Coco coir calcium deficiency

CEZARthaGREAT

CEZARthaGREAT

Member
At the beginning stages of my first time grow using Coco Coir and I have developed some small but irritating calcium deficiency problems. Ive been researching the problem and there seems to be a consensus that "Dolomitic Limestone" is the answer, but all the threads that I have come across are mentioning one tsp per gallon before​ I started. Nothing about adding the lime after. I'm in my 3rd week of flowering and I want to get on top of this before I stress my babies out too much.... HEEEEEELP!
 
Ganjalee

Ganjalee

Active Member
Here's the information I found online "t. Calcium deficiency can sometimes be rectified by adding Agricultural lime to acid soils, aiming at a pH of 6.5," this for tomatoes. though my instinct is to go ahead and add the lime now. it will only help them to start absorbing some of that calcium, as long as they aren't locked of any nutrients, if they are locked up i.e. haven't had any good growth in a week or so, then flush the plants well then amend with lime and cal mag or whatever nutes you are using that are high in cal.
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
DO NOT USE DOLOMITE LIME WITH COCO.

Are you using coco specific nutes?

Coco can have a tendency to develop cal and mag problems.

I would get yourself some mono nutrient cal rather than the dolomite lime.

Dolomite lime acts as a buffer for pH stability too and as such causes more of an issue in coco as you should be pH'ing right around 5.8. If you add the lime to this you could see an upward shift in pH which will cause other elements to lock out due to cocos CEC cation exchange capacity.


What nutes are you using?

What brand of coco are you using?




J
 
Ganjalee

Ganjalee

Active Member
jondamon said:
DO NOT USE DOLOMITE LIME WITH COCO.

Are you using coco specific nutes?

Coco can have a tendency to develop cal and mag problems.

I would get yourself some mono nutrient cal rather than the dolomite lime.

Dolomite lime acts as a buffer for pH stability too and as such causes more of an issue in coco as you should be pH'ing right around 5.8. If you add the lime to this you could see an upward shift in pH which will cause other elements to lock out due to cocos CEC cation exchange capacity.


What nutes are you using?

What brand of coco are you using?




J
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Thanks for the quick correction!! this is crucial information!
 
BeaverHuntr

BeaverHuntr

Well-Known Member
Coco is a cal-mag whore. I always pre charge my coco with Cal/Mag and sometimes Liquid Karma.. I suggest you precharge your coco with Cal/Mag. I basically add 5ml per gallon of General Organics Cal/Mag to my coco soaking in 5.5 PH water.. I let the coco marinate with the cal/mag for 24 hours, this way I dont ever have to add cal mag to my feedings.
 
cowboylogic

cowboylogic

Well-Known Member
Coco is also known for Potassium build up which can inhibit the uptake of Calcium and Magnesium among other things. 3rd week of flower you may want to leach your medium and reset if you havent already......
 
J

jsk0181

Member
I'm using an Ebb and Flow system, and was starting to notice calmag issues (leaf curl taco effect etc...) I use RO water, and was adding 5ml/gallon CalMag per feeding, but still the plants were showing deficiencies. Currently I'm using the Botanicare 3 part with CalMag, Liquid Karma, and SuperThrive with a 3 to 1 coco to perlite ratio for soil. I did inoculate the soil before transplant, but am still having problems. I was thinking about adding dolomite lime; sure glad I read this before hand.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
Nutty sKunK

Nutty sKunK

Well-Known Member
jsk0181 said:
I'm using an Ebb and Flow system, and was starting to notice calmag issues (leaf curl taco effect etc...) I use RO water, and was adding 5ml/gallon CalMag per feeding, but still the plants were showing deficiencies. Currently I'm using the Botanicare 3 part with CalMag, Liquid Karma, and SuperThrive with a 3 to 1 coco to perlite ratio for soil. I did inoculate the soil before transplant, but am still having problems. I was thinking about adding dolomite lime; sure glad I read this before hand.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...
Anyone else got any ideas for this? Got the same thing but I use tap water that's really soft. Seeing brown spots on the bottom leaves. I'm currently adding around 0.5ml/L of CalMag, should I boost to 1.0ml/L?

Cheers
 
midgetpawn

midgetpawn

New Member
Just wanted to say that Agricultural lime is 32% Ca and maybe 1% Mg while dolomite lime is roughly 22% Ca and 11% Mg. There are a few different types of lime and they all can be harmful or beneficial depending. I know this is old, and sorry if it's frowned to bump old threads, but I thought this could be useful. Too bad I'm still not sure if I should make a coir/verm mix for seed germination and amend it with agr lime =/
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
midgetpawn said:
Just wanted to say that Agricultural lime is 32% Ca and maybe 1% Mg while dolomite lime is roughly 22% Ca and 11% Mg. There are a few different types of lime and they all can be harmful or beneficial depending. I know this is old, and sorry if it's frowned to bump old threads, but I thought this could be useful. Too bad I'm still not sure if I should make a coir/verm mix for seed germination and amend it with agr lime =/
Click to expand...
Like I already mentioned a year or so ago, lime regardless of source will cause coco to rise in pH.

You want to start seeds?

Start them in pure coco.

Simples.

I use an 80/20 coco perlite mix for plants.




J
 
Slipon

Slipon

Well-Known Member
not at all, I also answered old threads, who knows some noob`s might find the google bottom at some point ?

To add to it, coco do have a tendency to absobe/steal the Calcium so in most cases, specially if you use RO water that don't keep any (like most tap do) you will have to add some extra Ca yourself, a bottle of liquid Ca/Mg+ is the answer in coco IMO beside your regular nuts

and I also agree dolomite Lime or Maerl or any kind of lime stone is not the answer in pure coco, will fuck with your PH and curse more problems then it fix
 
kratos015

kratos015

Well-Known Member
I have no experience growing with 100% coco, however when I mix coco 50/50 with some soil I bought from the store or ROLS soil and I've yet to experience any calcium deficiencies. But as the guy above me said, some CalMag will fix things right up.
 
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