August thanks for posting this....I believe this is the MOST critical item/mistake in growing (especially container grows). I made the mistake of getting a little crazy on my 2nd indoor grow over the winter and learned real fast less/steady pace is best...your thread was my 2nd opinion and it's worked perfectly making the change...Thanks again..!
cheers blades! glad y'all got something out of this it saved my ass too thanks again to Mandala seed co for the great info!!
Thanks for posting this info August. I might end up getting a meter now. I fertilize weakly (.25-.5ml/liter) with R/O at almost every watering. I am using a plain potting mix with no nutes in it. I was confused by the part about where it said never fertilize on dry soil. I thought we were supposed to dry it out pretty good between all waterings/feedings?
The way i incorporate this when feeding is that i give them a 2/3 load of plain water with only micro nutrients added, wait for 5-10 minutes and then give them the actual feeding... gives a bit of a lot of run-off but i haven't had any nute-related problems for quite some time now... but yeah i'd be very interested if that's actually what's meant by that... btw, great post AW
you don't want your soil totally bone dry before adding nutes.. it'll cause burning. I think they're talking dry to the point of wilting.. or close to it. if my plants are super dry and i'm ready for feeding i usually add a little water that day or the night before, then i go ahead and add whatever nute mix i'm adding.
Thanks for the clarification. I like to soak them good, wait a few minutes and soak them again until I see runoff, so soaking them with plain R/O first will save on fertilizer cost too come to think of it.
Google that shizzle, or read a little more. Good post, although you did cost me more money as well with a new EC meter. Hopefully your right that my yield will compensate my expenses
Ok so way back when i thought i understood....its all kinda coming back to me... So lets say my water has an EC of .50 (i have a well with a 5 micron filter/screen and i also have a filter on the faucet which ill probably have to use...we'll see how it goes haha) Anyway... Do I just add my nutes to the water little by little until i get an EC around .80?.... Even if my EC is already .6 or .7?... Just add until its at .8 and i should be fine? orr would they not get enough nutrients then... If anyone can help clear this up for me that would be sweeeeeeeeeet. Heres the meter i have in mind..its a PH/EC meter...hopefully that works Hanna Instruments: Hanna Combo Pen - pH/EC/TDS/Temp. (HI 98129) [eco-5529C] - Timers & Instruments - Discount Specialty Farm, Greenhouse & Garden Supply Store - Horticulture Source
Thank you for the guide. I have been searching for information in regards to hydroponics nutes. I couldn't ever find anything over than the ph needs to be between 5.5-6.0
Some of the things in that OP dont make much sense to me.... You keep talking about ec content and what not saying that the Canna terres recomends 5m/l, and that is to high of an EC. So if i put 5ml in say 5L then it should be ok. But if my pots arnt big enough almost all of it is going to be run off... And overall the plant isnt getting much food.. But if i put 5ml/l the plant gets that 5ml of food.. and no run off... saving nutes I have figured out about how much water i can use for my pots before there is too much run off.. Then just started slowly putting how ever much fertilezer in that and increase as time goes on... Or is what im doing stupid and i should use more water? Even though there is lots of run off does the nutes stay in the soil?
which canna product are you using the site says 50ml to 10L which is 5;1 ratio what type of water are you starting with. what kinda ec #s does it have before you ad nutes? If your water is a .5 and your adding full srength nutes it could lead to a high ec reading. what kinda meter do you have?
I am using soil and the only fert i have is GH flora nova for blooming i was just using the canna terra as an example. But say for instance i have a Jilly Bean 6 weeks into flowering i gave it maybe 1.2 Liters worth of water mixed with 12.5 ML of the Nuts and do that every other time. But when it started bloom i started with 4ML and worked my way up. I also dont have a EC meter. but what i dont get though is this, Why is the OP only about the EC, i used about 12.5ML/L which probably has a HIGH EC contant like 3 or 4 juding from the OP. But i am not burning my plants.... i am going for the most amount of fert/plant with out wasting a lot of nuts in run off and not burning the plant. If i used a EC of 1 or w.e is recomemded for soil i would have to use so much water... and alot of it would go away as run off.(the JB is in a 11 or 12 L pot i cant remember) So what i think is in soil EC does not matter. Unless when feeding the plants that all the nutes stay in the soil and the run off is JUST water
also why does it say not to fertilize in dry soil? what exactly does that mean? Dont fertilze if the soil is 100 percent dry? During my grow my soil is never 100percent dry... i water when its about 1-2 inches dry on top... if i stuck my finger in farther i would fill some moisture. So that comment is almost meaning less?
well ec and ppm are almost one in the same a ppm meter actually measures ec and converts it to ppm and ec is more accurate then ppm I can't explain it very well. so ec maters quite a bit and if you don't have a meter how to you know that your ec is high are you just assuming?