Ppm's?

[Letterhead954]

One of my patients loaned me his ppm meter the other day. I've never used one before, and have always just gone by my GH chart for mixing nutes. I don't know what the ppm's are supposed to be, but my solution was around 1700. From what little I've read that seems really high, though my plants are healthy. The water I started with was around 250 ppm's. I grow in soilless and use GH Grow, FloraBlend, and Floralicious in veg, and remove the Grow and add Bloom and Liquid Kool Bloom in flower. Can anyone tell me what the ppm's should be? If I'm too high, do I cut back a little on everything? Could the meter need calibrating? Any info on proper ppm's would be helpful. Thanks!

[Mickeydee]

The water you are starting with is very hard and probably could be causing some nute lock out issues. I think it should be under 200 to start with. The lock out symptoms could be very suttle.

[phaquetoo]

I use promix and gh 3 part system, i try to keep my ph around 1000 or lower if I can most times when i get a read on it coming out its is usualy around 1800ppms and rite around 5.5 ph, I had a plant go up as far as 3500 ppms and it had an unreadle low ph, I test it before watering every time I make sure I put enough in so that I get at least a 1/4 gallon back out of all my bucket, when I water I put a peice of wood on both sides of the bottom of my bucket so the water can go thru good and not soak back into bucket, I wait about and hr and dump the water out that is in the holders i use to put my 3.5 buckets in.

 

now ive gone out and bought a few more of the black ones mainly for watering, I put a 2 peices of wood in there so the bucket is off the bottom, and leave them in for a day or 2 after watering sometimes i dont take em out at all.to help them dry I water about every 4 to 5 days!

 

Now i had a plant that went up as far as 3500ppms and the ph was unreadable low, so I took it outside and put 20 gals of pure ph'd water in it no nutes just make sure ph is between 5 and 6, when i put the water/nutes in the 10 gal bucket it was always at maybe 600ppms, I have found out you need to make sure you always put enough water in the plant so you get at least a 1/4 gal back out, I always test that also, After 20 gallons of water i got it back to 1200ppms and 5.5ph, the reason i did it should be obvious from the pics to follow.

 

 

notice the dif colored leaves, not the burnt ones, they start with a lite green and were going to hell real quick so i took it out and flushed the poop out of it, it came back pretty good but could have been better!

 

What ive learned is I water with nutes 2 times and then water w/o nutes on the 3rd it keeps my ppms in check and ph!

 

as far as what the ppms are, well parts per million and I beleive it is from a few things if you are using an organic soiles, like promix you realy should flush em every 3rd watering, no matter what stage of growth they are in! the only way to know exactly which ppms you have is to get the meter that actulay tells you if its nitrogen, cal, mag, etc and it is too costly for me so i jsut keep keepin on like i explained, Im by no means a pro yet, but its getting easier and alot less work then the dwc i started with lol!

 

Peace

Jim

 

When i use store bought water it is 1ppm maybe 2 when i put my nutes in its always over 440 and the ph changes, so I always have to bump up the ph a lil bit before i can use it, if water is not coming out when you water you get a nute build up also, I have gotten nute lock from using my own water and it comes out at like 156ppm, I cant use it, I think it is real important to put enough water in, as to so you can see it come out of every hole in the bottom of planter, naturaly if you are using and ebb n flow or similar realy none of this applys to you, im farmer jim for now, i just use my one gallong picture and put a gallon in each plant which is enough to push some of the nute build up out and keep your ppm down, if you keep adding and nothing comes out, gonna be trouble!

Edited August 25, 2012 by phaquetoo

[rhinoman]

Hey Letterhead, sounds about right to me (1700ppms) alot of people think they have cal/mag issues when in fact there just not giving there plants enuff ferts in the first place.

[rhinoman]

Hey Jim, is that a bubba kush plant?

[Letterhead954]

I read somewhere that going by the fertilizer companys chart will cause overfeeding. Any truth to this? To Jim's point, how important is it to water to run-off? I use 5 gal. smart-pots when my plants get big enough, but I've never tried to water to run-off with them. Will a smart pot allow run-off? And to Mickydee's point, for hard water should I make any adjustments with ph or nutes to overcome that? Ok, one more question... is it a sign of overfeeding (nute burn) when the edges and tips of the leaves start to yellow? My Casey Jones is doing that, but not other strains.

[Letterhead954]

Thanks for the help guys!

[phaquetoo]

yes, your nute recipe can mess you up, I always put water no nutes in my plants every 3rd time, now im not saying you should or have to do that, that is what works for me in pro mix, it does tend to build up your nutes, which in turn builds up you ppms and lowers your ph level, so flushing every third time will not hurt you, if its coming out at 1000ppm or a little over or under it doesnt hurt it, it gets rid of some of the nutes that may be burning your tips, shoot i do it and my tips still burn now and than,

 

Im using 3.5 gallon buckets, it takes 1 galllon of water with or with out nutes for the water to come out of all of my holes at the bottom, I find it important to flush out that promix, plus it drains well, it will come back out w/o hurting your plant, or creating root rot,(god I hope so for you, it works for me) but remember you doing the growing, your gonna ask one question and your gonna get 20 dif answers from 20 dif people, dont mean any one is wrong, we all have dif set up, bottom line keep a good eye on the plants so you know what is happening when it happens,

 

It is always great to ask people, maybe the person you take the advise from will work, maybe not, but you are in control and use the good info you get when you need it, read up when you can,and basicly it is gonna come down to you the grower, you most def will lose a few when you start dont let it get ya down, just replant and go at it and try not to make the same mistakes you made last time, I lost my first 3 plants this yr, and im well was a seasoned grower, nope they are not as easy as it use to be, but it is a whole lot better once you can get your own dialed in to what works for you!

 

good luck

Peace

jim

[phaquetoo]

Hey Jim, is that a bubba kush plant?

 

actualy that is a raspberry cough, turned out nice, took a lot of babying, i only got 3 zips off of a plant that no doubt should have produced at least 6 zips!

 

Peace

Jim

 

The 3 smaller ones, are 2 cheese something or another lol, and a blue widow, the smallest nicest one is blue widow!

 

Im old skewl, hard to keep up with all the names lmao!

Edited August 26, 2012 by phaquetoo

[Letterhead954]

Hey Jim... do you water to run-off every time or just when watering with plain water? I use 5 gal. smart pots in shallow pans, so I'm not sure what kind of mess I'd have if I watered to run-off. Instead I've started using a flush addititive (desolves salts) when I think the plant could use it. Actually, I've been using it with my final flush for quite a while, but only recently on other plants. Do you (or anyone else here) think that will do the trick instead of watering to run-off? What I see in flower most often isn't burned leaf tips and edges, it's 'the claw' and canoeing leaves that turn kind of leathery.. People have said that that is from over watering, but I always wait until the soil is dry before watering. Could that be nute build-up? I'm finding that this nute thing isn't as easy as following a chart.