All righty, got my new Hanna EC meter and it’s looking like my numbers are way off.
EC is about 3.0. From watching a video with that Dr. Bugby, it should be around 1-1.5
What are the general guidelines for adjusting EC?
I’m going a little nuts trying to get the pH, ppm, and EC all in line.
Soil is FFOF, changed nutes from the FF Tripo to a simple 20-9-20 with CalMag. pH of the nute mix is around 6.5, ppm around 1300. Now the EC is way off in my runoff at 3.0.
What’s the general strategy for maintaining pH, ppm, EC? Is the FFOF soil making this more difficult?
The runoff. I’m going a little crazy as the plants have been treated the same but now that I have a nice EC meter, I can see they are each wildly different for EC and ppm. I’ve also had the pH drop to the mid 5’s on a plant while others are in the mid 6’s. All treated the same.
This EC meter should take help me dial each plant in though. I can’t believe how different each one is
You may treat them the same but they respond individually.
ph going in of 6.5 is okay for soil.
Feed ppm of 1300 is a little on the high side but not excessive. The occasional heavy feed during flower is ok as long as runoff ph & ppm are in line. And a runoff EC of 3.0 (PPM of 1500) is in line with feed ppm. I’m not sure why you think it is way off. If anything it is lower than I would expect for FFOF unless it is depleted.
The problem number is runoff ph. 5.0 is way too low for soil. Does this plant also have much higher ppm than the others?
I found this article useful in deciphering ph
This one from growweedeasy DOT com/ph#soil-pH is also good.
Question if I may, If my runoff PPM in week 6 is lower than 1000 and I am feeding at 1900-2000 PPM should I increase my nutes? She has only few leaves that the tips are painted. Thank you great info here
I can say I have never had that much of a spread. Personally I would not push the feed ppm higher. The plant is apparently taking in what you give it. The painted tips indicate she is on the edge though. Are the leaves getting glossy green? Don’t want to push to N toxicity.
It’s a bag seed that auto-flowered.Gelato and new growie
my grow journal of sorts. I’m not going to change anything this late in her life. just trying to understand more. Went more organic on my Blue Dreams.
Thank you
Using Grotek solo-tek bloom 3-8-8. Friend recommended. Not sure I would or wouldn’t recommend. Next plants are in COM Stonington blend and earth dust and considering what they have been through ED is way better than Happy Acid Frog and Grotek. Dog ate 1/2 of a blue dream 2 weeks ago and you could only tell by the FIM she did.
Remember this… Measuring EC is simply another way to measure the PPM of the TDS. Pick one, EC, or PPM, and if you pick PPM, then you need to know which scale.
Thank you @Newt That I understood. Was just thinking I wasn’t feeding her enough. Did 1.9-2.1k in a few times and was getting 400-450 out 2 days later. Seen charts saying 1000 ppm out in flower and mine never gets there. Trying to learn all I can, next two are in living soil(so far).
Those numbers are nuts. I use coco and Jacks. I have to really work at it to get runoff numbers that low and I only feed at 900 - 1100. That is daily of course.
Growers here have good results with Earth Dust. I’m considering giving it a try myself. Maybe a side by side with clones. It has been a while since I used soil.
Just fed her this morning. first run off before nutes was 650 ppm including the 200 from my tap. This is a slight increase that I took as she was slowing down. The grotek schedule says 3/4 teaspoon to 1.25 quarts water. Which reads 1900-2000pm also drops ph to 6.
It’s happy frog that went acidic, added dolomite and ots of ph’d water. There’s no extra perlite in it so it’s dense as a brick. I topped my gelato with ED and it is really doing well after trying my best to kill her. Reading this thread I realized my run off numbers were low. Hey thanks for trying to help me
There are some good notes in this thread. I’m thinking of making my own soil as pH has been an issue for me with the FFOF.
I get that nutes lower pH but I’m seeing low pH AND low ppm in a number of my plants. There isn’t a nice linear relationship between plants with low pH and plants with high ppm. I’m sure it’s never a perfect relationship but my numbers have left me completely frustrated.
I’m thinking there has to be a better way while growing in soil as I don’t think I’m ready to make the jump to hydro.
Any considerations when selecting peat to use as a medium?
Thinking of buying peat, vermiculite, maybe a couple other ingredients and just doing it myself and wonder what I should look for when I see a rack of peat products at the garden center.
