im gonna start a Coco grow soon with ewc and rice hulls and organic bottle nutes i want to know if i add lime to the mix can i just add nutes and water only without changin ph to 5.8 Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
yeah that's what lime powder kind does you should be okay mixing it with what ever nutrient line how are you going to keep the coco from falling threw the medium .And I'd suggest investing in a PH meter and EC meter .And some calibration solution and you'd be set pretty much just in case you ever decide you want to be extra cautious about ph .And have small fast ph kits like me i get use to feeding after a few weeks learn to feed my plant fast and getting everything cleaned and finished .And your gravy because your doing hydro shoot even with soil i check usually don't check ppms unless issues pop up
The acceptable tolerance for growing in coco is a pH of 5.8 to 6.2. As long as you stay in that range you will be just fine. I highly recommend getting a pH pen and getting your pH correct.
Also first timer. Chose to use the spacebucket.com style setup using coco coir/perlite. I understand ph for nutes but I'm somewhat unclear on ec/ppm/tds. I've got the meters, solutions, calibrations, etc. but can use some help on the TDS angle. Tap water TDS reads 0.63. Now, where do I go from here (using Canna Coco A & B ). Thanks.
OK, I found this elsewhere on this board: "Water containing more than 50 parts per million (ppm) of calcium and magnesium (called "total hard- ness") can create serious problems. Other common elements that may be present in hard water include various carbonates, sulfur, sodium, iron and boron. Your municipal water supplier can provide you with an analysis of your water supply. If you are using well water, there are many laboratories that can provide you with an analysis if you send them a sample. If the news is bad, it may be necessary to collect rainwater (a good idea wherever possible), install a reverse osmosis filtration system, deionization system, steam distillation system or use purified water (not mineral or "spring" water). Dissolved solids (ppm) can be measured by using an instrument called a conductivity meter. Pure water will not conduct electricity. The higher the amount of dissolved solids the solution contains, the higher its conductivity will be. Thus, the conductivity meter can measure the electrical conductivity in the solution and interpret that measurement as ppm. Generally this method is the best available to the home grower to measure water quality before nutrients are added and to identify dissolved solids (ppm) after adding the nutrient mix. It is critical that the nutrient solution not exceed the plant's tolerance for dissolved salts. That tolerance can range from extremely low for some plants such as orchids, to a very high for salt-tolerant crops such as barley. Unless you know the specific tolerance of a given crop, it is best to use a nutrient between 800 and 1,200 ppm." Having read some discussion on monitoring runoff TDS, I guess my lack of clarity is on the *process* for monitoring - as opposed to the bare-bones explanation of the *why*, which is pretty clear from the above paragraph, and what a rising or falling TDS indicates. Thanks.
Great thread!!! I too will be growing for the first time in coco I went with Gold Label 60/40 puffed lava rock anybody have any luck with this? Like the last grow in FF soil i will be using the same nutes all but switching up grow big with the hydro version keep up the great info!!!
Calcium carbonate will always buffer the ph to 7. There's absolutely no need to Ph your feed as the enzymatic activity and carbonate will regulate the medium's Ph... Using straight RO will also strip the cal/mag from the medium resulting in deficiencies, you'll either have to cut your tap with RO 50/50 or use a carbonate calmag..(General Hydro's cal mag for example..) and add it to the RO around 100-150 ppm. Avoid inorganic salts like calcium chloride/calcium nitrate..
Straight botanicare coco in 2 gal pots. Ph to 5.8 and flood it. Plant your plants. Easy peasy first timer is use floranova 1 part in veg then 1 part in bloom. 2 bottles in toto. Start with your normal ppm 6-800 from the first to the last feeding. Yes I know it doesn't sound right but it is. Once settled in a few weeks you can douse those babies 2-3 x daily. Lots of runoff each day. It works man. I used a pinch of Epsom salt with each feeding. I ran these vertical with a 1000watt hps ..first timer here to man. No extras or supplements either.