Growing Without Bloom Nutes By Farside05

Love the purple!

Harvested one of the Cakes today (the one previously pictured). She did have some great color. I'll see about a picture or two when I get home.

Also did a thing while killing time at work. Bought 10 Blackberry MoonRocks (Photos) from @Expert Seedbank . Also bought some SCROG nets. Once I get the remaining 3 out of the tent I'm planning on 2 SIPs with the MoonRocks under a SCROG. Current thinking is to go the Osmocote plus supplements in flower route. I'll have several more weeks to see how that plan is working out in the other tent before making that commitment.
 
Hmmm...

@Maritimer this may be of specific interest to you since I know you're using Greenway's product too and have used some of the other cost saving hacks of mine.

Was playing with the calculator again tonight. Was looking at products like Botanicare Cal-Mag+ or Greenway Biotech's Cal-Mag+. I think we are being lied to on the label. Both products Guaranteed Minimum Analysis say they are 2% N, 3.2% Ca, 1.2% Mg, and .1% Fe. They also tell us they are derived from three ingredients, Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Nitrate, and Iron EDTA. Here is the rub....

Calcium Nitrate is 14.5% Nitrate Nitrogen, 1% Ammoniacal Nitrogen, and 19% Calcium
Magnesium Nitrate is 11% Nitrate Nitrogen and 9.6% Magnesium
Iron EDTA is 13.2% Iron

It is IMPOSSIBLE to combine those 3 ingredients and come up with the ratios 2% N, 3.2% Ca, 1.2% Mg and .1% Fe. If you want 3.2% Ca and 1.2% Mg, you end up with 4% N. Since Greenway's product is dry salts you add to a gallon of water, lets see if they are shorting us on the Ca and Mg or underreporting the true N. Greenway's bag of Cal-Mag+ says its 2.5lbs to make 1 gal of solution. So if I target the Ca and Mg, you need 637.5 g of Calcium Nitrate, 473.2 g of Magnesium Nitrate, and 29.1 g of Iron EDTA. Add those all up and you get 2.51 lbs! So we aren't getting shorted the Calcium or Magnesium, but they are under reporting the true N by 50%.

Also did a little cost analysis. If you buy the bag of Greenway Biotech's Cal-Mag+, its $33.99. If you buy at 5lb bag of Calcium Nitrate ($27.99) a 5lb bag of Magnesium Nitrate ($34..99) and a 1lb bag of Iron EDTA ($25.99), your cost to make a batch of Cal-Mag+ is $16.84 per batch. Greenway is making an additional $17.15 per batch by prepackaging it for you. The 5lbs of Calcium Nitrate will make 3.6 batches, 5lbs of Magnesium Nitrate will make 4.8 batches, and 1lb of Iron will make 15.5 batches.

For easy reference

FN Cal-Mag Recipe
637.5g Calcium Nitrate
473.2g Magnesium Nitrate
29.1g Iron EDTA

The TRUE guaranteed analysis, 4% N, 3.2% Ca, 1.2% Mg, .1% Fe

****Additional rant****

Guaranteed Minimums on labels are just that, the Minimums that can be in the product. The true amounts may differ. Why would a company knowingly only report half the N that's in the product? My guess is that they know how conditioned many Cannabis growers are to reducing N in flower. How many times on this forum and others do you see a grower looking for a low N Cal-Mag product? Plenty! If they put the true 4% on the label, it would likely hurt sales. The only way to know exactly what you are feeding your plants is to make your own nutrients from bulk salts.
 
Hmmm...

@Maritimer this may be of specific interest to you since I know you're using Greenway's product too and have used some of the other cost saving hacks of mine.

Was playing with the calculator again tonight. Was looking at products like Botanicare Cal-Mag+ or Greenway Biotech's Cal-Mag+. I think we are being lied to on the label. Both products Guaranteed Minimum Analysis say they are 2% N, 3.2% Ca, 1.2% Mg, and .1% Fe. They also tell us they are derived from three ingredients, Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Nitrate, and Iron EDTA. Here is the rub....

Calcium Nitrate is 14.5% Nitrate Nitrogen, 1% Ammoniacal Nitrogen, and 19% Calcium
Magnesium Nitrate is 11% Nitrate Nitrogen and 9.6% Magnesium
Iron EDTA is 13.2% Iron

It is IMPOSSIBLE to combine those 3 ingredients and come up with the ratios 2% N, 3.2% Ca, 1.2% Mg and .1% Fe. If you want 3.2% Ca and 1.2% Mg, you end up with 4% N. Since Greenway's product is dry salts you add to a gallon of water, lets see if they are shorting us on the Ca and Mg or underreporting the true N. Greenway's bag of Cal-Mag+ says its 2.5lbs to make 1 gal of solution. So if I target the Ca and Mg, you need 637.5 g of Calcium Nitrate, 473.2 g of Magnesium Nitrate, and 29.1 g of Iron EDTA. Add those all up and you get 2.51 lbs! So we aren't getting shorted the Calcium or Magnesium, but they are under reporting the true N by 50%.

Also did a little cost analysis. If you buy the bag of Greenway Biotech's Cal-Mag+, its $33.99. If you buy at 5lb bag of Calcium Nitrate ($27.99) a 5lb bag of Magnesium Nitrate ($34..99) and a 1lb bag of Iron EDTA ($25.99), your cost to make a batch of Cal-Mag+ is $16.84 per batch. Greenway is making an additional $17.15 per batch by prepackaging it for you. The 5lbs of Calcium Nitrate will make 3.6 batches, 5lbs of Magnesium Nitrate will make 4.8 batches, and 1lb of Iron will make 15.5 batches.

For easy reference

FN Cal-Mag Recipe
637.5g Calcium Nitrate
473.2g Magnesium Nitrate
29.1g Iron EDTA

The TRUE guaranteed analysis, 4% N, 3.2% Ca, 1.2% Mg, .1% Fe

****Additional rant****

Guaranteed Minimums on labels are just that, the Minimums that can be in the product. The true amounts may differ. Why would a company knowingly only report half the N that's in the product? My guess is that they know how conditioned many Cannabis growers are to reducing N in flower. How many times on this forum and others do you see a grower looking for a low N Cal-Mag product? Plenty! If they put the true 4% on the label, it would likely hurt sales. The only way to know exactly what you are feeding your plants is to make your own nutrients from bulk salts.
You are pure Geek. I remember another member stating the same about producing your own nutrients from bulk salts. I also remember thinking you guy are like chemists. :love:
 
Harvested one of the Cakes today (the one previously pictured). She did have some great color. I'll see about a picture or two when I get home.

Also did a thing while killing time at work. Bought 10 Blackberry MoonRocks (Photos) from @Expert Seedbank . Also bought some SCROG nets. Once I get the remaining 3 out of the tent I'm planning on 2 SIPs with the MoonRocks under a SCROG. Current thinking is to go the Osmocote plus supplements in flower route. I'll have several more weeks to see how that plan is working out in the other tent before making that commitment.

Haven't updated this thread. In a while. Son harvested the 2nd Wedding Cake and one of the NY Diesels while I was out sick. Still have one plant in the tent. Something will happen in the next 4 days. Don't think the other Diesel will come down but I can at least get something else started. Still haven't received the Blackberry MoonRocks. It's been about 3 weeks and there was a holiday in there. Expert Seedbank used to send from inside the US and they would show in about 5 days. Two days after I ordered, Expert posted on their Facebook page that they were going to be shipping from their Ireland location now and shipment times to the US would increase. Hopefully they show soon or I'll just go with something else on hand for this next grow. I can't wait forever. Whatever gets dropped will end up in SIPs but probably will not see Osmocote and will get FN Fertilizer ™ from the beginning.
 
Has anyone else looked at any of the Anesia Seeds available through @CannaPot ? CannaPot doesn't have much in the way of write ups or quoted THC percentages but you can find that info on Anesia's site. Several photo strains in the mid to upper 30's for THC (autos in the upper 20's). Seems their specialty is producing super high octane strains.
 
I've got some Anesia Blackberry MoonRocks & Future #1 along with Alaskan Purple and Rainbow Kush (both Expert Seeds) enroute for the next grow in this tent. All photos that I intend to SCROG. May be upgrading lighting too. I'll pick 2 different strains out of the 4. Anyone have a preference? Pick your 2 that you'd like to see.
 
Here's the plan so far. I've still got the last NY Diesel in this tent. She'll crop out in a couple days. I've got a @ViparSpectra KS3000 on its way to replace the homemade unit currently in this tent. Kinda excited because it's a larger unit (physical dimensions, same wattage) which should give me more even light distribution. I'll use the GroBuckets like I have going on in my other tent. I'll start 4 seeds and put all 4 in this 3'x3' with the hopes that by the time they're ready to flip, the other tent will be open. Then if I have monsters, I can separate them and have 2 in each tent. I'll be starting a new journal for the new grow. If all goes to plan. Things will start happening Tuesday.
 

Looks like you'll be getting all your wishes. Since you have been the only vote, it looks like it will be the Blackberry MoonRocks and Rainbow Kush. You had also wanted to see SIPs with FN Fertilizer™ from the start. Plus I have some SCROG nets to try out.
 
Looks like you'll be getting all your wishes. Since you have been the only vote, it looks like it will be the Blackberry MoonRocks and Rainbow Kush. You had also wanted to see SIPs with FN Fertilizer™ from the start. Plus I have some SCROG nets to try out.
I was going to vote for the SIP so, can I be VP?
 
Back
Top Bottom