It was seamless transition from fox farms! I was worried. Sent from my SM-G935T using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I know it's expensive. I don't really have much of a power bill so I like the stupid easyness lol Sent from my SM-G935T using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Naturally as in just letting them do their thing with little intervention. So you plant your seed, it gets watered but that's about it. The naturally occurring nutrition in the soil does a lot of work especially as re potting introduces even more soil to eat up. Whereas the Growth Technology Ionic line are all synthetic and that's where "man" intervenes with factory made nutes and training for optimisation. I bullet pointed what I meant to get across before if you go back a page.
Synthetic or natural is just meaningless buzz words. The compounds are made from chemical reactions whether they take place inside bacteria cells or anywhere else. The end result is the same, elements are elements. But chances are the nutrients in the soil are just slow release pellets anyway unless you mix your own raw organic fertilisers
1- you need to match the concentration to what the plants want. They will have had a particularly concentration in the soil anyway, its not as if they've had nothing. There will have been plenty in the soil at some point 2- giving them the exact concentration is easy when growing hydro but when growing in soil there is some guesswork involved. You can measure the run-off to see if it's stronger or weaker compared to what you put in, but I just give them a ppm that I know is about right for their size. My full strength is 1.60ec (800ppm). They get this on every watering when they're about 4 weeks old right through until the last quarter of the flowering period. Before and after this around half strength is usually fine 0.80ec (400ppm) 3- what are you doing right before it changes? 4- that's very high, do you drink this water? Do you know what is in it that's making it so high? 5- no. That's a very old fashioned and inaccurate way of measuring. The total number is the important number because if its higher than what's inside the plant, it will struggle to draw up water because the process of osmosis will be fighting against it 6- all tds meters measure in ec. Some convert it to ppm and display this. The ppm is converted using the manufacturer's figures of what they believe to be right. Most of them convert using this formula... 0.10 mS/cm = 50ppm.
When you say slow release pellets I've seen these little orange smarties type things when mixing the soil with the perlite. I am guessing that these are what you are talking about?
3. I am adding tiny amounts of nute (1/4 tsp) to what is now a few litres of water and staring at the reading after a good swish around. As I said before the reading climbs slowly until around 620 and you get this inexplicable change where it's saying 003 x10 reading which makes no sense. 4. Online I looked up ppm strengths of tap water and found a small list for drinking that goes 50-300 excellent 300-600 good 600-900 fair 900-1,200 poor 1,200+ unacceptable As far as I can tell I live in a "hard water" area. 5. So if I want a ppm of 800 but my tap water is already 325, for balanced nutrition regarding the plant ought I not filter it first so that it's getting more of what's designed in the bottle? 6. I looked at my manual again, it says it's calibrated to 500 as you guessed but also says "Which is suitable for most applications". So whilst it's not technically correct I guess it doesn't matter for what it was designed for.... That definitely wouldn't help with those who have OCD!
Can I ask how it is that you save on power? As far as I know you just buy more efficient lighting and have an excellent tent for efficiency..... This is my first grow and I'll be seeing my first energy bill VERY SOON
I don't know what those are. I've never seen slow release pellets that big, usually they're small and round like those millions sweets, I don't know if you know them. Like .177 bbs. I don't know what's going on there. If it's reading about 600 and you add more nutes it should say 700, and then 800. It sounds like there may be a fault Yeah 325ppm is pretty high, I'd probably think about filtering it, but it is usable. I don't really understand what you mean on that last bit. But these meters are way more accurate than we need them to be for our application
I flower outside. So I have 2 Hortilux 315 cmh that i use to veg now lol. Some strains don't like outdoors so I will grow them inside Sent from my SM-G935T using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Now that I've played with autos out there. I can flower all year long out there. I run photos during winter months and autos after solstice. I do this so I don't have to tarp, drag in photos when light hours are too long Sent from my SM-G935T using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I flower autos out there in say 13-15 hours and they get just as big. Even in winter the buds are still nice. Been averaging 4 zips for 1 month veg at 20 hours inside Sent from my SM-G935T using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Cali u can do this!! Moving to Colorado soon. Will have to learn the hill growing Sent from my SM-G935T using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Going through a filter 3 times and the water has been brought down to 185. I've contacted the seller on the TDS PPM meter and hopefully they'll get back in touch soon..... What I meant by the last bit I was joking around with is that people with OCD like to do things precisely. The website I linked before said that 1 mS/cm = 640 ppm TDS not 500ppm TDS. That's an extra 28% difference! So approximating with a minimum margin for error fixed at 28% would freak them out big time. So nute strength I guess doesn't have to be super precise? Btw, random question about the nute water. I measured the ppm with the "weird" meter and each day the water "sits", then after a good mix and a new reading the ppm seems to be slowly going down each day? I can understand this if it's chlorine from the water dissipating but could I also be losing something else from the nute to the air?
What filter are you using? A reverse osmosis filter should get that down to almost 0. Tds meters measure the electrical conductivity and then use this reading and convert it to ppm using their own formula. For most manufacturers it will be 500ppm = 1.00 mS/cm but they can use whatever they want. There is no correct figure. The strength does have to be precise but it's pointless comparing your figure to anyone else's, not just because the ppm/ec formula they use may be different, but because their plants will have different requirements anyway. As long as you are comparing results from the same meter it doesn't even matter if its calibrated correctly. Because you are only comparing your own readings. Chlorine won't effect the ec of the water. As water evaporates, the ec should rise if anything. What have you added? Maybe there is a reaction happening and elements are bonding and coming out of suspension. Are you mixing nutrient brands perhaps?
A regular carbon water filter. Any suggestions on reverse osmosis filters? I'm guessing that the water in your area is much lower than mine out of the tap? That fact about ppm and ec conversion would drive people with serious OCD nuts for sure! How did you arrive at the max dosage of 800ppm? Just trial and error? I've only used what you suggested with the Growth Technology line. So basically GT Soil Grow + tap water. There are dark particles of the nutes that have collected at the bottom of the watering can. Just in case I shall mention that the watering can is made out of metal........? So I am to presume that the nutes should be perfectly suspended in the water and if some of them have bound to what is in my tap water will they become biologically unavailable to the plant? I am trying to follow and remember exactly what you've said about nutrients. - water with nutes after a month at 400ppm - steadily increase the nutes over a week(?) to 800ppm - water every time at full strength through to flowering - switch to GT Flower at full strength(?) for flowering period - go back to tap water for two weeks before harvesting - lastly only add Cal Mag when you can see deficiencies Lots of growers seem to like using teas and root stimulators for getting the right bacteria in their soil and for supercharging root development. A lot of them seem quite cheap, e.g. molasses. Thoughts?
Oh right, I have no idea what a carbon filter will take out and what it will leave in. When people talk about filtering their water they're usually talking about a reverse osmosis filter. This connects to your mains and will have a storage tank because filtering is a slow process. My tap water is 50ppm The ppm shouldn't trigger any ocd if you understand how the figure is reached. If you're struggling with it are you able to switch it mS/cm instead? Click this and have read through the first opening post. How To Determine Your Plants Preferred Nutrient Strength In it I explain in depth how to keep the concentration at optimal levels. It is for hydro though so measuring for soil is much less accurate. But the principle is the same. Also, when I talk about ec, I'm specifically talking about mS/cm, and just referring to it as ec. This is grammatically incorrect but it's a term growers use. Kinda like when people use wattage when talking about light output. Technically incorrect but everyone knows what we mean. Anyway, it's worth a read because you'll understand how concentrations work. I used this knowledge of measuring nutrient concentrations in hydro to find out nice safe areas to have the concentration when a plant is a given size. General set up and health of the plant will effect its preferred strength so this has to be taken in to account, plus it seems soil plants prefer it a little stronger than hydro plants. 800ppm is a nice safe strength to have a fully grown plant at. It should provide enough to nutes for healthy growth without a risk of overdosing. But all plants are different and all set ups are different so be prepared to change things on the fly Oh right yeah don't use metal containers to store, mix, or administer your nutrient solution. I believe stainless steel and titanium are ok. Gold would be ok to but its unlikely you'll be using that haha. Metals react and can lock out nutrients. That's probably what's happening. You're far better off with plastic unfortunately. Yeah any elements reacting with each other or the metal watering can will become unavailable to the plant
I don't know if I can fit one of those under my sinks looking on Amazon...... perhaps my tap water with some carbon filtration is what I have to live with for the moment....... pants. Thanks for the article, I haven't read it yet but I will do when I can go through it carefully. I found the webpage of the watering can I got at a supermarket. It says it's made out of galvanized steel. I've tried googling to see if this is relevant to what we are hypothesising with the nutes, but nothing so far about galvanized steel being bad......