Hi everyone, I am about to start my first grow, and need some advice about PH, EC/PPM, soil and nutrients. Here's some info about my tap water, soil, nutrients, and seeds: 1. My tap water is 'hard water' as it has a PH of almost 8 (7.8 I'd say). According to the provider, water's EC is 494µS/cm. I've been told this is too high, especially for the start of the plants life. Just in case, I bought some PH down. 2. I will be growing using some Plagron Light Mix. 3. I will use nutrients from the AN line, including Ph Perfect Sensi Bloom A & B (base), Carboload and Overdrive (for flowering). A schedule has been given to me so I think I'll stick to that (specifically designed for autoflowering seeds). 4. 4 FastBuds autoflowering seeds - GSC, Green Crack, West Coast OG, and G14. Now my questions are the following: 1. Do I really need to bother getting an EC/TDS meter? 2. Do I need to do something about my water, in order to reduce its EC/PPM? 3. Can I use tap water with the AN PH-perfect line? 4. Anything you wanna add, any advice or suggestion, will be highly appreciated! THANK YOU in advance. Peace, FC
You can in fact use tap water w/ AN's PH perfect line. They have a video of where it brought the pH down from 7 something to 5.8 (which is not ideal, 6.3 all the way) Also, Sensi Bloom is for flowering.....you need Sensi Grow. Me, personally.....I use distilled water, being my water is also extra shitty. EC/TDS/PPM isn't something you should really be worried about, especially in soil, IMO.
Thanks man. I was also wondering about using Sensi Grow for the vegetative state rather than Sensi Bloom but I've been told to do otherwise, and have done some research and apparently many recommend using Sensi Bloom all the way... (see #4 post on http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1057554-advanced-nutrients.html) Also, do you think using some kind of filter for my tap water can help? Perhaps it can make the water softer and can save me time and effort? Apparently they might not be so expensive to get. Last question: would you recommend planting seeds directly into the growing medium (Plagron Light Mix), or use another method such as the water method? I've read diverging opinions on germinating seeds in Plagron Light mix (I think Plagron's website advices against doing so, but as it's in Dutch I can't really understand anything without that shitty google translation, and that even does not help that much!), so I was wondering how I should do. Thanks again! Peace, FC
Well, you do it how you want....just don't complain if shit goes wrong. I'm not saying it's not possible, but there are good reasons they are labeled grow/bloom, just saying. You could get a filter & it would probably help, but you could also buy 3L jugs of Deer Park water for 92 cent per & mix them accordingly. I've never planted them directly in the ground. I let them soak in a glass of water in a dark place for 12-24 hours, then get a tupperware bowl, throw a paper towel down, spread them out in it, pour the water from the glass over the paper towel, put the lid on the bowl & leave them for 24-48 hours, or until they have a tap root about 3/4" - 1" long.