If using distilled water

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by skunkybudluver, May 31, 2010.

  1. Do you or can you add Cal Mag AND molasses together? Or can you use just molasses since it has significant amounts of Cal, Mag, Iron, etc...? I have been using tap but I may start using distilled. Right now I use molasses every other watering. Those using distilled if you could let me know what additives you use, how much and how often would be appreciated.
     
  2. #2 SupraSPL, Jun 2, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 2, 2010
    I am wondering the same thing. I checked out a bunch of molasses nutrition labels and there is a huge variation from one brand to another. For the standard serving size 1TBSP (15ml) most of which is carbs, some have 2X-4X more potassium, most have 20+mg of sodium, some have only 4% DV calcium others have 20%+.

    So if we are using the molasses mainly to feed the microherd in organic soil grows, we would want a brand that offers lots of carbs and is lower on the minerals (like Grandma's at Walmart). On the other hand if we are using it for calmag we would want more minerals and less carbs.

    Some of them have equal parts calcium and magnesium which is probably not good. Some have more magnesium than calcium. From what I understand we are supposed to aim for a 3:1 ratio of cal:mag or something along those lines.

    Grandma's has 40mg calcium and 8mg magnesium per 15ml serving. Normally I add 1ml/liter of molasses so that is 2.5mg calcium and .5mg magnesium or 2.5ppm cal and .5ppm mag. I'm thinking that is not very significant.

    Brer Rabbit Blackstrap has 200mg cal and 100mg magnesium per serving. At 1ml/liter that works out to 13ppm cal and 6.5ppm mag. So you would get more calmag but the same level of carbs and sodium. The potassium is twice as high (240mg).
     
  3. i use reverse osmosis. you probably wont notice a difference between it and distilled. and it's like 1/3 of the price. i use fox farm big bloom. it says add 4 tbsp per gallon but i only do 2 tbsp. it also says to use every watering. i use it every other watering when im not using grow big or tiger bloom. my soil ph seems to always be around 6.8 sometimes a tad lower. big bloom concentrate is slightly acidic like 6.2 grow big and tiger bloom concentrate are extremely acidic. you probably know this but 2 weeks before harvest use only water no additives.
     

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