confused about ec runoff

[sirius haze]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]hello fellows,

im testing my first coco grow and im a bit confused and worried because some of my plants seems not to be very happy.

i have read a lot of threads and advices about how to feed in coco but im still confused.

the plants are 30 to 40 cm tall and are from seeds in 4 liters pots hand watered, 600w hps lamp per square meter. i fed them at ec 1.8/1.9 because two or three weeks ago they were underfed and began to yellow. usually i fertilize with a runoff but since two weeks no runoff. i use the canna coco nutrients line and i always adjust the ph at 5.5/5.8. now the tallest plants have very dark green folliage maybe a bit overfed too but the smallest plants who are under the bulbs are yellowing and some medium plants too.

i read that when checking the ec of the runoff, its acceptable to have an ec 0.3 higher than the ec you fed.

today without checking the ec of the runoff i panicked and began to rince some plants with a mild fertilizer solution with an ec of 1.0

when i rinced a little with the solution of ec 1.0 some of the tallest dark green plants had an EC range of 1.8/2.2/2.4 in the runoff and some of the smallest plants who are a bit yellow had a ec range of 1.6/1.8 in the run off. i rinced 25 plants or so until the runoff was 1.4/1.6 ec. the ph in the runoff was always good 5.5/5.8.

now im wondering if i was right to do that and i still have 80 plants to rince tomorow but i need help to know if im right to do that.

help me please !

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[Kush Technician]

This is just my experience with coco and I am in no way a master at coco.

Flush away the buildup. Some like to feed heavy like every 3rd watering, some prefer a low ec feeding with every watering. you might try feeding every watering with no more than 1.0 ec and adjust once the plants get used to this and let you know if they need less or more. Less is more usually, its a weed and really doesn't need much food. Too much food can be worse than not enough. I can get very dank bud from feeding under 1.0 ec usually, and may let it drift a bit higher in between top-ups, so my advice is to not feed 1.8 but more like 1.0 ec.

 

[Treetroit City]

I would continue with the flushing.

I as well don't go over 1.0 in veg. If I end up with a nute mix at 1.2 I'll use it knowing the next day I will hit them back at 1.0 with runoff.

I never touch 1.8. never, not even week 5-6, I try to top out at 1.2 with the occasional feeding at 1.5-1.6 again knowing that after a feeding that high the next day I'll feed back at 1.2 with runoff to flush a bit.

Hope this helps.

 

[sirius haze]

hello fellows, thanks for the replies, so i will continu the flush today but how can you only fertilize with a EC of 1 ? its very low and canna nutrients advise an ec of 1.1/1.5 in veg and as high at 1.8/2.2 in flower the week where you ad the PK 13/14, i dont want to loose yield !

 

[Treetroit City]

Well for sure it is strain dependent but I can tell you I don't worry about losing yield. I feed everyday so they are not going to go hungry.

So folks do feed at those elevated levels 2-3 E.C. I just choose not to.

Looking weighty to me.

 

[sirius haze]

nice picture but im lost, i dont know how to fed now and i dont understand why brands like canna advise 1 to 2.2 ec....

too much contrary informations :

- water with 20-40% runoff, don't water with runoff
- ec is aceptable when the runoff is max 0.3 higher than in the solution used to fed
- follow brand nutrients grow schedule
- don't fed with ec advised by brand nutrients but do it with low ec like 1.0

 

[Kush Technician]

if you can get the same results with less nutrients, why would you follow what the bottle says? You are telling me that Canna recommends a range of 1- 2.2 EC, that is a huge range. Most of the time the numbers given by the nutrient co's are inflated to sell more product. Just think of any other consumer product, they are all the same. The manufacturers want you to use more and therefore buy more.

If I remember correctly, when I was using canna coco, I would mix it by the gallon (small grow back then) and would put about 4 ml of each A and B per gallon, or in other words approximately 1 ml per liter of each A and B. Then I would sometimes increase to about 6 ml per gallon if they looked hungry, just trying not to burn them and had no meters back then. Those numbers seemed to work. Watered with just a bit of run-off. Then I would flush in between 3-4 feedings. Didnt water much at first to let the roots dig in, then once the roots were taking off I could water every day, sometimes multiple times if I was around to do it. But I always made sure to feed very lightly and I did not go by what Canna indicated.

 

[sirius haze]

well thanks again for your help, i still have a mental problem to run such low dosage, so i will stick with the light feeding schedule of canna and runoff everytimes and see what happens.
http://www.canna-uk.com/growguide

 

[forgetmeplease]

Its all about what is inside your coco research coco and look how high the minerals can be in some coco. If you use perlite you will be able to run at 1.5 to 2.0 ec with no problems at all. Its a big mistake to say you are overfeeding at 1.5 to 2.0 it has to do with what minerals are all ready in your medium. With perlite you know that you have a clean start with not many minerals in your medium . This is the problem why everyone is so confused about the ec level of nutrients. You have to know the basics of growing before you can take the advise of peps on this site. there are to many other factors that they are not considering that are causing confusion to new growers.