Calcium Deficency

[TysonOG]

I'm growing White Widow in dwc using a 450w MH. I use FloraTrio nutes with silica and calmag and have decided to try my version of mainlining.

Since the beginning, she has experienced what I believe is a calcium deficiency. It seems to start on the leaves as they reach a certain size. My nutrient solution was at 0.6 ec, calmag at 1ml/g, ph 6.0. That is my base level for calmag. As I noticed the deficiency, I increased the calmag to 2ml/g and the pH to 6.2 and it seemed to clear up for a week but now is back. I have increased calmag to 3ml/g. If that doesn't work then I would start to doubt that it's calcium.

I'm thinking this plant is a calcium hog because I hit all the parameters:

- growing hydro with ro water
- growing a "white" strain (notorious for calmag)
- aggressive training which increases need for calcium

First 3 photos from yesterday
Last 3 photos from now (20hrs after increasing calmag to 3ml/g

What do you guys think?
@Emilya
@InTheShed
@BeanTownFan420

 

[Lime]

Ph should be 5.8
Ww is cal~mag hog feed em lots of cal mag and lower ph to 5.8

Ro water needs cal/mag upped for Ww.

 

[TysonOG]

RO water so I know that I need extra calmag anyway.

I normally run 5.9-6.0 ph in veg and drop to 5.7 by late flower.

The reason I increased the pH is that I believe calcium is more readily absorbed in the 6.1-6.5 range. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking that the calcium is probably chelated and therefore should be readily available in a wider range of pH. Hmmm you might be on to something.

 

[InTheShed]

I'm not a hydro grower, but when I was a FoxFarms user, my calmag max was around 5ml/gallon. That was Botanicare's cal-mag+. With RO water I probably would have gone higher.

I'm with lime that bumping the calmag is the way to go. And 5.8 seems to be the sweet spot for both Ca and Mg absorption in hydro.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

No doubt it is still a cal mag issue with hydro if your not using tap with a lot of dissolved solids in calcium form these issues can be difficult to correct because they need so much calcium a plant may never get enough no matter how much you add once the deficiency is apparent.

 

[TysonOG]

I upped to 3.5ml/g and dropped the pH to 5.9
My ec is 0.9 (640ppm) and 350ppm of that is calmag. I'll continue to monitor and go from here. I've grown 7 strains in hydro, Mimosa was the most calcium-demanding and even then it was only 2.5ml/g.
Its crazy how different individual plants can be. I've got a single Dosidos in scrog right now that will yield easily over a pound but has never exceeded 0.9 ec. In fact, she got a little tip burn when she did get that high around week 5 of flower.