trichomechaser Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Hey guys, I'm hoping to open a dialogue and gauge whether there are others experiencing the same issues as I am. I've been growing primarily with Freedom Farms Classic since 2018 and I while I have encountered some mild magnesium deficiency through my own errors over the years, the past 3 months I've been seeing mg issues pop up across the board on almost every plant I run. My mother tent, my flowering tent, but clone tent, veg tent - everything is having issues with mag. They're all fed/watered with pH 5.5-6.5 water, and even using different meters cause they're in different rooms. It's almost as though the pH is drifting back up too high in the medium. I initially thought it was a bad batch, so I went and grabbed 5 new bags and have the same issues with it. I've been far more careless with pH balancing in the past without noticing these symptoms. Not sure if it's possible that the tap water is somewhat involved - the Helderberg area has been increasing chloride (apparently). Anyone else seeing anything similar? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prom Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 (edited) Is usually the low range giving you issues in soil. Below pH 5.8 the roots will have issues absorbing Mg, same if you are in the 7.x and + range. I would guess there is your issue.. as you go chemical anyhow, can't go biological when you use chlorinated water, the chlorine kills your microbes. You might want to try coco or hydro with chemical.. is easier to debug. Right now, your pH does weird stuff because your micro organisms are dead. Can also try to add Environoc 401 to get those microbes back.. You might want to get a water filter for your tap water thou ^^ as you kill the Environoc 401 microbes with the chlorinated water too If you fear the soil is bad.. add a table spoon Epsom to the mix, you know there is no lack of Mg after. You never can exclude a bad batch of soil.. but I would more point to the soil and tap water use.. that bites a bit. Filter or rain water for soil. If you can't get that, Coco or hydro and fully chemical feeding... hydro in any case chemical or it will smell a bit ^^ And aim for a pH range of 6-7 in soil... Edited March 13 by Prom last sentence addon ^^ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesignatedDave Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 So I have a similar issue with Freedom Farm Classic, except with Calcium. There is little to no calcium in their mix and if I don't use a calmag supplement, my plants suddenly have calcium deficiencies. I've experienced this with pretty much every grow I've done, I now just account for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prom Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 On 3/14/2024 at 5:24 AM, DesignatedDave said: So I have a similar issue with Freedom Farm Classic, except with Calcium. There is little to no calcium in their mix and if I don't use a calmag supplement, my plants suddenly have calcium deficiencies. I've experienced this with pretty much every grow I've done, I now just account for it. Check your pH.. if you always run into Calcium issues I would bet my left arm you run a pH below 6.2.. that is to low to absorb calcium in soil. Raise it and you should have zero issues. I grew over 1500 plants in freedom farm premium classic with no issues at all. The adding of CalMag most likely just raised your pH to make things work again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prom Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 And just as a ADDON: pH is mend to 'float'. Depending what grow medium you use, 5.5-6.5 or 6-7 is your range. Sticking to 6.0 and thinking all is fine is plain wrong you need to float from 6 to 7 or 5.5 to 6.5 and cover the pH range to have maximum intake of nutrients.. you want max potency.. you need perfect feeding to start with, but is just one factor to reach high numbers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totemic Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 (edited) Been experiencing exactly the same with my last batch of FF premium. Magnesium deficiency/overfed look. I thought i overfed, but after taking some clones and sticking them in more of the same batch... Been 6 weeks, i havent fed once and they are looking borderline overfed. I think this was just a hot batch of soil. My grows have been consistent for the last 5 years. In fact i have been reusing my old soil, just reamending with elemental blend. Nothing has changed, except for the new soil i bought. Edited March 15 by Totemic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trichomechaser Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 On 3/15/2024 at 3:23 PM, Prom said: Check your pH.. if you always run into Calcium issues I would bet my left arm you run a pH below 6.2.. that is to low to absorb calcium in soil. Raise it and you should have zero issues. I grew over 1500 plants in freedom farm premium classic with no issues at all. The adding of CalMag most likely just raised your pH to make things work again. The guys from Marijuana SA sent in a sample of the Freedom Farms Classic for testing a few years ago, there's a Youtube video on it. But most interesting from the results was the low calcium levels in relation to other elements, not that there wasn't calcium present, but just not very balanced. On 3/14/2024 at 5:24 AM, DesignatedDave said: So I have a similar issue with Freedom Farm Classic, except with Calcium. There is little to no calcium in their mix and if I don't use a calmag supplement, my plants suddenly have calcium deficiencies. I've experienced this with pretty much every grow I've done, I now just account for it. I've been following a few of your threads about your use of BioBizz and Freedom Farms, as you seem to have that down. I might pop you a DM if you don't mind, you seem to be nailing it. On 3/15/2024 at 5:08 PM, Totemic said: Been experiencing exactly the same with my last batch of FF premium. Magnesium deficiency/overfed look. I thought i overfed, but after taking some clones and sticking them in more of the same batch... Been 6 weeks, i havent fed once and they are looking borderline overfed. I think this was just a hot batch of soil. My grows have been consistent for the last 5 years. In fact i have been reusing my old soil, just reamending with elemental blend. Nothing has changed, except for the new soil i bought. Feels the same from my side. It's almost as though regular feeding is creating an additional imbalance where some elements are being uptaken while others are locked out. Picked up some new bags recently, so will see if anything is different. I don't want to rule out human error on my side though and throw full blame on FF - it just feels different to work with, and not behaving like I'm used to after all these years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesignatedDave Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 On 3/15/2024 at 2:23 PM, Prom said: Check your pH.. if you always run into Calcium issues I would bet my left arm you run a pH below 6.2.. that is to low to absorb calcium in soil. Raise it and you should have zero issues. I grew over 1500 plants in freedom farm premium classic with no issues at all. The adding of CalMag most likely just raised your pH to make things work again. My Ph is usually between 6.3 - 6.6, I don’t go below 6.2 with organics 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Green Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 I am also a victim of Magnesium deficiency in freedom farm classic. I have been using it for many many years but this is now my 3rd run that I am suffering with magnesium deficiency in freedom farm classic. I am going to water plain water at about 6.7 for now and see what happens Took a huge loss on my previous run my plants in veg tents using the same batch of soil is doing the same as my flower room I have another flowering tent using orgasoilux and those plants are fine. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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