What's the correct cal-mag ratio in a good soil? Am using sul-po-mag and oyster shell flaked, does anyone have an idea of addition rate per gallon or cubic foot for a balanced cal-mag ratio. I think mine might be 'off'.
Skunk, you've been hanging for 24 hours waiting on a response so in the spirit of the pursuit of knowledge and truth I’m going to throw myself right out in the road and in the path of the LumperDawgz bus and take a poke at your question. The short answer; there ain’t no magic ratio! There are too, too, many other factors to consider about what is going on in the soil to arrive at a so-called magic ratio for Ca:Mg. In part it’s the whole cation exchange discussion and when you throw pH in there.... WoWzErS! The head gets spinning. That said, my tireless research and digestion of reams of academic and agronomic research have led me to the conclusion that just for the N-P-K nutrients the “magic ratio” is…. Ta dah! 4-1-3. That is the RATIO. Now one needs to dig in and figure out “how much”, “weight/amount” etc. Just for the record, I firmly believe that a plant requires more K during its vegetative growth than it does P and all other elements being equal, a balance of N to K in RATIO is extremely important to our plants health and vigor and reporductive capability. But for the “preferred” ratio of Ca:Mg, you can’t pick the two elements out of the mix of all to arrive at the conclusion. There are just too many other variables to consider. If you select something along the lines of 2:1 through 8:1 (Ca:Mg ratio) then you’ll be heading in the right direction. But you can not discard or overlook Liebeig's Law of the Minimum, the impact of pH, CEC, or any of the other variables of The Big Six, when forumlating your fertilizer RATIO into a final mix. So here I lie in the road anticipating the "bus". I know it's coming - I can sense it - but maybe we'll all learn something from it. Wish me "luck"... LOL!
I agree on the NPH, i ALWAYS had too much P and never enough k in veg, used to use more of the 'flowering' stuff during veg to fix that.... looks like i haven't got enought of the Ca in my mix though, if i'm supposed to have more Ca than Mag. I have now lots of Mag, after my Mag deficiency of last month and i'm picking out some plants with a Ca deficit now and i knew it was related but i had no idea how much more shell to add. Thanks!
Skunk, how di you make out with this?? I am very interested in what you and Possum are discussing here because I think I am having the exact same problems. I am ready to put on my Calcium fix next time, though - the egg shell solution!! I think you know what I mean. I have had it in the fridge for the last week or so. JaK
I remixed my mix...again for the million zillion tmes... recomposted it, or added a bunch of new compost i have, high shell compost, also has a lot of kale and collard and leafy stuff from nash's, all high ca and organic. Made a tea from some of it and fed all of the plants, showing sign's of problems or not, certainly most are normal, but the one that's the most affected looking quite affect in the broad and secondary? leaves. Rebalanced the perlite, cocoa shells with the compost addition and it's waiting on new plants. Took a bucket and bubbled almond and seseme paste with lacto for about 2, no 3 days. Without a carb since nuts have a fair amount of carb. didnt use molases even with the ca content that it has becasue i'm not having issues with my phosphorous at all and i didn't want to screw it up with too many bacteria and getting it out of balance with the fungus. I already did that to a plant (and i learned from it that if you need more nitrogen use you add some molases, but in the second plant i confined it to 1/4 of the plant bucket top to bottom, not all over, and the nitrogen uptake got better and didn't cause me a fungi drop and a phos problem like with the plant i learned on). anyway, kept the nut mash and lacto solution on a warming mat keeping in all about 82, and 3% phos acided it like lumper said to do with the fish-pus-shit brew that i made, diluted it added it. The new growth, fat bud leaves not fans, have a great normal colour, but the large broad leaves havne't gotten better, on the other hand they haven't progressed to worse either. The buds are spectacular looking, can't have hurt. The new plants will have richer higher ca soil, meanwhile i will make compost tea and add more of my nut goop. hope they like the new version...batch number bujillion i think. The soil has a great 'feel' to it, if it was material i would say it has great 'hand'. The soil(minus the perlite) itself is bright black coloured, has so much shiney stuff in it that it looks like a field of stars. Smells like patchouli to me.