I don't really follow exactly what you're doing with the calcium, but you do, so I'm going to assume that a "well done, Stunger!" would fit in right about here...
As for the supercropping...that's an expert job right there!
Thanks Carcass! I was having to rush as I was being repeatedly told to hurry up, but my posting on it is a mess to read. It even messes with now. I was hoping someone might grasp what I was trying to do and shine a light on it.
I bet they are enjoying the sunshine. Nice work.
Cheers Stinker! That sunshine has been quite rare too, but apparently we have some more coming. It'll be welcome.
If I leave out all the confusing ppm calculations, it makes sense! But I've never seen @Stunger reach for the bottled nutes before, so this is a major shifting of your approach...
You are right, previously I would just carry out a dry top dress every now and then. No pH or ppm's for me.
Compared to the indoor folk who are very knowledgeable on giving direct nutrients and keeping everything in great balance, I have only ever given pretty much dry amendments, and in particular for 'yellowing leaves' I'd always reached for an amendment with Nitrogen in it. But what changed it for me, was a post by
@Gee64, I cut n pasted within an earlier update (it's highlighted in blue text for quick access, haha)
--> here. Before reading this, I probably would have given the Mulanje HP a Nitrogen amendment, but I immediately wanted to try it because it seemed to me that it could be quite probable it's a Calcium deficiency that was causing Magnesium to lock up the Nitrogen, it was there but not available to the plant. When I read this it was like when I heard about SIPS, it only sunk in when
@Azimuth mentioned about the air gap in them, so similarly when Gee explained this I felt I had to try it out.
Now I don't have a ppm reader, I have never seen one. But I understand the ppm can be calculated from molecular weights. I last did that in high school and I have long forgotten it. But going on the statements of others who remember how to do it. 1 gram of dry Calcium Acetate contains approximately 253mg of elemental Calcium, which when diluted in 1 litre of water would be 253ppm. I only need around 1/5 of that (which would give me 50.6ppm).
Gee suggested,
When I add calcium to water I like to be in the 50-60 ppm range. I would start there.
This seems very useful especially for growing in living soil.
So how much of my Calcium Acetate solution do I need to add to 1 litre of water to give 50 - 60ppm without a ppm reader?
Lets assume that the reaction was complete and all vinegar is used up. In reality I could still taste/smell it in a very very faint soft watery way. So maybe it was 98%, who knows, lets assume it fully used up all the vinegar component when it reacted with the egg shells, so 100%.
My vinegar was stated to be between 4 - 4.2% Again, let's say it's 4%
I used excess shells to ensure that there was excess for the vinegar component to be all used up (or thereabouts)
Its been given that 1 gram of dry Calcium Acetate contains approximately 253mg of elemental Calcium, which when diluted in 1 litre of water would be 253ppm. I only need around 1/5 of that (which would give me 50.6ppm).
So if my vinegar was 4% in concentration, and it was all used up. And the Calcium atoms each bonded with 2 Acetate molecules until there were no more left, the reaction stops, no more bubbling. Which means if fully completed my resulting Calcium Acetate would have a concentration of 2%.
So working backwards (I am probably tripping badly and don't know it), if my Calcium Acetate was 100% pure (it'd have to be dry for that of course) then it would give 253ppm if 1 gram was added to 1 litre of water.
So how much is 1 gram of Calcium Acetate salt by volume?
I going to guess at 1/4 teaspoon as being thereabouts.
As mine is only 2%, 1/4 tsp added to 1 litre would give 1/50 of the above 253ppm of 1 gram pure, i.e. 5.06ppm
So how much do I need to add to 1 litre of water to get around the lower of the range? 10 quarter teaspoons (or 2 and half teaspoons) gives 50.6ppm, so that's probably a good starting point. Altho, I am probably way off, it is good I rechecked, I said twice as much before.
Well congrats if you made, it's probably rubbish, it's all ballpark'ish until someone points out where I am mucking up.
Do you have any closeup photos of the Cal def?
Here are a couple here, as you can see from the others pics, the plant (well all of them have had a few yellow leaves, but they are now 4 months 1 week since sprouting so some leaves dying off isn't too unexpected. But the Mulanje HP, while overall she looks green, she has more yellowing leave than I'd like her to have. Hence, I feel I that I have to do something.
Here are a couple of the underneath and closer from above, they mostly are more central (older?) and throughout the central column area it seems. Not particularly all lower or anything.
Laughing so hard here. Haha.
Well it's a mess Lerugged, stoned, being hassled and in a rush. Now it's 1:30am and I'm brain dead, probably making a similar effort this attempt too. Let me know if you see me doing it wrong, it probably is, too late now. Cheers!
