How To Determine Your Plants Preferred Nutrient Strength

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by GoldGrower, Mar 27, 2013.

  1. hot water and a brush should get any salt build up off. you only need to dissolve it again. but bleach is great for general cleaning. just rinse afterwards and its gone as its water soluble
     
  2. I always use a light solution of bleach and peroxide to clean my hydroton and system.
     
  3. In mho bleach to my even watered down heavy seems harsh to me ( dont ask me why it just does think about it your feeding it to your babies) Peroxide still harsh but not as bad as bleach,what I do I use antibacterial Liquid hand soap,I just squirt some and a clean wash cloth and wash everything down and rinse,every thing comes clean and it gives me peice of mind.....
     
  4. On HM Digitals website it says there in California. TDS meters from the US go by the .5 conversion factor(multiply 500 by EC to get ppm)
     
  5. Thank you for your input,I already know how to convert to PPM"s but my meter reads in microsiemens us/cm,what gold grower wanted to know is whet my EC reading would be in ms/cm's and math is not really my strong point,I know 1000 us/cm's is 500 ms/cm's but I cant figure out how to turn those into for example an Ec level of 1.9 if I am getting this right 1.9 would be 1900 us/cm"s...,
    My last EC reading was 2275 us/cm"s so 2275 x0.5 is 1187.5 PPM"s so I am assumeing my ec level is a bit over 1.1,but I dont know if I am doing this right.......all I know is I should have bought a different meter LOL..
     
  6. I checked the Hanna web site and the meter I have converts .5 to .7 already thats why my readings are different than the chart.
     
  7. #47 GoldGrower, Apr 19, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 30, 2014
    peroxide is a bleach. it's h2o2 and very unstable, this is why it reacts so easily with things and dissolving them. it dissipates very quickly, the h2o and the extra o separate and the remaining o's pair up making h2o and o2 (water and oxygen) two perfectly harmless compounds

    in fact I add peroxide to my nutrient tanks every now and then to keep bacteria at bay and add oxygen to the water
     

  8. From what Ive read you just divide Us/Cm by 2 and thats your PPM, 2275/2 = 1137.5 PPM.
     
  9. I know the h2o2 is harmless,it's not the h2o2 in it's self it's the thought of washing with it I use it too in my rez after exerything has been mixed.
    I guess it's a phobia, i see it like I am washing some thing I am putting my plants food in,I know I would never wash my plates forks spoons in bleach or h2os...it just give me peice of mind to was in hand soap...
     

  10. 2275 x 0.5 is 1137.5

    so an EC of about 1.75-ish
     
  11. Like I said to cannaclay,math is not my strong point lmao......hey your dealing with a product of special ed here, I was lucky I got my high school diploma back in 1983,,hey cut me some slack I am an old guy.........Just kidding.........
     

  12. Im just going on by how i grow my plants. you also have to factor in how much water Evaporates into the air. My ppm will start at 1000 and next day 3 gallons gone ppm went up by 200 so when i add back the amount of water missing with no nutes my ppm will show around 850 ppm. meaning the plants are eating the nutes and could probably use around 1200ppm. i will keep it high for 3 days low for 2 and do a rez change repeat and my plants seem to love it. i usually pull around a lb/2lbs depending what strain im growing under 1400watts
     
  13. As by my posts you can tell I have always done a similar process but you will always be guessing. If you check within a 24hr period this does work accurately even when my rez drops 5-7 gallons. I thought the same as you, but I tested this several times and it works. I dont like guessing I like know what my plants want. Also if you add water to your rez then check ppm it will go down because you just diluted your solution.
     
  14. This is my first cycle and im in week 3 and just moved my plants up to the vegetative chamber..

    i have a FEW questions.. (first in the germinating chamber)

    I've had a few people tell me 24 hours light and some 0 hours light the first couple days to germinate your seeds.. is it preference?

    second.. how often do i need to soak my rock cubes while they are at the bottom because at about day 10 I noticed half of my plants cubes were dry and it stunted their growth and half of them died..



    Now for the top chamber:

    How far away should I have my lights from my plants? Because I have a pulley-system.. so is it just always like 6-12 inches away??

    and if the leaves on some of the plants are kinda shriveled and look bent over but not like crunchy when you touch them... what does that mean? needs more water, dead leave...
     
  15. when the seed/seedling first shows green it can make use of the light. you don't want it in the dark at this point as it will stretch like crazy. for this reason and so I don't have to constantly keep checking on them I just leave the light on while germinating. anything between 18/6 and 24/0 is fine for seedlings.

    there is now time schedule that fits all as there are far too many variables. you have to water when they start to dry. this is the reason I dislike rockwool, it becomes water logged very easily. what do you mean when you say "while they are at the bottom"? what hydro system are you using?

    light distance also has many factors that determin it. I use 20-40watts of CFL for the first few days and have them 1-2 inches away. just make sure the canopy doesn't get higher than 28'c and you will be fine.

    sounds like nutrient overdose but without seeing a photo im just guessing really
     
  16. #56 CannaClay, Apr 24, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 24, 2013
    Dude there are a lot of dishwasher machine soaps on the market that have bleach in them. Bleach is water soluble. As long as you rinse/wipe it down with water once you give them a very diluted concentration of bleach solution it will be fine. I totally understand your reasoning behind it though. It doesn't seem safe and certainly not natural. I usually clean mine with Dawn

    The other thing that people say all the time that cracks me up is that you wouldnt drink water that has a high tds like 400ppm then why would you feed it to your plants. In fact where I live the ppm of the water is 600ppm!!! OMG! But people drink and are just fine! Except for some calcium deposits on your teeth if you live here for 30+ years...haha. Any I don't like it when people compare there plants to human bodies because human bodies are extremely resilient and can handle a lot of abuse, just look at all the shit we put into our bodies. Maybe not you all personally but just people in general. Anyhow now im just ranting.
     
  17. I agree that comparing humans and plants in that way is absurd, and I have seen people do it many times. animals and plants work in a very different way indeed
     
  18. this maybe a simpler way to put it ...

    the plants will only take what they want. that goes for amount of nutes amount of water and ratio of all of them.

    so, what you want is to provide the same ratio as the plant is currently using at any given time. a good ratio of nutes can be provided by using a cannabis designed nutrient brand and change the solution on a regular bases

    to find out their preferred ppm you first need to make up some solution and test it. then wait 24 hours and test again....

    if the solution has gotten stronger (ppm goes up) it means the plant has been using more water and less nutrients so that means your original ppm (24 hours ago) was too high. so add some water to bring it down and test again

    if the solution has gotten weaker (ppm goes down) it means the plant has been using more nutrients and less water so that means your original ppm (24 hours ago) was too low. so add some nutrients to bring it up and test again

    if you test it after 24 hours and you can see that some of the nutrient solution has been "drunk" but the ppm has stayed the same you know the plant is using them in the same balance as in the reservoir and you have it spot on.

    if the solution is too strong it will draw water out of the plant via osmosis slowing uptake dramatically
     
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  19. I'll stick to soil...used a hybrid self watering system for a while..it was years ago, homemade. I like the buffering that soil gives you..make a big enough mistake with hydro and the whole crop could be gone in a hurry, with soil your errors are usually correctable before losing plants...(though to be honest there have been plants I've spent too much time attempting to save only to end up torturing them in the process)
     
  20. your in the wrong section then
     

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