Hey ya’ll so I finally got my PPM tester and I understand how it works with measuring the ions in the water from all other variables besides h2o but i dont understand why we do it? So i took some tap water and it measures at 109.
So am I in a good range? I gave my plants there first feed Sunday, some Bergmans seedling fertilizer. I got a journal going on the grow if yall are interested, greatly appreciate any feedback!
Your base at 109 isn’t bad at all. Some people like to start from zero, so they use R/O water. As you add your nutes that reading will go up of course, and some people like to squeeze every ounce of nutes into their PPM. Does that make sense?
The PPM numbers change depending on the stage your plant is in. So for example, a young plant only gets about 300-400 PPM, but a plant in early flower can go all the way up to 2400 PPM.
This is really good info as usual from you thank you so much. So is there like a chart anywhere to go by or is it something learned from talking to other growers?
Usually the nutrient line you’re using will tell you the PPM, TDS, or EC to aim for. TDS and EC are the same thing, just a different calculation, they can be converted. If you have a feeding schedule it should tell you one of these numbers.
What little experience I’ve had, in hydroponics, the nutes manufacturer’s feeding schedule is too strong. It may, or may not, just be the brand I’m using, but my suggestion would be to start with half the recommended dose and work from there. It’s easier to add more than try to save them from nite burn.
In answer to the original question, it measures TDS or Temporary (Temporarily?) Dissolved Solids. Small particles in the water. If you use distilled or RO water you start out around zero, like they said above.
How you use It is to measure what you are putting into the plant, then measure what comes out. You can tell if she’s eating right (among other things) and look out for ridiculously high numbers, which might tell you it’s time to flush the soil out.
When flushing, you can use it to continually check the run-off to get the PPM to an acceptable level.
