CAL MAG AND REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER. Also... MOLASSES.. Yes or no?

Hey folks. Here is my set up.

water: reverse osmosis water (filters probably need a change but i cant afford it right now. RO starting ppm is 80-90)
NUTRIENTS: dyna gro line. (Grow, protek, mag pro, bloom, + gravity)
SOIL: pro-mix HP
LIGHTING: 2 600 watt air cooled HPS (on light mover) moving over an 8 by 8 area.

i am new with the REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER so from the start i have been adding approximately 200 ppm of cal-mag (5% ca , 1%mag). Is that a good starting point?

IM having relatively low yields... (Under 1 oz per plant ... In comparison to when i was running FOX FARM NUTRIENTS IN PLAIN TAP WATER... Where i was getting almost 3 oz's a plant)

Now.. The plant size, strains, and lighting have all remained the same. What i have changed is the nutrient line, and the water supply. I USED MOLASSES WHILE I WAS RUNNING FOX FARM... But for some reason i forgot about it when i switched to dyna gro... Im wondering... Does molasses make that big of a difference?

I am going to start using it again... Can anybody give me an appropriate amount to add? I think i was adding between 1/2 and 1 TSP when i was running fox farm.


ALL ADVICE AND CRITICISM IS APPRECIATED. I want my patients to be COMPLETELY SATISFIED with the meds i provide. Thank you.

molasses is used to feed microbes and fungi in an organic garden. It does contain some micro nutrients, but not enough to change your yield. When was the last time you changed your bulbs?

chuck estevez said:

molasses is used to feed microbes and fungi in an organic garden. It does contain some micro nutrients, but not enough to change your yield. When was the last time you changed your bulbs?

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The bulbs were brand new when i started here at my new residence. The first day they were ran was JAN 1st of this year. So they have approximately 1100 hours of use so far. The low yields happened when the bulbs were pretty fresh... 300-500 hours.

ChroniSuierkush said:

The bulbs were brand new when i started here at my new residence. The first day they were ran was JAN 1st of this year. So they have approximately 1100 hours of use so far. The low yields happened when the bulbs were pretty fresh... 300-500 hours.

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what is the ppm's of the water you used before the r/o? that # combined with the fox farm #'s may be higher then what you ran with dyna and r/o. did you push your plants until they got a little nute burn? this would determine your max. ppm level. then you back it down a little.

chuck estevez said:

what is the ppm's of the water you used before the r/o? that # combined with the fox farm #'s may be higher then what you ran with dyna and r/o. did you push your plants until they got a little nute burn? this would determine your max. ppm level. then you back it down a little.

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The tap water is 400 ppm. I do not have the fox farm line anymore and when i was running it i did not have a TDS METER, or a PH meter, and also i have no idea what the starting PPM of that water was... (I have since moved). (Go figure... I had no idea what the ppm or ph was but had the best yield) . I pushed the Dyna gro line up until i did experience VERY MINIMAL nute burn in the majority of my strains, and a more intense burn on my BLUEBERRY. I do not go over 600 ppm now because it was at 650 that i started to experience burn. Is it a possibility that my GENERAL organics CA MAG supplement does not work properly with the Dyna Gro line up, or perhaps i am adding too much or too little?

I can't answer much about molasses, I have never used it.
As for the cal/mag. When I was running a RO it took my water to 0 ppm, I would add cal/mag to raise it to 150ppm. What are the other ratios of the nutes you are using? What is the PPM of the water after you mix your nutes? What is the PH of the water after you mix your nutes? Are you using a nute chart of any kind?
Your lights, well I have heard and seen different opinions. I have used the same bulbs for 3 grows and my yields are getting bigger, but I have heard that you have to change between each grow.

smileb0b said:

I can't answer much about molasses, I have never used it.
As for the cal/mag. When I was running a RO it took my water to 0 ppm, I would add cal/mag to raise it to 150ppm. What are the other ratios of the nutes you are using? What is the PPM of the water after you mix your nutes? What is the PH of the water after you mix your nutes? Are you using a nute chart of any kind?
Your lights, well I have heard and seen different opinions. I have used the same bulbs for 3 grows and my yields are getting bigger, but I have heard that you have to change between each grow.

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From the begining of flowering til the end my PPM starts around 300 and maxs out about 600. I experience nute burn if i go much over 600 with the dyna gro, because it is extremely concentrated. I am using PROMIX hp which is high in peat moss i think so i have done some research and was aimed to keep my Ph between 6.0-6.5. I plan on changing my bulbs by next crop, however im pretty confident that is not the main source of my problem. I AM using the dyna gro nute chart but i only use that as a Guideline (as different strains require different amounts of food). So being said that My Ro FILTERS are sort of dirty... And they are giving me 90 ppm water... Should i then only add 60 more PPM of my General Organics Cal mag?

when I use Molasses in my organic super soil I use a ts. per gallon of water, mostly in between nuts and mostly in flowering/late grow to help my "old/used" soil

I normaly delute it in a cup of boiling water before I add it to the water Can as its pretty sticky stuff

beside the carbs for the micro life in the soil molasses also contain a bit of P and K and some iron, Zink and Ca/Mg

ChroniSuierkush said:

From the begining of flowering til the end my PPM starts around 300 and maxs out about 600. I experience nute burn if i go much over 600 with the dyna gro, because it is extremely concentrated. I am using PROMIX hp which is high in peat moss i think so i have done some research and was aimed to keep my Ph between 6.0-6.5. I plan on changing my bulbs by next crop, however im pretty confident that is not the main source of my problem. I AM using the dyna gro nute chart but i only use that as a Guideline (as different strains require different amounts of food). So being said that My Ro FILTERS are sort of dirty... And they are giving me 90 ppm water... Should i then only add 60 more PPM of my General Organics Cal mag?

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you don't need cal-mag every watering, you could go to every 3rd or 4th watering. pro-mix has limestone in it, so it doesn't take much to keep a def. away.
I also use pro-mix and I feed,feed,feed at low ppm's also. But I only use a all purpose veg nute from start to finish.

ChroniSuierkush said:

Is it a possibility that my GENERAL organics CA MAG supplement does not work properly with the Dyna Gro line up, or perhaps i am adding too much or too little?

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The general organics cal mag is is just Calcium Carbonate and Magnesium Carbonate, basically dolomite

You could switch to a Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Sulphate based calmag like Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus. This will give you more Nitrate Nitrogen, helping to balance out the ammoniacal nitrogen in Dynagrow, plus a more soluble form of Calcium and Magnesium.

I use Dynagrow with Cal-Mag plus, instead of Dynagrows MagPro.

chuck estevez said:

you don't need cal-mag every watering, you could go to every 3rd or 4th watering. pro-mix has limestone in it, so it doesn't take much to keep a def. away.
I also use pro-mix and I feed,feed,feed at low ppm's also. But I only use a all purpose veg nute from start to finish.

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Ok cool. I am going to try that. Thanks for the info chuck! Appreciate it alot. Ill post a week 4 or 5 pic here in the next couple weeks

PurpleBuz said:

The general organics cal mag is is just Calcium Carbonate and Magnesium Carbonate, basically dolomite

You could switch to a Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Sulphate based calmag like Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus. This will give you more Nitrate Nitrogen, helping to balance out the ammoniacal nitrogen in Dynagrow, plus a more soluble form of Calcium and Magnesium.

I use Dynagrow with Cal-Mag plus, instead of Dynagrows MagPro.

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interesting! Seems logical. When i get some money together i will give cal-mag plus a try. ! Appreciate it!

I use 600 PPM for veg and bring it up to 1200 for bloom. That works for my plants, but they are heavy feeders, and not all can tolerate it. I think 1000 PPM is a pretty safe bet for bloom. That might be why your other crop did well, and this one didn't.

Jimdamick said:

I use 600 PPM for veg and bring it up to 1200 for bloom. That works for my plants, but they are heavy feeders, and not all can tolerate it. I think 1000 PPM is a pretty safe bet for bloom. That might be why your other crop did well, and this one didn't.

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ya know.. i dont go by a rule of thumb for PPM measurements anymore, only because some feeding schedules PPMS could be alot harsher, or alot more mild than others. IE: my dyna grow formula starts to burn ALL my girls during MID BLOOM at about 600-650 ppm.. where as my ADVANCED nutrient formula would not burn til up in the 1000-1100 range. so i just go by the look of my girls. anywho... i am pretty sure that my last crops were fucked up because along with feeding them nutrients i would give them a heavy dose of calcium everytime (about 150-200 ppms) i have stopped dosing them so much with calcium and have seen a 100% turn around, in regards to Nice Green color, nice firm stems, nice perky firm leaves, and NOTICEABLE flower production . i just had a couple shitty crops because i switched my tap water to REVERSE OSMOSIS water at the same time that i changed my strains, and my nutrients. (so much change is just a recipe for distaster.) ..... live and learn. but ALL is going well and i will post finished pictures of the plants and then again finished weigh outs, and bud pictures. *(thanks for the comments everyone)*

I calibrated my ppm and p.h. meter today and did a test on 0ppm r.o. water and got:
Fulvex at 3ml./gal. = 40ppm
CalMag+ at 3ml./gl. = 135ppm.
Fuvex and CalMag+ at 3 ml./gallon each = 175ppm
P.H. at 4.5 after adding Fulvex and CalMag+
6 drops of P.H. up from Botanicare brought P.H. to 7.2
PPM went from 175 to 183 after adding P.H. up.

I had 2, 3 week old plants from bag seed have a cal mg issue due to me watering with 13ppm ro water and nothing added just phd to 6.0. Started to get light spots in the center of the leafs. Watered with q 50pom calmg plus, 180ppm bio root and 220ppm Botanicare Pro Grow Soil phd to 6.5. 3 days later growth blew up and all new growth is green and healthy. Medium is RO Original in 5g aero pots 4ft t5 ho 8 bulb 6500k.