I received my Jack’s 5-12-26 and Calnit today and I was wanting to use the Calnit as a foliar spray to try and help my sicker plants get a boost of N and Calcium. Does anyone know what ratio to start with? I tried looking around with Google but there seems to be little info on the foliar rate, especially for cannabis deficiencies.
Thank for any advice you can give.
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Curious, why did you choose a food that’s so low in N? If you’re doing soil just add some blood meal to your mix. You can add ammonium sulfate to kick up the N too. Get a Schultz 30-10-10 and use 1/2 tsp. of each (Jacks and a high N food) per gallon in a good quality water source.
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The Calnit has high N and was part of the formula from Jack’s site. I’m assuming it is the missing N from the part A or 5-12-26. I’m outside feeding the animals but I’ll check the numbers on the Calnit when I get back to the house. Thanks for the help. It’s Roots Organic soil and mainly to try and keep my Solo cup and 1 gallon pots from having deficiency issues that I run into trying to feed Dr Earth in the small pots. Once they go into their final pots in the Dr Earth mix they do fine but I’m having to get them healthy from the issues they have in the small pots. It adds a few weeks to the veg cycle until I’m happy they’re ready to flip.
I’d prefer to stay all organic but it just isn’t working for me with seedlings and clones.
I typically mix Jack’s 55g at a time. First off, Jack’s 3-2-1 is exactly that; 3g Part A, 2g Part B, and 1g Epsom per gallon of water. Jack’s 3-2-1 IS NOT full strength but about 80% of full strength. You have wiggle room!
I pre-weigh the 5-12-26 (Part A) and the Epsom Salts together as they dissolve well. I pre-weigh and keep the Calcium Nitrate(part B) separately because it is a bit stubborn to dissolve although both buckets dissolve just fine in hot water. I mix up and add the calcium nitrate last and then pH correct the drum.
If anyone is interested in learning about 3-2-1, or a close variation of it, sit down for 30 minutes and watch this great video from Greengenes: Jacks Hydro | Jacks 321 | Universal Hydroponic Nutrients - YouTube
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Okay, the Calnit is 15.5 Nitrogen with 14.5 being Nitrate Nitrogen and 1% Amoniacal Nitrogen. It also has 19% calcium.
I have been off my feet for quite awhile and they got very rootbound and calcium deficiencies we’re showing up on a bunch of them. Almost all of them are coming back now that I’ve been back in the garden for a week but a couple are really pale and have the indications of Calcium problems. It could be the cold temps and low light they were growing in at my buddies place caused a lockout. I was thinking a foliar spray of the Calnit would give the pale ones a boost in N and Calcium and would help them catch up with the rest. I just don’t know how strong to make the mix. Should I just use the mixed 321 ferts as a foliar? It was about 500 ppm including the 100ppm my well water started at.
Thanks for helping me out with this, I hate seeing pale plants in the tent and really want to turn these around if possible. One is an original Sour Bubble from BOG in 2017 or 2018 and I don’t want to lose it.
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Those small pots will cause all kinds of problems including deficiencies. They are also harder to water correctly.
Check the damage done in the beginning of my grow thread. Doing the root pruning thing again, this time with MicroKote
I upcanned 2 Maui Wowie to the final 2 gallon treated pots when they were single leaved juveniles and they have already outgrown those started one month before. In fact, I applied Paclo Pro to one very vigorous MW yesterday. Will go 12/12 today.
Calcium nitrate. Sounds good albeit quite a bit of Ca. I’ve never known cannabis to be deficient in Ca, in fact I wouldn’t know what to look for except for some curling leaf and margin tips which can also result from moisture stress.
If I had to guess cannabis naturally grows in granitic native soils, not limestone.
I sprinkled about a handful of gypsum into my custom mix which was about a 30 gal. garbage can or two. That’s their only source of Ca. My well water is very high in bicarbs of Ca and Mg but my faves get mostly rain water. Sometimes I’ll do a 40% well water addition to the rain water.
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The best foliar spray would be a few hits of Dyna-Gro’s Foliage Pro or a 30-10-10, about 1/2 tsp. per gallon. You MUST add a surfactant to your spray or it’s useless. Scratching in some blood meal into the soil will help. Affect won’t be immediate as that ammonical form of N has to become a nitrate before the plant can uptake it. Blood meal is fast though.
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I’ve been successfully running 20-10-20 peat lite special at 3.5gr/gall.+1gr each epsom/Wollenstonite/gypsum. literally the first time I haven’t seen ANY spots or weird colors in my leaves. Plants just love it. I just harvested the last of this 20-10-20 tester batch and I cannot wait to smoke it once its done curing.
So, I’ve really been liking what peat lite 20-10-20 is doing for my plants and it got me curious. from what I read the phosphor is still a lot.
Found out Peters, has an “app”, not really, its just a page. but if I go to:
https://app.growwithpeters.com/find-a-product/
Played around with what I knew were my water’s numbers. This keeps getting suggested as a one bag solution.
I decided to take away the guesswork and got a test kit from them by filling this form: Request a Sample Kit - ICL Lab Services
Kit arrived the same week and I sent a water sample out to them. cost $35 + shipping sample. Results in 48-72hrs from receipt. Local greenhouse supplier will be able to get anything they make so I should be in good shape.
Will report when I know more.
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I have stopped adding epsom and only use Part A @ 4g and Part B @ 2g. I finished one run and am on the second using this method. No issues at all.
A buddy had success and pointed me to a video where he got the info. Greengene’s Garden
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I’ve been using the 321 formula for all my Solo cup plants and then once they get transplanted into my bigger pots it’s just Dr Earth dry amendments and Epsom salt. I was having chlorosis in my leaves before I started adding the Epsom salt. I’ll give the 4-2 system a try on my next batch of babies. Thanks for the link it was a good video.
water results are in.
plugged in the numbers:
15-5-15 keeps appearing for most plants.
teaspoon per gallon.
Found it for $65 with free shipping here:
I dropped a couple of seeds in coco on saturday.
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That is some great water. Your well or city?
Excellent price shipped too. I order bulk from this place when they offer a free shipping promo for orders over $99. Weird comment on the oxidizer stuff. https://www.amleo.com/peters-excel-calmag-fertilizer-15-5-15/p/G15515
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Good on ya!
There is no reason for anyone sucking up to the part A and B racket. That’s par for cannabis vendors who target noobs, not par for legitimate folks like Peters or others I order from.
Hard to beat Osmocote Indoor-Outdoor Plus regarding great nutrition fed continuously and for low maintenance too. I use it on everything including newly planted field trees. Cannabis loves it, from start to finish.
Again, another racket is the hype of switching to “bloom” foods and depriving cannabis of N during flowering. They still need plenty of it or you get premature leaf drop and less bud production.
There is no such thing as a “bloom food” to a plant. There is such a thing to growers and cons who push the stuff.
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Hi @OldUncleBen Pleasured to “meet” you!
Yes, municipal water. Live right by the lake, got lucky.
Thank you. got a weird email on friday saying it was back ordered but they sent me tracking yesterday. fedex says tomorrow I’ll have it. I’m considering vacc packing it in smaller so it doesnt get wasted. Should last a while. Local amish greenhouse supply could get it too.
Thanks, came to it by a long roundabout way …cough canna aqua 8 part liquid 400+ dollar nonsense…didnt know any better. now I do.
found osmocote plus in walmart. 8lb for 20 I plan on using it on figs and quinces I’ll be transplanting in a few weeks. I didnt know you could use it in cannabis.
a couple questions if I may. I ad epsom and gypsum to my current 20-10-20 peat lite. I dont think I need the epsom, but I wasnt sure on gypsum. What do you think?
Presuming Osmacote works in peat/coco sterile media; I use the octopot type growing, reservoir of water, netpot dips and bottom 3-4 inches of the above pot get wet from capillary action roots also dip in rez.
Where do you mix the Osmacote on such a setup? homogeneous? layers? also, what is the feed rate with a time release like that?
Sorry for all the questions!
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Works great on transplants like that. Just scatter a handful after you plant your figs and lightly scratch it in with your fingers.
If I may…I do trees, 1,000’s of them, pop your transplant out of your pot, blast with water to expose the roots. If there is any root girdling, J rooting or root spin out, correct it with surgery. When you plant in the hole, drop the transplant deep, add backfill, pull up as you go along until it’s at the original water line and complete the backfill. Your goal is to insure roots are pointing down, not up. Contrary to nursery label BS, do not amend your backfill with organics, sand, etc. Return the original soil. Scratch in the Osmocote and mulch with a layer of pine bark or pine needles if you got it. Best time to plant trees is in the fall, if you can find them. By the heat of the summer they will have become established, have a robust root system.
If you have heavy clay, fracture the bottom and sides with a hand held pick ax. The roots will find those fractures and root in as opposed to spinning around in the “glazed pot” you just made with your shovel or post hole digger.
If you aren’t supplying Mg, then supplement. Just don’t get carried away because of some cannabis forum post that claims it’s the be-all, which too many do. How ever you garden provide all the essential elements plants need. Treat it like a tomato plant and you’ll be fine. Dyna-Gro is about the most complete food I know of for a sterile medium. A perfect coco or hydro grow.
Osmocote is designed, and works best in a typical soil mix, reason commercial nursery folk use it. Plus it’s no maintenance. Water, you’re done feeding. I top dress my trees and just did in my greenhouse. Citrus trees got about 12 oz, annonas, avocados and mangos got about 8 oz. I grow in bottomless RootBuilder pots.
Good luck!
Uncle Ben
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Amazing. I’m printing this. I’m in a 5b zone. Clay and roots and rocks. Its a pia to dig up but doable.
Thank you!!
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Good, I don’t know how far to go with this. I have used a 2’ deep, 3 pt. subsoiler to fracture my bitch clay soil for a vineyard and trees. This will help too. https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/soil-amendments.pdf
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“…plants struggle to make enough to photosynthesize effectively…”
Don’t make enough what; chlorophyll?
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Yep, chlorophyll is produced from iron and magnesium
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