so im growing in a 5 gallon bucket.the plant is about 4 weeks old from seed and the problem I'm having is but i don't know if it is a problem is that after i made the nutrients and placed them in the bucket a day or two went by and the EC/PPM was not going up and i do not know what would be the reason for that and i have a few theories on why? maybe the plant is taking more nutes then water,ph problem,or something else that i don't know. the nutes I'm using are advance nutrients 3-part,piranha,b-52,voodoo,and sensizyme the my final EC is 1100 and final pH is 5.8.
nutrients
- Thread starter braxton
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EC does not automatically rise. You have to make it rise... or fall... or stay flat. It's up to you.
EC and pH should move in opposite directions. What have EC and pH done over the last several days?
EC and pH should move in opposite directions. What have EC and pH done over the last several days?
so the ec/ppm wont rise as the plant takes up nutrients? i have always been taught that it will rise as the plant takes up nutrients and that is the point of "topping off" every week because the nutes become more concentrated in the medium/bucket. (What have EC and pH done over the last several days?) can you explain this to me by done over the last several days, i set the Ph to about 5.7 then when it rises to 6.1 then i drop it back down to 5.7 if thats what your asking. sorry I'm a little illiterate at times
EC moves up, down or not at all according to how close it comes to the plant's requirements.
Water is an insulator, it does not conduct electricity. It's the stuff in the water (nutes) that conduct electricity. The more nutes the higher the EC.
Nutes are acidic. More nutes means more acid. More acid means lower pH. Therefore EC and pH (should) move in opposite directions.
"What have EC and pH done over the last several days?" is the plant troubleshooting equivalent to "Is it plugged in? Is it turned on?" If EC and pH are moving in opposite directions, they're doing what they're supposed to do. Now it's a matter of making them move the way you want them to.
To do this, we chart EC and pH daily in our journals for reference. If you remember your geometry, it takes 3 points to plot a line. We want to see the movement of both EC and pH over time.
EC up, pH down is too rich
EC down, pH up is too lean
EC flat, pH flat looks good on paper but, because no one pH number allows absorption of all nutes, flat readings guarantee unbalanced feeding. We want pH (and thus EC) to swing. Most say pH range is around 5.5-6.0. Some advocate lowering the range to 5.2.
Water is an insulator, it does not conduct electricity. It's the stuff in the water (nutes) that conduct electricity. The more nutes the higher the EC.
Nutes are acidic. More nutes means more acid. More acid means lower pH. Therefore EC and pH (should) move in opposite directions.
"What have EC and pH done over the last several days?" is the plant troubleshooting equivalent to "Is it plugged in? Is it turned on?" If EC and pH are moving in opposite directions, they're doing what they're supposed to do. Now it's a matter of making them move the way you want them to.
To do this, we chart EC and pH daily in our journals for reference. If you remember your geometry, it takes 3 points to plot a line. We want to see the movement of both EC and pH over time.
EC up, pH down is too rich
EC down, pH up is too lean
EC flat, pH flat looks good on paper but, because no one pH number allows absorption of all nutes, flat readings guarantee unbalanced feeding. We want pH (and thus EC) to swing. Most say pH range is around 5.5-6.0. Some advocate lowering the range to 5.2.
So far what i've noticed the pH has been rising and the EC has risen from 1.100 to about 1.508 and it stayed there. so is that a good sign? i'm going to start writing my ec/ph readings down everyday from this point on. all i would keep in the journal is the beginning EC of the RO water, the EC after i add each nute,what nutes i put in,how much of each nute,final EC, adjust ph, final pH and notes if anything needs to be closer looked at. i also want to add i've been having a (CA) deficiency for about a week or two that i've been trying to solve, so i flushed the plant in case it was a lockout and added fresh nutes but added a little bit more calmag from .050 to.070 and set the pH to 5.8 and let it swing up to 6.2 but its still showing signs in the new growth from the top so i think it might be best to bring it down to 5.2 and let it go up to 6.2 or 6.0. and the reason i ask this question because i thought the plant was not taking nutes in and creating the (CA) deficiency.
