Question about Calcium Nitrate

Big Green Thumb

Big Green Thumb

Well-Known Member
This grow has been Jacks, Cal Nit, and Epsom as I have used before successfully. This grow, I have been battling a nitrogen deficiency like I have never had before (some of the plants are new to me strains). I live and grow in a HOT, DRY place and cool the area with a swamp cooler. My container of cal nit is not air tight and has been left open a few times in 60%+ humidity and it absorbs moisture more than any other nute I have used. It forms a block of cal nit if left in humidity.

So my question is: has this humidity weakend the cal nit? Could that be why my plants are yellowing from the bottom and losing leaves? The last nutrient batch I made I removed and discarded the chunks from the top of my cal nit and used the better stuff from the bottom.
 
Glenkush

Glenkush

Member
Humidity content in your dry calnit can change the weigh of it. You are probably putting less since you weigh the total of salt plus humidity.

I keep my stock salt sealed and i make concentred stock once in a while. 1 gallon RO water, 378g calnit : 10ml = 1g. You need 2.3g of calnit? Put 23ml of concentrate.
 
Big Green Thumb

Big Green Thumb

Well-Known Member
Glenkush said:
Humidity content in your dry calnit can change the weigh of it. You are probably putting less since you weigh the total of salt plus humidity.

I keep my stock salt sealed and i make concentred stock once in a while. 1 gallon RO water, 378g calnit : 10ml = 1g. You need 2.3g of calnit? Put 23ml of concentrate.
Click to expand...
Kind of what I have been thinking - I have been weighing more water than cal nit. Stoopid stoopid stoopid! LOL. Oh well, live and learn.
 
Big Green Thumb

Big Green Thumb

Well-Known Member
homebrewer said:
I bet your fix is a lot simpler than the moisture content of your dry fertilizer. I'd bet that it's moisture stress from your less than ideal growing environment. In short, water your plants either more frequently or with more volume before you start doing some mad scientist shit with your dry foods.
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Cooler weather now, swamp cooler is off and only 20% humidity now.

This cal nit draws moisture like no other nutrient I have used. Jacks and Epsom salt are both completely dry even if they are left open in high humidity. I spilled some cal nit and it became wet gel drops on the floor in a day.
 
C

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Glenkush said:
Humidity content in your dry calnit can change the weigh of it. You are probably putting less since you weigh the total of salt plus humidity.

I keep my stock salt sealed and i make concentred stock once in a while. 1 gallon RO water, 378g calnit : 10ml = 1g. You need 2.3g of calnit? Put 23ml of concentrate.
Click to expand...
This is what I used to do before I started making A+B stocks. I had stock solutions for each salt so I could use a syringe instead of a scale. (much faster)
 
S

shahomy

Well-Known Member
Big Green Thumb said:
Cooler weather now, swamp cooler is off and only 20% humidity now.

This cal nit draws moisture like no other nutrient I have used. Jacks and Epsom salt are both completely dry even if they are left open in high humidity. I spilled some cal nit and it became wet gel drops on the floor in a day.
Click to expand...
so the calnit wasn`t from jacks? what brand was it?
 
R

Ryante55

Well-Known Member
Big Green Thumb said:
This grow has been Jacks, Cal Nit, and Epsom as I have used before successfully. This grow, I have been battling a nitrogen deficiency like I have never had before (some of the plants are new to me strains). I live and grow in a HOT, DRY place and cool the area with a swamp cooler. My container of cal nit is not air tight and has been left open a few times in 60%+ humidity and it absorbs moisture more than any other nute I have used. It forms a block of cal nit if left in humidity.

So my question is: has this humidity weakend the cal nit? Could that be why my plants are yellowing from the bottom and losing leaves? The last nutrient batch I made I removed and discarded the chunks from the top of my cal nit and used the better stuff from the bottom.
Click to expand...
How much Cal nitrate do you use per gallon? Imo if there's chunks just throw it away an buy new stuff. Any time I've had a deffeciency show up it was either a pH problem or maybe to much buildup from not having enough runoff I just give them some recharge an they bounce back. If your in coco letting the pots dry out too much can cause problems also
 
Big Green Thumb

Big Green Thumb

Well-Known Member
Ryante55 said:
How much Cal nitrate do you use per gallon? Imo if there's chunks just throw it away an buy new stuff. Any time I've had a deffeciency show up it was either a pH problem or maybe to much buildup from not having enough runoff I just give them some recharge an they bounce back. If your in coco letting the pots dry out too much can cause problems also
Click to expand...
Thanks, but I've had successful grows using this same nutrient mix on several different strains, but this time I have been battling N deficiency in most of the plants that I now am confident was caused by using too little cal nit. I now have dry, non-chunky cal nit to use. I've been weighing out 12 grams of cal nit per 5 gallons of water (2.4 grams per gallon). Full nute recipe is 3.6 g/gal of Jacks hydro pro, 2.4 g/gal cal nit, and 1.2 g/gal epsom salt.

The water probably doubled or tripled the density of my cal nit so 12 grams is actually only 5 grams of cal nit and 7 grams of water (just a guess).

I use Blumat auto watering devices so my coco does not dry out. Again, this has been a pretty successful grow setup until recently.
 
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