CalMag products

hello everyone, could anyone advise me on which CalMag to use, i have bought CalMag Bloom and realised from advise that it will throw my NPK off, so i was thinking on switching to Equilibrium Natural (below). Has anyone used it and could tell me if its good or advise me on good CalMag to buy in UK?

Any brand of CalMag should work, there all essentially the same except for the labels. My advice is to go with whats cheapest or most convienant. You should only be using calmag if your plant is actually showing signs of deficancy as adding it when they are not can mess with the nutrient uptake process

the lady had a severer mag deficiency than this, but i used epsom salts and the plant perked up straight away, now i wish to use cal as well as mag so im in search of best nutrient

Stick to epsom salt. 1 table spoon per gallon.

Epsom salts is a good source of Mg and its actually absorbed through the leaves if you spray it on. It's the fastest way to get Mg into your plant. But you can get Calcium and Magnesium from a dolo lime drench at 1tbsp/gal water or just use a tbsp and sprinkle it on top of the soil then scratch it in. Water normally. Use less dolo lime in smaller containers.

Thanks to all your replies, if i stick to epsom salts what could i use for calcium?

Yeah, the 'Bloom' product is high in N. I always forget to offer than bit of knowledge when I recommend the product. *note to self to change that*

egg shells

For calcium I just use regular old tap water. it usually has enough calcium in it for your plants. If I see a mag deficiency the first thing I usally check is my soil ph because like all nutrient deficnencies if the ph is off then the plant wont get the nutrients properly no matter how much I use. When I do have a confirmed mag deficiency 1 table spoon of Epson salts per gallon of water is typically enough to correct it. The real worry with mag/cal is to much of one will lock out the other so its very important not to over do it. I'd only supplement with cal/mag if your growing in coco coir which has a hard time making those nutrients available to the plant, otherwise a little Epson salt once every month or 2 will likely be enough.

Adjorr said:

For calcium I just use regular old tap water. it usually has enough calcium in it for your plants. If I see a mag deficiency the first thing I usally check is my soil ph because like all nutrient deficnencies if the ph is off then the plant wont get the nutrients properly no matter how much I use. When I do have a confirmed mag deficiency 1 table spoon of Epson salts per gallon of water is typically enough to correct it. The real worry with mag/cal is to much of one will lock out the other so its very important not to over do it. I'd only supplement with cal/mag if your growing in coco coir which has a hard time making those nutrients available to the plant, otherwise a little Epson salt once every month or 2 will likely be enough.

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i think my ph is always right at 6.5 as i use my digital reader, i was thinking of using tap water but the ph on that rises up to 7 and over, tried using ph down solution but then it knocks it down to 3.3 (more or less), a lot of playing around is then required to balance it back to 6.5.

whats the opinion on using epsom salts and adding dolomite for calcium?

If your having trouble with the ph down, you might try diluting it first before adding it to the water your going to use. A little goes a long way with that stuff. Personnaly I grow in soil and my tap water is 7.2 ph normally and I only need to add about 1 mililiter of ph down per gallon of water to get my ph to the right level, if I overshoot I just add more tap water in until its close enough. I dont add it every watering either because the natural processes going on in soil generally keep the ph at a proper level so water that is a little above the proper ph isn't really much of a problem unless your getting a lot of salt build up in the soil. I've never used dolomite lime so I cant offer an opinion on it but im sure if used in the proper amounts it should work for yah.