Ok so today i was thinking about what most of us do and assume when growing hydro, if its really right, and if the plants we grow are actually telling us what they want when we think we're listening.
As we all know you want pH to swing between say for sake of example 5.5-60, because plants cant eat all parts of the nutrients we feed them at any one specific pH level.
Now you can argue that range if you want but lets not for the sake of this discussion because that's not really the point im getting at.
I've also read many times and been told by the resident experts on this site that if you watch the swing in pH you can tell what your plants want.
In short:
pH rise = more nutes are being ate then water drank causing pH to go up (under feeding) This is NEVER something ive had happen no matter how little i feed.
pH drop = more water being drank then nutes eaten causing higher nute concentration in remaining water and in turn lower pH (over feeding) This is always what i see.
Also ive read that you want this swing weather it be up or down to take place over the period of a week or two.
The problem i see with this is that over that long a period of time there is a level of evaporation from any res, im my arid climate with my aero system slopping water all over 24/7 a good bit of evaporation. So how can anyone read anything more into pH movement other then that the percentage of h20 to nutes in ones res has changed? From the plants drinking no doubt, and that info would be useful by itself, but evaporation throws a cog into hearing ones plants in my opinion.
To go even a step further, i recently added a res refiller system/float to my current aero grow, but after thinking about it this only dilutes (pun intended) my readings even further. If i, or anyone else with an auto res refiller system, has it adding straight RO water (7.0pH, 10ppm) that's going to move your pH upward over time no matter how little your plants eat (remember plants eating nutes out of res normally moves pH up) i would imagine you could over feed big time, plants could all but stop eating, and pH would still rise because of the 7.0pH RO water you'd be adding. So i thought ok what if instead i add pH adjusted RO water, say make it 6.0pH 10ppm, that should slow my swing from 5.5 up to 6.0 and i wouldn't ever go over,.. but even with this setup can i really read pH movement as the plants saying i want more of this or less of that?
So all that being said i guess what im asking is, how do i really know im not over/under feeding? Ya i can look at the leaves and make sure there not burned, and if there not give more food till they start to then back off, but i hate blindly guessing like that. Is there anyway to really know by reading pH movement?
What say you?
As we all know you want pH to swing between say for sake of example 5.5-60, because plants cant eat all parts of the nutrients we feed them at any one specific pH level.
Now you can argue that range if you want but lets not for the sake of this discussion because that's not really the point im getting at.
I've also read many times and been told by the resident experts on this site that if you watch the swing in pH you can tell what your plants want.
In short:
pH rise = more nutes are being ate then water drank causing pH to go up (under feeding) This is NEVER something ive had happen no matter how little i feed.
pH drop = more water being drank then nutes eaten causing higher nute concentration in remaining water and in turn lower pH (over feeding) This is always what i see.
Also ive read that you want this swing weather it be up or down to take place over the period of a week or two.
The problem i see with this is that over that long a period of time there is a level of evaporation from any res, im my arid climate with my aero system slopping water all over 24/7 a good bit of evaporation. So how can anyone read anything more into pH movement other then that the percentage of h20 to nutes in ones res has changed? From the plants drinking no doubt, and that info would be useful by itself, but evaporation throws a cog into hearing ones plants in my opinion.
To go even a step further, i recently added a res refiller system/float to my current aero grow, but after thinking about it this only dilutes (pun intended) my readings even further. If i, or anyone else with an auto res refiller system, has it adding straight RO water (7.0pH, 10ppm) that's going to move your pH upward over time no matter how little your plants eat (remember plants eating nutes out of res normally moves pH up) i would imagine you could over feed big time, plants could all but stop eating, and pH would still rise because of the 7.0pH RO water you'd be adding. So i thought ok what if instead i add pH adjusted RO water, say make it 6.0pH 10ppm, that should slow my swing from 5.5 up to 6.0 and i wouldn't ever go over,.. but even with this setup can i really read pH movement as the plants saying i want more of this or less of that?
So all that being said i guess what im asking is, how do i really know im not over/under feeding? Ya i can look at the leaves and make sure there not burned, and if there not give more food till they start to then back off, but i hate blindly guessing like that. Is there anyway to really know by reading pH movement?
What say you?
i hope to get that dialed in someday,.. even though i don't see how what you're saying is possible,.. if you top off with straight water, and i assume that's around 7.0pH, you would constantly be adding nutes to keep it down to 5.8,.. not to mention all the nutes ur adding via straight tap water,.. i don't see how that couldn't over feed but then again im sure there's some variables to your system i don't know of, never done coco either,.. i cant use tap water though, its about 700ppm where i live. I buy it at the walmart culligan water station for $1.30 for 5 gallons,.. i would love to make my own by purifying my tap water but everything ive tried so far goes through filters way too fast, probably since im starting with such dirty water (700ppm) to begin with. Maybe you can boil it clean i don't know,.. have to look that up,.. but then again that'd probably use more then $1.30 worth of gas on my stove to do, lol
