Hi everyone havent posted on this inna long time but here goes. I have experience with soil but have never done a hydro grow before. I have 2x4 tent, 400w hps, 2 5 gallon resevoirs. Going to be putting 2 plants in here. Ive been reading that the PH can change over night, am i able to ad ph up or down ditectly into my plants bucket? Or should i dilute before adding or is there a better way?, as i will not have a holding resevoir just the buckets the plants will be in. What is an ideal PPM for seedling, veg, and flower? How often should i completly change out my resevoirs water? And between change outs what the best practice for topping up nute level without over feeding? Any help would be greatly appriciated Thanks in advance
Don't add pH up/down directly to the reservoir, because that could hit and burn roots. Our setups aren't quite the same, I use a 13 Gal usable volume GH Ecogrower drip system that's similar to DWC. Here's what I do: (1) Transfer some the pH up/down into 4 oz tincture bottles for ease of use. (2) Remove 2 Gal from the reservoir into two 1 Gal jugs. (3) Put 3 droppers full (3 mL) pH U/D into one of the jugs and shake well. (4) Add the jug of doctored liquid to the reservoir. (5) Chase it with the jug of undoctored liquid to help mix up the reservoir. The pH of my reservoir changes about 0.1 for each dropper full. If you do this, you'll probably need to use different liquid volumes for your smaller buckets. Do not over react, because the system might take a few hours to stabilize. Playing pH yoyo isn't fun. Some of the following advice is very controversial, but I believe gives excellent yield with minimum effort, and I am aware of the accepted wisdom: Use the same nutrients throughout (GH 3 part Flora nutes plus CalMagic works well), except during the seedling and very early veg stage. The seedlings will eat the seed provided food for the first few days, then around 100 ppm works for the next few days, then slowly increase to a level of mid 500 ppm over the next week or so, and keep it there until harvest. For my system, higher ppm increases the chances of nute/light burn. The first water change for me is 3-4 weeks, then every 2 weeks, and maybe every week near harvest. I just continue adding 550 ppm nutes to top off, and keep a few jugs of it around. I don't want to guess what elements have been depleted, and adding normal nutes replenishes every element, while the reasonably low ppm level prevents over supply of less used elements. I've actually kept track of all the nute ppm and water added for several weeks, and dividing the totals showed that my plants were actually using 350 ppm out of each gallon fluid added. Don't know whether this translates to other peoples' systems, but it helped prove to me that half strength nutes are better than full strength nutes, as did some nute burn from following feed charts. You might want to consider getting Blue Lab pH and ppm meters. The cheap ones can be trouble. Google "Vapor Pressure Deficit Chart" to learn the very best method for determining optimal temp and humidity. Following the chart recommendations leads to vigorous growth. Also google whether bloom foods and flushing really help.
I'm brand new to DWC my self and one month in and that dudes advice was spot on... other than I do add 1 drop of ph up or down (not near roots) if I have too... I agree with you but have just done it in the past :/ this is my first grow 33 days in veg
Yeah man i just started using it I had a lot of problems with the rusty spots... hopefully it gets better soon.