How to tell if you plants like their nutrients via PPM

[cosmoline]

I was reading somewhere that you can tell if you nutrient mix is right for the plant by testing the PPM every day. If the PPM lowers slightly then its OK, if it goes up then the plants is being over fertilized. Is this correct? Any tips on using this method? Also I am using Pure Blend Pro in DWC, my mix is: 5ml Cal Mag, 10ml Liquid Karma, 25ml Grow, 3 drops superthrive (per gallon tap water). The plants are God bud at about 1 month. Does this sound good?

 

[Pandemic]

PPM goes UP and PH goes DOWN = They require LESS nutes
PPM goes Down and PH goes UP = They require MORE nutes
PPM stable PH goes UP = Good thing


Those amounts seem a little high, I feed half of what PBP bottles say.

Do you have the ability to check you ppms? What are they with your ratios?


P

 

[Haps]

Yeah you sound a bit high to me also. Learn to look at the leaves, that is what tells you how healthy the plant is.
H

 

[mrcheezy503]

Removed

 

[cosmoline]

Can you explain how to tell the subtle differences in the leaves? One of my problems with nailing down growing is remembering how exactly the plants looked 24 hours ago. Only drastic changes are really noticeable. The PPM is 2200 right now and the plants seem to be really liking it.

 

[Pseudo]

2200?
holy crap

 

[stucklikechuck]

2200 is ok in aeroponics, otherwise that is pretty high. what system are you using?

 

[Whatever]

The PPM is 2200 right now and the plants seem to be really liking it.

Not for long they won't. Highest I ever ran, and only by accident, was an EC of 4400 which equates to 2200 ppm using a conversion factor of .5. I assume your ppm's are based on a .5 conversion factor or is it .7. Nice to get that straight to start. PPM's are arbitrary while EC is not.

Some people think hydro is all about feeding your plants the max they can handle...are you in that camp?

 

[cosmoline]

Correction, I ment to say the ppm's are 1200. Sorry about the confusion guys. Is it even possible to get a good reading off of Pure Blend Pro? Its mostly inorganic, not to mention the cal mag might throw it off?

 

[krunchbubble]

2200 ppm to high? lmfao! thats the norm for most of my grows, without any nutrient burn or problems. a sour diesel strain i had a few years ago took 4000 ppm without any problems what so ever, harvesting football sized buds of the highest quality. all in coco with advanced nutrients.
so if your particular strain is a big feeder and can take high ppm's, why not give it to the plant? are you afraid to get big buds?
who is to say that a certain ppm such as 2200 is a bad thing? only someone scared enough to not try it.

 

[Pseudo]

lets see some of those footballs krunch

 

[metamorf]

2200 ppm to high? lmfao! thats the norm for most of my grows, without any nutrient burn or problems. a sour diesel strain i had a few years ago took 4000 ppm without any problems what so ever, harvesting football sized buds of the highest quality. all in coco with advanced nutrients.
so if your particular strain is a big feeder and can take high ppm's, why not give it to the plant? are you afraid to get big buds?
who is to say that a certain ppm such as 2200 is a bad thing? only someone scared enough to not try it.

Are you daring us to overfeed our plants?
Fucking hell, even tomatos never get over 4.0 EC.
You're a funny guy but until you show those football size buds I'm calling bullshit on your statement.

 

[sarek]

Just to throw in a variable I measured the ppm of the rockwool with a syringe, pulling some out and putting it into a shot glass, takes 2 minutes. Push small plastic disposable syringe in to top of cube maybe 2 inchesand release fingers to suck up nutrients. Do this until you can cover your electrode. It goes off the scale of my reader (1-2000ppm) so I dilute the solution 1 to 1 by doubling it which brings me into range of meter.

Then measure the ppm of this solution. Mine measured around 4000ppm (8000 EC). I guess this is cos the nutrients get concentrated in the top of the cubes. I am just starting to try to understand this. I suspect it might be different depending on weather - if its really hot the plants might drink more water thereby concentrating nutes more in the cube.

So maybe it woulod be good to flush, not in the last week but perhaps at week 4 or more often with nutrient water. Any thoughts experience on this?

I think that the number in the root zone is more important than the number in res to an extent. Maybe someone is running a very high ppm in res (1600 but root zone is only 3000 whereas someone who runs at ppm 100 in res can get thiier root zone up to 4000.

 

[icough2getoff]

I was reading somewhere that you can tell if you nutrient mix is right for the plant by testing the PPM every day. If the PPM lowers slightly then its OK, if it goes up then the plants is being over fertilized. Is this correct? Any tips on using this method?

I've had good success with this method, once the plant roots grow large enough to where you can start to notice the difference. Until then I just start out light and go by what the leaves say.

I keep a logbook and I personally have noticed the best results when my EC stays almost the same, but drops just a tiny bit.

2200 ppm to high? lmfao! thats the norm for most of my grows, without any nutrient burn or problems. a sour diesel strain i had a few years ago took 4000 ppm without any problems what so ever, harvesting football sized buds of the highest quality. all in coco with advanced nutrients.
so if your particular strain is a big feeder and can take high ppm's, why not give it to the plant? are you afraid to get big buds?
who is to say that a certain ppm such as 2200 is a bad thing? only someone scared enough to not try it.

That is horrible advice. I've burned some strains with EC of 1. I personally wouldn't trust anyone who says they grow football sized buds of highest quality but doesn't have a single picture in their gallery.

PPM's are arbitrary while EC is not.

Some people think hydro is all about feeding your plants the max they can handle...are you in that camp?

nailed it

 

[mrcheezy503]

Removed

 

[icough2getoff]

PPM is a conversion of EC. As I understand it, most meters read EC then convert it to PPM. The problem is different meters convert it differently. Some at .5, .65, or .7. In a perfect world everyone would just say what their EC is or specify what conversion was made to get PPM. Otherwise, with just a PPM number we can only guess how strong it actually is.

This chart should help see what I'm talking about

 

[TricksR4Kids]

Dude there is no way you are feeding over 4000 ppm on any CF and getting nugs of any quality. My guess is ur in need of a ppm meter that works.

 

[bounty29]

EC/ppm/whatever you like is only good when comparing the same nutes. 1.0ec of GH nutes isn't going to be the same as 1.0ec of AN nutes, isn't going to be the same as 1.0ec of Canna nutes.

LEARN TO READ THE PLANTS

Given the correct ratios, you can scale your dosage as high as you want, and the plant will tell you what it thinks of it.

Don't use ppm if you can help it, there's no reason. EC is EC no matter what meter you're using.

 

[TricksR4Kids]

yeah but 8 ec of any nute will lock ur plants out in 1 feeding

 

[clowntown]

Maybe his PPM meter had a truly horrendous conversion rate. Or the store sold him a whacky broken one. Or it's been mis-calibrated all this time and he didn't even realize it.