this is what they said...
the product is designed to be used with a medium, not to soft or hard, source water, which has less to do with calcium and more to do with chemistry in that we plan on the chemistry afforded by the presence of about 60 ppm multivalent ions (Ca, Mg, or others). These are not used by the plant but do provide some longer term stability to the tendency of water to form its own carbonates when free Calcium, from the applied nutrient load, is added. In the end, we like to see an existing EC of about 0.10 or about 60-100 ppm at 0.5 conversion. i said we like to see, not that it is required. so you see, your water, if it is multivalent ions giving the 0.16 EC (80-120ppm), is perfect.
A single application of GW (great white) to a transplant or seedling in a container of medium that has no history or organic activity, and given the decomposition characteristics of coco with general decomposers, it will be weeks before even a fraction of the microbes can be fed with what is given off by the coco. The appearance of issues from this will probably occur within 48 hours of application, especially if you went light handed on the first feeding. Again, as a scientist, a degreed Horticulturist with over 38 years growing experience, i would not put the stuff on straight coco, period.
this is me again... ph is 5.9-6.0 i calibrate often. i only used the Great White at transplant and I'm anal about measuring nutes...
did you discover the need for calmag on your own or did canna at some point tell you to use it?
im so frustrated...
Basically the coco coir itself can hold around 60-100ppm of (mostly) cal/mag and it then acts as a pH buffer... The plant cannot absorb calcium until the coco coir gets that 60-100ppm buffer filled first...
Your water is filtered and comes out at 70-80 ppm of
unknown minerals/undisolved solids, so I would doubt your water is providing the
"presence of about 60 ppm multivalent ions (Ca, Mg, or others)" that Canna
"plans on"being present inyour water source, and it definitely isnt the
"60-100 ppm" that they
"like to see"... So it's possible that the 70-80 ppm in your water could contain very little
"multivalent ions of (Ca, Mg, or others)" and adding Cal/Mag would be your best and easiest solution.
They may say that the extra Cal/Mag is not required, but in my experience extra cal/mag IS required when growing mary jane in coco coir and when using Canna Nutrients it is also my experience that 200 ppm of mainly cal/mag is needed 90% of the time..
If you are truely doing everything right and you're still have cal/mag deficiencies (which is super common when growing MJ in coco) then the solution is simple: Just make sure you have 200 ppm of mostly cal/mag in your water before adding your Canna Coco A&B base nutrients... The only
easy ways for a person to do this is to A.)use tap water
IF your lucky enough to have good tap water rich in Calcium ect.,
Or B.) Supplement with a Cal/Mag product, which unfortunately usually all contain small amounts Nitrogen, Sulfer, Iron, and other unlisted ingredients... the good news is that I have never heard of these other elements causing any issues.
I have seen your exact problem a countless amount of times and based on what you've told me, I'm almost certain that if you add the 200 ppm then your issues will surely clear up, providing you are certain you have a cal/mag deficiency and not a lockout or some other issues.. (And fyi - yes Canna has recommended adding 150-250 ppm of calmag to me and others several times in the past so im a little confused myself).
Its getting late but I will respond to the microbe issue tomorrow.
Peace... ~JBerry
