Hi all! Have a little question on nutrients. I'm running Bubble Buckets and have a res that is all setup for topping off the buckets when they run low. Here is the mistery: So, I have a few plants that drink up to damn near 2 gallons a day and need to be kept topped off or filled up. I started out with right around 1450-1550 ppm (somewhere in that window anyways) and after just a few days (3-4) I am checking the ppm and ph and finding that the ppm goes way high on some plants where not as high on others. I just checked yesterday and its way up at like 3000!!!! What the heck is happening??? Is it a falsity? is it just plant matter getting back into the water??? Should I ignore it and just keep topping it off??? Do I drain the entire bucket and start fresh every time?? If so, that seems like an awful amount of waste on the nuets!?
It means the plant is drinking more water than nutes. Ease up on the nutes in those buckets if you can...are they all connected?
Well, they were all connected at one point, but disconnected them due to some issues I had with res scum created from what I believe to be in part due because of using molasses and high temps of the res. So I disconnected them from each other and the main res. also- I am following the FF diet plan for plants and thats why I'm running the ppm's at where they are.
there is a real easy rule of thumb if the tds/ppm goes up you are over ferting them, if it goes down but only a little life is good...if its droping like a hammer they need more food. I look at recommended dosage only to get a base line, the plant will tell you when to increase just keep track of the ppm.
Thank you smokin5280 & chimera2. Great suggestion/ solutions! Makes perfect sense! So, now, do you think it wise to just add water back into the buckets to lower the tds ppm's?? Or do you think that a full empty and refill is necessary? Just wondering if plants are picky eaters and only ate thier meat and potato's and left the carrots behind in the buckets??? Add water or full dump and replace???
As the plants use up the water in the bucket this causes the concentration of nutrients to increase because it is now diluted in less water, so the ppm goes up. You are running your plants way to hot for good growth, ppm at veg should not be above 1000. You are asking for trouble fertilizing with these strong solutions. Your plants will be grown soft and much more susceptible to disease and pests using high rates of fertilizers. You are lucky you haven't burnt your plants up with this schedule. Top off with clear water between reservoir changes and don't fertilize until the next scheduled feeding. Fertilizer compaines list the higest rates they think the plants will tolerate to sell more fertilizer. This also makes the smoke harsh and unpleasant tasting when using high rates of fertilizer, even with a flush. PW
Thank you for your input! I will lower the ppm's. I am not veging right now, this is the nutrient levels recommended for blooming by FF. I do understand that they are prob just trying to get everyone to use more nutrients so they buy more. I am definitely going to back off. Thank you again everyone!