Botanicare Cal Mag Reviews?

[Mandy2705]

I recently bought some about two days ago and it is recommended to use with RO water. I don't have that, so I use regular tap and use less than the recommended dose. I was wondering if anyone else uses this product and what are your results? I probably should have asked this question before I purchased it lol but I'm impulsive I have a few Catt seedlings and one showed some symptoms of calcium deficiency (black leaf tips of newest growth).

[estación seca]

If you go to your local water supplier's Web site you can almost undoubtedly find their annual report of your water quality. It will include how much of various minerals are in your water.

I doubt putting fertilizer intended for mixing with pure water into tap water will cause a problem. Calcium compounds are notoriously insoluble so you won't overdose. There's not much magnesium in tap water or people would have explosive diarrhea all the time.

Mineral availability is a function of water and soil pH (acidity.) Many municipal water systems provide alkaline water because there is less trouble with minerals like lead leaching from old pipes into drinking water with alkaline water. Alkaline water renders many minerals relatively unavailable, which is why many people suggest watering plants with neutral to slightly acid water.

[Mandy2705]

Thanks for the wonderful explanation I had to laugh at the explosive diarrhea part. I will have to take a look at our water and see what it contains. Thanks for pointing me in the right way

[Nexogen]

I use Botanicare Cal-Mag plus. Very good product, probably the best in the area.

Cal-Mag Plus contains: calcium, magnesium, iron, boron, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, copper, cobalt, iodine, beneficial vitamins, twenty essential amino acids and select botanical plant extracts.

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Derived from: Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Nitrate, Iron EDTA.

[Subrosa]

Most calcium compounds are relatively insoluble in water, but calcium nitrate which is commonly used in fertilizers is quite soluble. Even more so than many sodium compounds (including nitrate) of which most are more highly soluble than most calcium compounds. Always know what you have before you add anything to your water.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Mineral availability is a function of water and soil pH (acidity.) Many municipal water systems provide alkaline water because there is less trouble with minerals like lead leaching from old pipes into drinking water with alkaline water. Alkaline water renders many minerals relatively unavailable, which is why many people suggest watering plants with neutral to slightly acid water.

That's not accurate.

Within a fairly broad range of solution pH, minerals important to plant nutrition remain in solution, and are structurally unchanged, so if it is in solution, it is available for plant absorption.

The "pH versus mineral availability" thing does, on the other hand, apply to soils.

Due to very fine particles of organic materials and clays, soils have sites where mineral ions can bind. Those sites give the soils what is known as "cation exchange capacity", and whether the ions stay bound to those sites or are released into solution, so they can be absorbed by plants, is directly related to pH.

That pH effect is related to the degree of CEC in the potting medium, which varies all over the map, and relative to soils, orchid media have essentially none.

Lead pipes have been illegal and long-since removed in the U.S.; I believe the neutral-to-slightly basic pH of most municipal water supplies has more to do with control of microorganisms that mineral solubility.

[tucker85]

I use MagiCal which is Technafloras version of the product you got from Botanicare. It's made a remarkable difference in my orchid collection. I grow outdoors in South Florida so my orchids grow rapidly and I use 1 teaspoon of MagiCal per gallon of water, which is what the label recommends. But the goal is to prevent calcium deficiency so in your case, probably growing indoors and using tap water, I would use about 1/4 the dose recommended on the label. After a few months if you continue to see fungus problems on new growth, you can increase the dosage a little. That's just my personal opinion. I grow 150 orchids outdoors in the pouring rain and don't use any fungicides at all. I rarely have any fungus problems after using calcium/magnesium for over 3 years. Before using Magical I had tremendous problems with black rot, root rot and leaf spotting fungus. That's just my experience under my personal conditions. I don't know if it will work well for you or not.

[Subrosa]

Municipalities that have older homes that may contain lead pipes generally add an orthophosphate compound to the water supply. This essentially Parkerizes the inside of the pipes, similar to the grey finish once common to military small arms. This is how lead is prevented from leaching into the tap water.

[Mandy2705]

I will post any results of I see them I am relieved hat it works well for you Tucker85.