I run Cutting Edge Solutions nutrients and their veg formula, when full strength gets upwards of 1900 PPM, and I never see any burning. In flower, I'll check my rez and when it goes over 2000 PPM (my meter doesn't read higher), I'll add a gallon or so of water, and it'll drop back down to 1900. I run my plants in coco/perlite. what ppm do you guys run? what nutrients? what medium? what strain?
That's crazy, I run 800-900ppm for early flowering/late veg and up to like 1200-1350ppm in flower near the middle and the end. I use GH FloraNova, GH Liquid KoolBloom, Technaflora Magi-Cal, and I'm gonna try some Humboldt County's Snowstorm Ultra this time. I feed at 5.8-5.9 pH. I use straight Botanicare Cocogro coir, which is "aged 18 to 24 months to avoid pH and nutrient imbalances. It has optimum air to water ratio with 30% air content. Cocogro is fully decomposed with stable pH & EC and is flushed of excess sodium. It is inoculated with Mychorrhizae and trichoderma fungi." And it's cheap ($12-15 a bag). I am currently growing Grapefruit in flower, and having a great time, growing is awesome, indoor gardening is awesome. If it works for you, 2000ppms sounds fine, as long as there's no obvious negative effects. Also might wanna make sure your meter is calibrated properly with 1382 mg/L (ppm) solution. Edit: I found this link while reading, he says that he "uses Heath Robinsons advice that anything over 1.2 ec is toxic to your plants they cannot use it. Ever since i stayed in the EC 1.0 ( 500 - 550 ppm) range my plants have increased in yield everything about them have improved. NO MORE burning and defieciency problems. I use Veg Nutrients 3 weeks into flower. Flower nutrients the last 4 weeks ( +1week flush). My plants do not yellow or show any signs that they are lacking or hungry. Its the best advice i have ever gotten for feeding my plants." Just some more info for ya.
i get mine upwards of 2000 with GH nutes using the lucas formula works fine as its the right stuff and not a much of fillers and unneeded stuff.
I used to use all those bloom boosters, fungal inoculants, etc. Basically just any supplement of any kind, I've found that getting rid of them and raising your base nutrient PPM to be the best way to grow (admittedly I use sweet, I use it in place of molasses). Saves a ton of cash too, with my CES (cutting edge solutions) nutrients they cost like $40 for 10 liters of the stuff. Back in the day when I did use the supplements, I'd always have issues with burning of some kind (it wasn't always severe), but now that I've simplified my nutrient regimen, I can safely run my PPM much higher than before, without ANY burning of any kind.
i run cutting edge solutions also. i did my first run at around 1100 ppms and it was way to low. i now got it at full strength and i am going to increase it. i got the same thing happening too. no burn and the plants love it. i had them at 1750 ppms during veg(full strength). i dropped it down because of root issues and transition, my plants like to curl if over fed during the transition into flower. my ppm meter reads in a .5 scale. when i mix up full strength nutes it mixes to 1400 ppms give or take. i plan on going to 110% nutes tonight after my water change. i have emailed back and forth with the nute manufactures quite a bit. and they said that 2000+ is a normal thing for some strains. ps i never use ph down it mixes up to ph 4 and then raises to 5.8 over night.
yeah I've never used any pH changing garbage with the CES, oh man my pH is so stable, ALWAYS 5.6 or 5.8, I even use it for conditioning rockwool so I dont have to mess around trying to get it proper, i mix up a 500ppm solution for my clones and they're dank
For clones I just used 1 ml Magi-Cal, 1.5ml Olivia's, in 32 ounces of RO water ends up 300ppm, 40/50 seemed to have rooted well so far, it's been 15 days.
yeah i feel you on the stability. gets easier every day. just change the nute here and there. same with the clones i give them 1/2 strength when they root and full strength after that. i never even lose the leafs that i cut during cloning. they dont show shock even.
It depends on the brand you use ... and what their nutrients are made up of. Some brands will offer more essentials at 1000 ppm than others @ 1500 ppm, its all in the proportions. That's said i run lucas (Gh g0/m8/b16) and get great results. I dont even use a meter. The man who helped develop it often talked of people overfeeding. Sometimes people over feed and don't realize it. An overfed plant does to have to be yellow ... sometimes the sign of stress is a deep very dark green color. While it does not to appear to be harming the plants at a glance .... usually when you are feeding this way ... if you were to scale it back some growth would be more rapid .. and flowering fuller. Your looking for a natural green. Like grass almost. Dark dark green LOOKS like its a good thing .... but it isn't always. Remember ... nutrients are not food. Light and co2 are the plants food. You want to give the plant as much as it needs ... not more. More than it needs at best is just a waste, at worst it harms you plants. Light and co2 will determine the nutrient demand your plant has. When its proccessing more light and more co2 .. it needs more nutrient. Think of it as vitamins rather than food.
damn there's so many variables I want to test out, I'd love to run a side by side grow and use GH nutes with the lucas formula vs CES, but then agian I'd also love to see if the plants prefer 2x600's vs a 1000, and I'd also like to experiment with the light cycles. too many things to test, not enough space. I don't know about you guys, but the only thing limiting me from growing more is just getting more room.
i have also thought about doing a side by side test of gh vs ces. i might try it soon. if i do i will make a grow log. gh w/ lucas is so cheap. ces gets expensive after all the additives
I don't use any of the additives, I run just grow micro bloom and sweet. I used to use them, back in the time when I had burning issues. admittedly I also used some other supplements, but after throwing down loads of cash on expensive nutrient blends and seeing nothing but burnt plants, I decided to keep it simple. so far this whole grow I've used ONLY grow micro bloom, and in the beginning of flower, molasses, but I switched to sweet because I was getting some disgusting crap growing in the reservoir. my plants seem to love it, and so does my wallet. I only pay like $100-150 a month for my electric, and I'm running a 400w for my moms (on 24/7), a dehumidifier which uses 600-700 watts continuous, (it's always running) and 2x 1000w's which I'm flowering with. That's on top of my house's electricity usage, I've got two computers and a 600 watt heater running almost all day too. I've also got a great relationship with my hydro store (Berkeley's Secret Garden) and only pay $38 for a 10L thing of CES micro, and like eighty something for a 23L of bloom. all in all, my grow setup costs me like $75 a month including nutes. that's for 2x 4x4 trays with a 1000w hanging over each. I'm hoping for a pound or two from this grow, but hell, even if I got 2-3 ounces, it'd be worth it. in fact, back when I was vegging my plants, (I ran 2 1000w's 24x7) there was no appreciable difference in my bill. it almost seems like no matter how much electricity I use, it won't go past $150 a month.
just checked my electric bill, $180 for 1900kwh. my electricity usage is 3x what it was last year LOL and I was growing back then too!
YES!!!! should be at max during flowering 1500....Are you using RO water? have you ever heard of this organic supplement called Sea Green? What is your PH reading? We can help at LonelyGrower.com Do your roots look like this?
Its called Hail from a company call Sure To Grow....I made the leap about 9 months ago and will never turn back!! The roots receive so much more air then any other media....PH neutral and no algae
i tried the loose cubes cubes one one net pot. the plant grew great. the only problem i had with it was compaction of the loose fill cubes. it sank about 1/3 of the net pot. never the less it seemed to work well. do u think the sure to grow is good enough to invest a whole lights worth of plants into the medium?