Grow Mediums First time dwc concers

[Bum]

Im gona borrow your thread @carl brutananadilewski

@sanguine @MedGrower
Do you add calmag+ with tapwater even if plants show no lack of it? if so, when and how much?

My AN Sensi CaMg+ is crazy strong 1ml in 10L adds up to like +100ppm, Im scared to use it lol. I just dip the tip of my dosage stick in it and wash it off in the bucket few times lol.

 

[MedGrower]

Im gona borrow your thread @carl brutananadilewski

@sanguine @MedGrower
Do you add calmag+ with tapwater even if plants show no lack of it? if so, when and how much?

My AN Sensi CaMg+ is crazy strong 1ml in 10L adds up to like +100ppm, Im scared to use it lol. I just dip the tip of my dosage stick in it and wash it off in the bucket few times lol.

If you use water that has really low EC to start with or with reverse osmosis water, it is a good idea to always add a little of that after say 4th week of growing. I usually bumb my water up by 0.2 to 0.3 ec with CalMag product like AN Sensi CalMag Xtra. I favour Canna's MONO Mg and MONO Ca since AN's calmag product has quite high amount of N in it and I do not like to use it in generative cycle at all.

Usually a good fertilizer product already has enough of Mg and Ca and as long as you have the pH at the right range you are good to go. However in some setups the light intensity or other factors cause the plant to require more than the nutrients have. I'd say it would be best not to add more unless you see starting defiencies or already know that you would really need to before problems start.

 

[woody]

Great advice @MedGrower mate

 

[pop22]

that air space at the top of the res/bucket not only supplies oxygen to the roots, it helps keep your roots healthy by preventing anaerobic conditions that many harmful bacteria like.

When you start up the seeds, and if you use rockwool, remember to soak it in pH'd water before you add the seeds. I like to soak mine in pH 5.5 for an hour and then change them to soak in pH 6.2 for another hour. Do not ever squeeze the rockwool cubes in between soakings because then they will lose their qualities that keep also air into them. Also remember that you do not need to keep the cubes soaking wet all the time. Just somewhat moist is alright as long as there is some water in the cube. Cannabis is not a swamp plant

And as @sanguine correctly adviced, keep the netpots about one to two inches from the waterlevel so that the bubbles from the airpump can keep the bottom of the netpot moist as the roots emerge from there. You don't want them to dry out first thing they come out.

 

[HotBunz]

• Thanks bro, Jungle juice, the golden tree, calmag plus. My beans sprout round Tuesday. Just dropped in 5gal Dwc bucket with ro water 3 1/2 ml of calmag and golden tree. Each bucket has about three1/2 gals + inside all ppms around 160-180

NO nutes till you have roots out of the net pot.

 

[pop22]

here is where its a matter of perfered style. I start my seedlings right off with a mild nutrient solution as soon as the root leaves the net pot, usually 5-7 days. the sooner you feed them the faster they will grow! week1 200-250 ppm, week 2 400 - 450ppm, week three 600-700ppm. Unless your doing RDWC, you want to change the buckets weekly. Infact, if you grow large plants you may have to top up the buckets every few days, large plant in flower can consume large amounts of water.

If you use water that has really low EC to start with or with reverse osmosis water, it is a good idea to always add a little of that after say 4th week of growing. I usually bumb my water up by 0.2 to 0.3 ec with CalMag product like AN Sensi CalMag Xtra. I favour Canna's MONO Mg and MONO Ca since AN's calmag product has quite high amount of N in it and I do not like to use it in generative cycle at all.

Usually a good fertilizer product already has enough of Mg and Ca and as long as you have the pH at the right range you are good to go. However in some setups the light intensity or other factors cause the plant to require more than the nutrients have. I'd say it would be best not to add more unless you see starting defiencies or already know that you would really need to before problems start.

 

[woody]

NO nutes till you have roots out of the net pot.

Even with ro water dude? I just used plain tap water for week 1 but mine is about 150ppm

 

[OceanDriveKush]

Even with ro water dude? I just used plain tap water for week 1 but mine is about 150ppm

Me too! I used plain tap water until roots showed in soil plug, put in Dwc bucket, waited a few days and changed water to ro

 

[pop22]

if your using RO or distilled water, you should be adding cal/mag.when using tap water, there is generally plenty of calcium and magnesium in it. I use RO water. I add 90-120 ppms of cal/mag to every gallon, no matter what style of growing I do. I've never had a cal mag problem.

Even with ro water dude? I just used plain tap water for week 1 but mine is about 150ppm

 

[HotBunz]

Even with ro water dude? I just used plain tap water for week 1 but mine is about 150ppm

Frankly RO water is all I would use for a hydro grow. Taking away the unknowns in straight tap can make things a lot easier. Some peoples tap water is just plain scary to use! A simple RO/DI set is $70+- shipped. I want to know exactly what is in my bucket and starting out with RO is the only way.

It's standard to wait to add first feed till roots are through the net pot and into the bucket/rez. I use the Rhizocore bucket tops/net pot and with this my tap root is in the bucket getting oxygenated water pretty much from day one as it does not have to grow through 6 inches of hydroton. By day 3 or 4 my tap root will be about 6 inches long in the bucket. I will then start with a simple 80/100PPM feed.