budman111
Well-Known Member
I have noticed with LED plants need calcium during flower and calmag is very expensive for what it is, what is the cheap alternative?
Scotts (MiracleGro) bought General Hydroponics
- Thread starter az2000
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churchhaze
Well-Known Member
You're trolling me right? lol Calcium nitrate (if it's hydro)!!
budman111
Well-Known Member
No, just asking, some one asked me and who better to ask than you!
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
If it's hydro, calcium nitrate is the way to get calcium. It provides almost all the nitrogen needed too. There is no better value for a hydro grower than having generic calcium nitrate. (it's what's in cal-mag+, flora micro, etc). But I don't think of it as a supplement or additive anyway. Calcium nitrate is the main ingredient.
Whether the issue he's having is a calcium deficiency or not, I have no idea.
budman111
Well-Known Member
Just checked ebay, its cheap for 1kg at £5 but it does not give a g/L ratio, what is it usually?
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what you mean by a g/L ratio. it's a solid. I'm not sure exactly how much calcium nitrate is used to make cal-mag+, but I know I my current mix #17 recipe uses 8.3g of calcium nitrate for every 4 gallons of reservoir solution. I already have hard water so for RO you'd want a gram or 2 more. That 8.3g is not on top of of base nutes, but but provides all the calcium. (and most of the nitrogen) of mix #17.
From the percentages on the back of cal-mag+, I'm going to guess it has about 200g of calcium nitrate in a liter, although it shouldn't really matter either way.
budman111
Well-Known Member
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
That's non-fertilizer grade, which would work well too, but has an NPK of 11.9-0-0 + 16.9%Ca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_nitrate#Use_in_fertilizer
"Fertilizer grade" calcium nitrate like yara calcium nitrate are a double salt containing ammonium nitrate and calcium nitrate with an NPK of 15.5-0-0 + 19% Ca.
They'll both work, but I bet you could find fertilizer grade like yara brand for cheaper. A lot of places like cropking will cut open a 50pound bag of yara and put some in sandwich bags, and just write 1lb on it with a permanent marker and mail it to you. I usually get nutes delivered in sandwich bags actually.
Red1966
Well-Known Member
If you need burnt plants
churchhaze
Well-Known Member
In hydro, it's impossible to add Ca without adding N, and very hard to add N without adding Ca... (unless you're changing the pH at the same time)
Potassium nitrate is the other major salt in hydro nutes, and has an NPK of 13-0-44, which means you'd get a K overload if this was used mostly to supply nitrates.
I'm not saying you should do this, but to give you an idea of the limitations, in order to add N without adding Ca, I'd have to raise the amount of potassium nitrate used, then reduce the amount of monopotassium phosphate (0-52-34) used. With the lowered phosphate, I'd have to use phosphoric acid to get it back. Now the solution is acidic... Balancing the acidity with potassium hydroxide puts the K back making the whole effort futile. The more you stare at it, the more you realize it only really happens one way. Trying to add N without adding Ca in hydro is futile unless you just happen to need more K.
You know its the troll it up my mentality, you can't convince a AN guy big bud is a waste, you can't convince Dyna guys protekt is a waste, you can't convince GH guys koolbloom is a waste, you can't convince any of them cal/mag is a waste and none of them will believe that making your own is as easy yet much much cheaper than even the cheapest bottled nutes on the market. Make stock solutions and boom, bottled nutes
BROBIE
Well-Known Member
In hydro, limited amounts of urea is another source
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00380768.1998.10414484
Note the stable PH effects of urea and NO3? like.........PH perfect effect? LOL . I remember someone slamming me because my Sensi had a bit of urea in it. Food for thought.
Where do you guys get your nutes?
Depends, soil grows I either build a good soil and brew teas or if I'm being lazy I buy a good soil and use Jacks, for my hydro I have been mixing my own for about 2 years(all credit to churchhazes links for that), before that I ran bottled bases and had a few raw salts that I'd make my own supps with, before that I ran several if not most lines out there. The only ones I really liked were the GH 3 part and sensi grow. Always wanted to run foliage pro but never got around to it.
a mongo frog
Well-Known Member
HaaaaHaaa thats funny!!!!!I'm using GH Flora 3 part and when I run out I think I will be switching to Jacks per recommendations on RIU. It is cheaper too. Too bad it is also owned by Scotts.
chuck estevez
Well-Known Member
jacks is not owned by scott's, the company that was bought by scott's ,jack peters bought it back, but scott's still owns the name peter, hence, jack's classic nameI'm using GH Flora 3 part and when I run out I think I will be switching to Jacks per recommendations on RIU. It is cheaper too. Too bad it is also owned by Scotts.
Red1966
Well-Known Member
What ^^^^Chuck said.I'm using GH Flora 3 part and when I run out I think I will be switching to Jacks per recommendations on RIU. It is cheaper too. Too bad it is also owned by Scotts.
unwine99
Well-Known Member
Hey man, hope you know I'm just fucking around on here. Real shit, sorry to hear you're in pain like that. Both my parents died from prescription med overdoses when I was younger so I know first hand how nasty that stuff can be. On a lighter note, I'm just a silly millineal so don't mind me.......I'll probably be jabbin at ya again before it's all said and done I'm sure.
