Printable View
About to start my first hydro grow in a few weeks. Had a quick question about calmag. From my understanding your supposed to add 1-2 tsp per gallon. In the latewood legacy thread he was saying to only use calmag in the water you use to top off your res. Which is the better option?
It TOTALLY depends on your source water. You use calmag to make 'fake tap water' from RO or distillled water, or even from tap/well water that does not have enough minerals for healthy plants.
You're going to need an EC meter if you suspect you have water that needs extra calmag in it, and if you want to grow by ppms- so basically, you need an ec meter. :D
I use cal-mag plus with my tap water. The ppm of the tap here is about 100 ppms so not much. With using liquid karma and having the water go through a pump, the magnesium and iron tend to fall out of the solution faster. I usually put only about 1-2ml per gallon so its a small amount but the plants love it. they also like the trace minerals in that as well.
Yeah, you'll need the full 10ml per gallon throughout. You could get away with 5ml per gallon in veg but not in flower.
Tap water is not a substitute for CalMg. It could have a million ppms and none of it from Cal or Mg. If you had a city analysis telling you what the ppm of Cal and Mg where in your water then you could tell if you need it or not. Thats why we RO the water down to a clean canvas and simply add exactly what our plants grow best on.
I'm going to be using RO water. I'll stick to using it everytime I change my res. Was just confused because latewood says he starts with RO water, and only adds calmag when he tops off his res.