Whats going on growmies just a quick question, has anyone used or know if dissolving garden lime in water and soaking your coco would be a sufficient amount of added calcium so it doesny rob it from my amendments? Tapped out on funds and garden lime is all thats left in the pantry that adds calmag. Appreciate yall ty in advance.
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Crushed eggshell (into a fine powder) is a great source for calcium. To make it active quicker, boil the powder in water and constantly stir for 5-10 minutes. Let cool (below 70°F) before agitating it into your media.
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The garden lime takes care of calcium, but you also need magnesium when buffering. Epsom salt will fit that bill. I use a 1.5 dose of calmag and full strength Jack’s 321 for buffering. I copied and pasted this “A good starting point is every 100 grams of coco coir needs about 2 grams of calcium and .5 grams of magnesium”. Hopefully that’ll help you figure out how much lime and epsom to use.
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There is one problem with this idea though, Lime is primarily used to balance pH back to near neutral or 7.0 pH and Coco need a pH of 5.5-5.8 to work properly. Even dissolved the lime will mix with and bond to the fibers making it hard to rinse it out. I fear you will be chasing pH problems with the grow if lime is added to the Coco. Plain tap water usually has a measure of calcium and magnesium and just soaking with your city water would be better than using lime. Letting it set a couple days will get rid of any chlorine in the water too. Calcium from lime and other sources like eggshells takes years to be available.
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Happy cake day!
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