabis can tell where it’s derived from, kinda wondering which source would be best and all that jazz. I’m pulling up a seat for this one.
Where your plants minerals come from is a good question to ask. From what/how they’re derived, to the person/company sourcing them. It’s a matter of learning all we can as growers to be as eco-friendly to the planet as possible. To me “organic” doesn’t always mean earth friendly. That’s a whole different conversation though. From a plants perspective, they don’t give a fuck where the inorganic mineral ion came from. Plants do not know the difference between organic or synthetic derived mineral ions because there is no difference. How they are created/used is what matters in terms of pollution. In hydroponics, companies like GH don’t refine their mineral sources for heavy metals like Canna for example. Grow More’s Orchid 6-30-30 is not as refined for heavy metals like their other Mendo line 6-30-30 for cannabis.
Your question pertains to calcium and magnesium sources (carbonates, nitrates, sulfates, etc).
To be available to the plant, minerals locked up in carbonates need to lose their organic carbon bond. This is normally done by the enzymes in a bugs gut. Calcium nitrate (calcium and nitrogen) are readily available because the minerals do not have a carbon bond. Calcium carbonate locked up in an oyster shell is even more steps away from being available to the plant compared to the calcium carbonate found in water sources. Mineral ions have either a positive or negative charge. When they are in their available form, in high concentrations, they start locking each other up. Like when the positive calcium ion meets the negatively charged phosphorus ion.
You use RO. If you can strip down your waters ppm to 100-200 you’d save money on cal/mag all together. Most growers don’t need extra cal/mag because most reputable nutrient companies add enough to their base if your water source is anywhere near 100 ppm.
Nitrogen is a mineral that you want to slowly taper down but not eliminate through flowering. This is where your cal/mag source matters. Pick a source higher in nitrogen through veg and lower or cut out completely in flower. Here’s a few examples. Notice they say derived from. That doesn’t mean the one derived from calcium carbonate has calcium carbonate in the bottle. The calcium and magnesium are in an inorganic ion form bio-available to the plant in that bottle. Plant roots don’t uptake organic matter. 😉
Veg – NPK Industries Raw cal/mag derived from calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate 9-0-0, 15% Ca, 3% Mg
Transition – GH Calimagic cal/mag derived from calcium carbonate and magnesium nitrate 1-0-0, 5% Ca, 1.5% Mg
Flower – GH CaMg+ cal/mag derived from calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate 0-0-0, 5% Ca, 1% Mg
Jake from Grow More mentioned coming out with the first nitrate free cal/mag and was mistaken. CaMg+ has been around.
I don’t use any ca/mag, but if I did, I’d probably buy Grow More’s Flowering Cal Mag. I couldn’t find a label on it to compare though.
Wow mystro. Killer information. Thanks for taking the time.
Mystro with the answer so nice im not going to answer it twice
Growers Love,
Grow Guru
Sorry if I am repeating content.
Here you go Jmystro
https://17iy0p49ts4537ovpn2g0scc-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2017-01-25_58880290cf918_IMG_2909.JPG
You’re welcome Matt. You’re not the only grower confused by labels. Like with the previous silica questions. Silica ions are in the bottle. Not potassium silicate, monosalicylic acid, silicon dioxide, etc. Those are silica sources and acids used to free the silica ions listed on the label. The minerals in NFTG bottles are no different than the minerals in GH 3 part. They just come from different starting sources and are mixed in different ratios. I don’t mind repeating this information because repetition is the key to memorization. 😉
Thanks MeefChief. Grow More is using some interesting sources and some serious chemistry. They even added kelp. It seems like kelp is in everything they formulate.