Use Cal Mag with new plants?

Im running a recirculating system, clay pellets, GH nutes.

Ive noticed young plants often showing magnesium deficiency. Im also getting margins curling and slow growth. I found that by adding more Cal Mag (botanicare) the plants seem to do better. But I end up adding more Cal Mag then any other nutrient.

Does any one else add 2 - 4 ml / gallon of Cal Mag when starting their plants? Does anyone using GH nutes not use any Cal Mag at first?

Depends if your using tap water,filtered water,or reverse osmosis

the more filtered the water is,the more calcium and trace elements you need to add.

i used to run r/o water(5 stage unit),now I just use a carbon/something-else filter and aerate the water for 24 hours
The boogie blue water filter(30000gallons before used up)

tall boyz filtered water - takes out chlorine, 70 ppm

I use a 4 stage ro unit ppm is 10 strips every thing out. you have to add cal mag and other trace elements. You need to look at your plants they will tell you what they need and what they don't.

I use calmag with tap water.

Definitely use cal mag, even seedlings/cuttings and clones will love it!

Just a heads up, GH CalMag contains a small amount of Nitrogen. I'm getting ready to run the GH line too, but I swapped the GH CalMag for the General Organics CalMg+ because it doesn't contain the N.
I'm not saying the magnesium isn't helping them, but it could be the trace amount of Nitrogen. Check out my grow log if you have a chance.

I run GH 3 part. I use cal mag in veg IF the plant demands it. So far only one has (an OG), and it only needed a little bit. I do add cal mag during the first 2 weeks of flower because I was getting a slight calcium def on a few plants and a slight mag def on many.

I run the Useless formula, and I use the hard water version of the micro. I use tap water. I let it circulate for a few hours to 24 hours to let the chlorine off gas a bit, but that's it. No filter, no RO. It's not needed, unless you're on some seriously shitty water, like unfiltered well water. If it's OK to drink, it's OK for your plants.

As for the leaf curl and slow growth... make sure they aren't over watered, and make sure the lights aren't too close.

Hope it helps! Good luck!

Mithrandir420 said:

I run the Useless formula

Click to expand...

What's that??

farmerman421 said:

Im running a recirculating system, clay pellets, GH nutes.

Ive noticed young plants often showing magnesium deficiency. Im also getting margins curling and slow growth. I found that by adding more Cal Mag (botanicare) the plants seem to do better. But I end up adding more Cal Mag then any other nutrient.

Does any one else add 2 - 4 ml / gallon of Cal Mag when starting their plants? Does anyone using GH nutes not use any Cal Mag at first?

Click to expand...

I do!
I use GH CaliMagic from seedling through harvest but I also use RO water which has all of the minerals removed. I really like the CaliMagic because it's made from Magnesim Nitrate and Calcium Carbonate. Most other CalMag supplements use Magnesium Sulfate which isn't taken up and used as well as Magnesium Nitrate.

The nutes I use have enough calmag for early veg.

But if you're seeing deficiencies add some. Like 1ml/gal would be enough.

Yeah, i find that im using 3 - 4 ml / gallon. Which is a lot, not much room for other nutrients. Strange, though, GH nutes contain magnesium and calcium. I dont know why im having to use cal mag so much.

The golden goat (sativa) im working with wouldnt grow. So after half had died i added more cal mag. They started to grow a little. So i added more. And they grew better. Added a third time. And they look great. ppm is almost 750 now.

But when i tried running the ppm at 600 with standard nutes, i got stunted growth, tip burn, brown roots.