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nutrients DWC How much calcium should I add per liter of nutes

Hey,


I'm finding Cal Mag to be extremely expensive where I live and a 1 liter bottle would last me a lifetime. I will be using cheap Epsom Salts to provide the Mag part and the water from our tap has 4mg per liter of calcium in it.

Do you think the tap water would provide enough calcium for the plants needs?

Thanks.
 
willard3 said:
It depends strongly upon how much calcium is in the tap water.
 
Have you measured it?
The local council posts the mineral content of the tap water online and ours has 4mg of calcium per liter of tap water. Would this be enough?
 
Pound dry egg shells to a powder and mix it with vinegar. Tbs of egg powder with tbs of vinegar, leave to stand till stops reacting (30-60mins), then pour it into a galon of water, mix it and give it to your peppers.

Look it up. :)
 
Honey Badger said:
Pound dry egg shells to a powder and mix it with vinegar. Tbs of egg powder with tbs of vinegar, leave to stand till stops reacting (30-60mins), then pour it into a galon of water, mix it and give it to your peppers.

Look it up. :)
I know this works for soil but won't the solid's just sit at the bottom of the bucket and not stay in solution?
 
Clueless Wanderer said:
I know this works for soil but won't the solid's just sit at the bottom of the bucket and not stay in solution?
 
When acetic acid from vinegar reacts with eggshells it will free up some Ca from CaCO3 which you will later mix with water. You could strain bits of eggshell and discard it. Ca is just a trace element and your plants don't need much of it, so it may be OK for you to try this eggshell recipe.
 
 
Or you can buy it from a shop. :)
 
When talking about solutions in water 1 mg/L is the same thing as 1 ppm so your tap water is very soft and only providing 4ppm of Calcium. Mixing eggshells with vinegar produces Calcium acetate. This is a good source of Calcium because it is very soluble however you would do well to add vinegar a little bit at a time to dissolve the eggshells fully as too much will quickly reduce the ph of your water. As eggshells are almost completely Calcium carbonate 1g will provide close to 400ppm of Calcium per liter. 
 
The other common source of Calcium is as Calcium nitrate used in combination with a low nitrogen fertiliser this provides 185 ppm of calcium and about 150 ppm of nitrogen(it depends on the quality) per gram per liter.
 
You could also try to get some Monocalcium phosphate though it is less soluble than both Calcium acetate and Calcium nitrate.
 
A good amount of Calcium to aim for would be 150ppm.
 
A Spicy English Cheapskate said:
When talking about solutions in water 1 mg/L is the same thing as 1 ppm so your tap water is very soft and only providing 4ppm of Calcium. Mixing eggshells with vinegar produces Calcium acetate. This is a good source of Calcium because it is very soluble however you would do well to add vinegar a little bit at a time to dissolve the eggshells fully as too much will quickly reduce the ph of your water. As eggshells are almost completely Calcium carbonate 1g will provide close to 400ppm of Calcium per liter. 
 
The other common source of Calcium is as Calcium nitrate used in combination with a low nitrogen fertiliser this provides 185 ppm of calcium and about 150 ppm of nitrogen(it depends on the quality) per gram per liter.
 
You could also try to get some Monocalcium phosphate though it is less soluble than both Calcium acetate and Calcium nitrate.
 
A good amount of Calcium to aim for would be 150ppm.
Wow, such in-depth valuable information. Thanks!

Just one thing about your information:  1 milligram is 1/1000th of a liter. PPM is Parts Per Million, so how come 1mg isn't equal to 1000ppm?
Saying that, my tap water is 32 ppm, so my above numbers don't work out. I'm confused.
 
 
Clueless Wanderer said:
Wow, such in-depth valuable information. Thanks!

Just one thing about your information:  1 milligram is 1/1000th of a liter. PPM is Parts Per Million, so how come 1mg isn't equal to 1000ppm?
Saying that, my tap water is 32 ppm, so my above numbers don't work out. I'm confused.
 
1 milligram is 1/1000 of a gram and 1 gram is 1/1000th of a liter which is of course a kilogram.
 
Your tap water will contain other elements remember 4ppm calcium will be a part of a total of 10ppm of CaCO3. My tap water for example also contains small amounts of Magnesium, Sulfur and even small amounts of Nitrogen. I don't know about where you live, but here if you look on your water suppliers website they can give you a full breakdown of your water quality report. Tap water also isn't 100% consistent throughout the year.
 
A Spicy English Cheapskate said:
1 milligram is 1/1000 of a gram and 1 gram is 1/1000th of a liter which is of course a kilogram.
 
Your tap water will contain other elements remember 4ppm calcium will be a part of a total of 10ppm of CaCO3. My tap water for example also contains small amounts of Magnesium, Sulfur and even small amounts of Nitrogen. I don't know about where you live, but here if you look on your water suppliers website they can give you a full breakdown of your water quality report. Tap water also isn't 100% consistent throughout the year.
Thanks :-)

I think my outdoor plants are suffering from Calcium deficiency, hence my questions.
 
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