RO Water / Calmag with Soft Water Nutrients?

OldMedUser said:
They sure look healthy enough but I wouldn't be using softened water as it adds sodium to the water and that's bad for the plants so maybe that's causing the issue. You could switch to using potassium chloride in your brine tank instead of the sodium chloride but remember not to use as much high K nutrients when feeding your plants as they will be getting some from the water.

When I bought this place the previous owner was already using the KCl in the softener but I decided I didn't need softened water so switched it to ByPass and it's been like that for the last 16 years. Water from my dugout was going in around 400ppm and coming out over 800. Used a lot of brine too so I don't think it was working properly anyway. Now it's just filtered down to 5micron before going to the taps and he had the filters in backwards with the 5 upstream of the 30micron one. lol

:peace:
Click to expand...

Yessir! Um, so what do I do for cal mag I got that cal max 2-0-0 will using that every time I waterBenefit or overfeed them in nitrogen say if I was feeding em like 3-4ml per gallon each of advNced nutes micro grow bloom once or twice in a row then flush?
 
Just wondering whether I should be using cal mag at 5ml per gallon every single feeding or 1/4 strength b4 adding my advanced or whaa ? My first indoor grow that’s calculated but I have 12-13 years experience outdoors
 
OldMedUser said:
They sure look healthy enough but I wouldn't be using softened water as it adds sodium to the water and that's bad for the plants so maybe that's causing the issue. You could switch to using potassium chloride in your brine tank instead of the sodium chloride but remember not to use as much high K nutrients when feeding your plants as they will be getting some from the water.

When I bought this place the previous owner was already using the KCl in the softener but I decided I didn't need softened water so switched it to ByPass and it's been like that for the last 16 years. Water from my dugout was going in around 400ppm and coming out over 800. Used a lot of brine too so I don't think it was working properly anyway. Now it's just filtered down to 5micron before going to the taps and he had the filters in backwards with the 5 upstream of the 30micron one. lol

:peace:
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And yeah I know but I’m switching em to bloom in a week or less as I will probly run out of room if I don’t @9 plants in 7 gals in my 5x5 ...I’m lookin for 1.2-1.5lb between the 9 of em I don’t expect much off the small 3 maybe 90-100g. What I’m saying is I probly will get away with feeding em the soft water if I can dial in my cal mag right if every 2nd feeding or so I feed them distilled water.. so with distilled u hafto add a full 5ml of cal max 2-0-0 per gallon right? Fuck I’m confused I’m used to outdoor growing where it don’t rly effect em half as hard cuz of rainwater helping right..
 
canadiantoker420 said:
And yeah I know but I’m switching em to bloom in a week or less as I will probly run out of room if I don’t @9 plants in 7 gals in my 5x5 ...I’m lookin for 1.2-1.5lb between the 9 of em I don’t expect much off the small 3 maybe 90-100g. What I’m saying is I probly will get away with feeding em the soft water if I can dial in my cal mag right if every 2nd feeding or so I feed them distilled water.. so with distilled u hafto add a full 5ml of cal max 2-0-0 per gallon right? Fuck I’m confused I’m used to outdoor growing where it don’t rly effect em half as hard cuz of rainwater helping right..
Click to expand...

You do not have to use calmag at all probably if using tap water most of the time. I use nothing but RO or distilled water and rarely bother adding calmag. There's already some in the nutes and my ProMix has two different types of calcium so plenty in the dolomitic lime in there too.

I'd be more concerned about sodium from the brine. Don't you have any tap that gets water before it goes thru the softener? Outdoor taps are often softener free.

Don't water softeners remove calcium and magnesium and replace them with salt to make the water 'feel' softer? I never had one until I bought this place and never really looked into what they do or how they work.

:peace:
 
OldMedUser said:
You do not have to use calmag at all probably if using tap water most of the time. I use nothing but RO or distilled water and rarely bother adding calmag. There's already some in the nutes and my ProMix has two different types of calcium so plenty in the dolomitic lime in there too.

I'd be more concerned about sodium from the brine. Don't you have any tap that gets water before it goes thru the softener? Outdoor taps are often softener free.

Don't water softeners remove calcium and magnesium and replace them with salt to make the water 'feel' softer? I never had one until I bought this place and never really looked into what they do or how they work.

:peace:
Click to expand...

I can use distilled water? Then i’l just Add like 1-2ml per gallon instead of 5ml .. but the water crystals I use has salt yeah but I guess there’s so lil of it being transferred into the actual drinking water I’d have to be vegging for over 2 months I think to run into any issues from it, my concern is the amount of cal max I need to use with this “soft water” cuz it has 0 calcium or magnesium in it.. But I heard my advanced nutes micro grow n bloom already has sum cal mag in that too so...also sum of my plants absolutely require cal mag as there those so called “cal/mag whores” gorilla zkittlez n blue cheese, not sure bout the 8bsll kush, my plants r all in 7 gallon pots look at them at day 31-32 veg the tallest one wit the stick is like 13-13.5 inch tall n the pots r 14 inch wide, how much u think I’d yield roughly if I flipped em into bloom tmrw? There all super heavy yielding plants for the foot squared, I gotta watch I don’t run out of room but the 3 outside blue cheese r gonna help me max out the 6 bigger ones I think eh? Check out the yellowing from the new growth is it? U think there ready for another feeding of nutes? Also check out the pic of the smallest plant I think I burnt her or my PH was off like 12 days ago she was diff stunted an whats That shading on her leaf the poor looking one?? Ahh lol
 

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I'm not sure which pic or what I'm supposed to be looking for there. I don't see anything that stands out.

There is adequate Ca and Mg in the nutes tho a little bit of calmag is a good idea when using pure water like RO or distilled. I was growing without it for almost 10 years in DWC then got into forums 11 years ago and after a few years about hearing about calmag finally went out and got some. I don't know how I managed to grow so much bud without it! It's the magic bullet doncha know. lol

Give the whores a bit but I've never used more than half the recommended amount and then only every third watering or so.

:peace:

Save this picture for reference.

JorgeCervantesCannabisDeficiencyChart.jpg
 
canadiantoker420 said:
It’s a spot I’m the lower leaf right side, middle one in the back , throwing off an excess iron? Lol
Click to expand...

One bad leaf does not a deficiency make my friend. :) Not even that bad. Maybe you slopped something on it or it's just not as happy as all the other leaves and wants a hug. ;)

When you have a real deficiency all the leaves of the same class will begin showing the same symptoms. Older fan leaves act up when some mobile nute is missing but the rest of the plant looks great and may be growing really fast. That fast growing is what's causing the lack of that nute as the plant can steal it to use up top where it needs it more if it can't get it quick enough thru it's roots or it's not there to be had so needs feeding.

The mobile nutes are N-P-K, zinc and magnesium. All the rest including the all important Calcium are immobile. In other words if the plant can't get it from the roots it can't steal from anywhere else so the newest growth starts to suffer first while the older parts of the plants look just fine. All the grow tips will show the same kind of symptoms. Twisting, going yellow, distorting, leaf stems going dark purple, spot etc.

In many if not most cases it's not a lack of micro-nutrients it's that the pH has gone too far off the mark and usually too high. This locks out those nutes so the plant can't use them. With tap water almost all the minerals in are still in the pot when the water is gone and each time it's watered the minerals add up like the scale inside a kettle. Extra runoff should be done each watering to keep that from getting too bad. The harder the water the more runoff you need. Another good reason to use RO or distilled water. It's a blank slate you build on.

They're looking great to me so I'd relax and enjoy the grow.

:peace:
 
So many variables to say 'this or that' way, there are hundreds of different compositions of tap water around the world, combined with all the different climates and 1000 manners of growing. I for instance never managed to grow without adding loads of calmag products and epsom salts. Even when i used to grow in pure tap, allways sat around 1/2 to full dose of calmag. Now in RO i even needed a double the recommended dose of calmag combined with epsom salt to manage deficiency's. Reading online and asking for solutions it took a while to say 'fuck it' and dare to go above the recommended dose. Despirate as i was... it fixed everything ! Respect those lucky ones who had great parameters of water to grow in :D
 
OldMedUser said:
One bad leaf does not a deficiency make my friend. :) Not even that bad. Maybe you slopped something on it or it's just not as happy as all the other leaves and wants a hug. ;)

When you have a real deficiency all the leaves of the same class will begin showing the same symptoms. Older fan leaves act up when some mobile nute is missing but the rest of the plant looks great and may be growing really fast. That fast growing is what's causing the lack of that nute as the plant can steal it to use up top where it needs it more if it can't get it quick enough thru it's roots or it's not there to be had so needs feeding.

The mobile nutes are N-P-K, zinc and magnesium. All the rest including the all important Calcium are immobile. In other words if the plant can't get it from the roots it can't steal from anywhere else so the newest growth starts to suffer first while the older parts of the plants look just fine. All the grow tips will show the same kind of symptoms. Twisting, going yellow, distorting, leaf stems going dark purple, spot etc.

In many if not most cases it's not a lack of micro-nutrients it's that the pH has gone too far off the mark and usually too high. This locks out those nutes so the plant can't use them. With tap water almost all the minerals in are still in the pot when the water is gone and each time it's watered the minerals add up like the scale inside a kettle. Extra runoff should be done each watering to keep that from getting too bad. The harder the water the more runoff you need. Another good reason to use RO or distilled water. It's a blank slate you build on.

They're looking great to me so I'd relax and enjoy the grow.

:peace:
Click to expand...

Thanks for that dude! Yeah I have a very hard time “enjoying” these processes cuz I’m hardcore OCD or sumthin possibly a bit of ADD in there too so I think I have to dial in these strAins immediatly and probly won’t b happy even when there thriving perfect green, it’s cuz I have set expectations and it’s becauze I been growing for so long.. ur right I should sit back n enjoy what I see and learn from the process buuut that’s very hard for me I take this way too serious
 
doken125 said:
So many variables to say 'this or that' way, there are hundreds of different compositions of tap water around the world, combined with all the different climates and 1000 manners of growing. I for instance never managed to grow without adding loads of calmag products and epsom salts. Even when i used to grow in pure tap, allways sat around 1/2 to full dose of calmag. Now in RO i even needed a double the recommended dose of calmag combined with epsom salt to manage deficiency's. Reading online and asking for solutions it took a while to say 'fuck it' and dare to go above the recommended dose. Despirate as i was... it fixed everything ! Respect those lucky ones who had great parameters of water to grow in :D
Click to expand...

Thanks dawg ur help means a lot, rly! I appreciate u guys to the max on here because yas ain’t a bunch of goons jus here trying to swing ur dicks around n say it’s bigger than the next ones. Real talk yas give actual advise, which is why I’m fuckin wit rollitup to begin with!
 
canadiantoker420 said:
Thanks for that dude! Yeah I have a very hard time “enjoying” these processes cuz I’m hardcore OCD or sumthin possibly a bit of ADD in there too so I think I have to dial in these strAins immediatly and probly won’t b happy even when there thriving perfect green, it’s cuz I have set expectations and it’s becauze I been growing for so long.. ur right I should sit back n enjoy what I see and learn from the process buuut that’s very hard for me I take this way too serious
Click to expand...

I'm still adult ADHD at 65 and slightly OCD but not too much. Job has to be done good enough to work tho. Dad always said if a job is worth doing it's worth doing right! lol

I used to get like that with fishing but by my 20s wasn't haven't any fun unless I caught the most and biggest fish so tweaked my attitude. Started looking at it as a hike on the river in the mountains and if a fish happened to grab my hook it was icing on an already tasty cake. Had a much nicer day just being out on the river smoking some bud and loving the view. Caught way more fish too. lol

I just posted some pics on another thread we hijacked. My fave hole I was at last Nov. Go take a look and check out the river I've fished since my grandpa took me there as a small child and got me hooked on fishing. Was in my teens when I found this hole and was so nice to go back after a 15 absence. My fishin' hole.

:peace:
 
OldMedUser said:
I'm still adult ADHD at 65 and slightly OCD but not too much. Job has to be done good enough to work tho. Dad always said if a job is worth doing it's worth doing right! lol

I used to get like that with fishing but by my 20s wasn't haven't any fun unless I caught the most and biggest fish so tweaked my attitude. Started looking at it as a hike on the river in the mountains and if a fish happened to grab my hook it was icing on an already tasty cake. Had a much nicer day just being out on the river smoking some bud and loving the view. Caught way more fish too. lol

I just posted some pics on another thread we hijacked. My fave hole I was at last Nov. Go take a look and check out the river I've fished since my grandpa took me there as a small child and got me hooked on fishing. Was in my teens when I found this hole and was so nice to go back after a 15 absence. My fishin' hole.

:peace:
Click to expand...

Nice, I grew up on a dairy farm man
 
OldMedUser said:
I'm still adult ADHD at 65 and slightly OCD but not too much. Job has to be done good enough to work tho. Dad always said if a job is worth doing it's worth doing right! lol

I used to get like that with fishing but by my 20s wasn't haven't any fun unless I caught the most and biggest fish so tweaked my attitude. Started looking at it as a hike on the river in the mountains and if a fish happened to grab my hook it was icing on an already tasty cake. Had a much nicer day just being out on the river smoking some bud and loving the view. Caught way more fish too. lol

I just posted some pics on another thread we hijacked. My fave hole I was at last Nov. Go take a look and check out the river I've fished since my grandpa took me there as a small child and got me hooked on fishing. Was in my teens when I found this hole and was so nice to go back after a 15 absence. My fishin' hole.

:peace:
Click to expand...

I got sum great fishing here I catch nice sea trout 16-20 inches on the may run for two straight weeks and I’ve caught lots of striped bass got one like 15 pound few years ago. Beautiful salmon pools here in New Brunswick Canada
 
The bass r messing with the salmon population it’s scary they eat everything they found like 6 canner sized lobsters in a 25 pound bass stomach when they cut it open. There savages lol
 
canadiantoker420 said:
Nice, I grew up on a dairy farm man
Click to expand...

Not me. I grew up in a surburban type house. Dad worked for a meat packer and mom at a rope factory. We lived in Richmond, BC that was on Lulu Island in the middle of the Fraser River right across from south Vancouver. Clifford Olsen lived two doors down from us. Google him if you don't know who he is. ;) Our place here is a 7.5 acre hobby farm. Just 50 or so chickens that my wife raises and breeds for fun I guess but I don't get it. lol

canadiantoker420 said:
I got sum great fishing here I catch nice sea trout 16-20 inches on the may run for two straight weeks and I’ve caught lots of striped bass got one like 15 pound few years ago. Beautiful salmon pools here in New Brunswick Canada
Click to expand...

I've always wanted to fish back there but never got further than Toronto for a work thing back in '91. They can keep Toronto. :) My son's mother is from NB originally. She went back there to visit her birth family on the Eel River reserve in '92 and never came back so I became a single dad when the boys were 8 and 10. She was adopted out with her older sister when she wass 6 and grew up in Port Hope. I visited there when I was out and it's a nice little town but she hated it. Catholic school wasn't much fun for a native girl I guess.

canadiantoker420 said:
The bass r messing with the salmon population it’s scary they eat everything they found like 6 canner sized lobsters in a 25 pound bass stomach when they cut it open. There savages lol
Click to expand...

Are bass an invasive specie there? On the west coast what with global warming they're getting a lot of mackerel coming up and they eat like bass I guess and are screwing things up now. If you catch one take it home or use it for crab bait but don't toss it back alive! Supposed to be good eating tho. I sure miss all the salmon fishing I used to do.

:peace:
 
canadiantoker420 said:
I have a soft water system and my plants been showing slight signs of cal mag deficiency at like 3 weeks old man, so I baught sum cal max 2-0-0 and gave 3.5ml per gallon .. it says to use 5ml per gallon though as u say... I believe my water runs like 90ppm after it’s softened .. what do I do I’m at day 31 on the bigger plants and I’m not sure if I should be buying 5 gallons of distilled for the next week to figure shit out or what I just wanna know whether I need to add the calmax at 5ml per gallon every single feeding or ??
Click to expand...

OMU is right....

I would be inclined to say the "salt" or chloride is doing some blocking on the chemical level.

The same for how the plants look. I see nothing going on there...

I would ask that if there is light area's on the leaves (between the margins) of the the top row, farthest right plant. I would call it more a Mg issue then Ca.
There are strains that are Mg hogs, like GG#4....
 
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