I am going to be mixing up some coco coir soon and wanted to add some gypsum and dolomite lime to the mix, for added calcium and magnesium availability.
I typically use liquid nutes and have had some issues with calcium and magnesium shortages and thought this would be a good idea. Its my understanding that gypsum also helps buffer salt intake in plants and could be useful for my grow.
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I would just use a calmag supplement.
Side note, most of the time if you’re working in coco and using a nutrient program you have a pH imbalance or salt buildup causing lockout not an actual deficiency. Ph moves wildly in coco in my experience, much more so than soil. If you’re not monitoring every watering I would almost guarantee this is your issue. Just my two cents.
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I always amend my coco with Dolomite Lime - Pure Dolomitic / Calcitic Garden Lime 1/2 tbs per gallon. I scratch it in the surface when first potting and amending medium. I scratch some more in when I start bloom. I also use Molasses regularly with feeding. I then use a cal mag supplement to supplement along the way.
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Interesting, I never wash, charge or ammend my coco. Just mix in perlite and go. Gonna watch this thread and see how it does. You got me curious. I also don’t use Calmag for the most part. Just tap water and some Epsom salt with my nutes.
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Like doug, I also don’t wash, charge, or do anything to my coco. I buy mother earth coco, either pure or 70/30, and I add perlite to reach a roughly 50/50 ratio by volume.
I then bottom water all my coco pots daily with solution-grade gypsum and maxibloom. Idk how well amending the coco itself would work in the long run
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Whether you add and what you add are likely going to depend on your nutes. For example, @HolyAngel can attest to using gypsum in coco, but that’s with GH Maxibloom.
Edit: you beat me to the thread before I could finish typing my response @HolyAngel
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GH trio and Epsom Salt. When I used RO water I added Calmag. When I switched to tap water I dropped the Calmag and added the Epsom salt. My nutes plus tap water seem to cover my calcium needs.
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i use filtered tap water add cal/mag and ph to 5.7-6.2 and top dress 3 gallon baric pots with gia green 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 w/ a lil bit of worm castings every 30 days or so the only gia green bloom after flip to flower if photos but if autos i just use tope dressing every 30 days until the last 30 days the its just PHed filtered tap water
ohh yeah tds IS 200 -300 OR SO
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Interesting idea- coco & soil are different animals & I also spend as little as possible & only use rainwater & dynagro no pH check ever.
Maybe do one pot unamended for side by side comparison?
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