PPM in soil question?

coralman

coralman

Well-Known Member
Long story short I'm thinking about running a side by side with a pheno of royal critical -

organic v chemical both in soil which got me thinking and leads to my question ...

Do I still need to check e.c/ppm and lower ph with the chemical nutrients even though they are in soil?

Also...
My local hydro store are now stocking botanicare apparently "organic derived" nutes that combine the best of both worlds. They sell themselves good which lets be honest they all do haha but has anyone used their pro bloom soil feed and hydroplex bloom boost and have first hand experience with this brand?

Thanks 420.
 
EC can be a bit complicated in soil (I'd think), but you can do a "slurry test" to check your soil's pH, and can always check the pH of your runoff.

This information can be useful. Soil - and some soilless mixes that often get referred to as "soil") can provide a buffering effect, but still... You wouldn't knock a hike in your boat just because it has a fine bilge-pump, lol.

Botanicare is a well-known brand that has been around for years. A greater percentage of cannabis growers used it in the past, but that's probably due as much to the fact that there are many more choices now than anything else.

Try doing a search for one of the products (use the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen). If I was using my laptop, I'd show you how to use an internet search engine to perform a site-search. If you cannot find the information you're looking for, let me know and I'll try to do so. There ought to be multiple grow journal threads in which the growers used Botanicare products.
 
I have a soil ph meter and lower my feed with organic ph down As I have really high alkaline water but never bothered with e.c as I run organic, iv ran a few coco grows where I have used an e.c meter (non organic) but where there is a cross over with soil and "hydro nutes" is it still needed i wonder.

Yeh there is plenty on botanicare, just wondered if it would kick start a convo with someone using it. I suppose it's just one of them where you have to bite the bullet and choose a feed on what you think best and try for your self.
 
Well I have done a ton of side by sides. I can tell you it is really a lot about are you doing them both justice running two different programs at the same time. Sometimes that means watering differently.

In honesty Recycled Organic growing is a process that gets better with each harvest and gets very rich over time. It takes around 3 harvests to hit a top line organic soil. Then you can run your side by side.

And don't be afraid as a basic organic (gen 1) beats most grows when done well. The thing with organic is it becomes autopilot and carefree once it is on its way.
 
I used to do side by sides. It is how I learned a lot fast. I am an engineer I understand the truth of how to do real science. I have been growing over 20 years and tried many things and know what works best for me. I like things that I can leave the house for a week during the grow and not be bothered. ROLS runs on autopilot. People who must constantly check and monitor things don't believe it but it is true. You can make an indoor garden work like an outdoor one and it is much easier in the end.

My organic feed is all I use now nothing more but water and sugars for the live bacteria. I vary the contents based on the stage of growth. I Don't use anything else anymore. I don't have to monitor a thing.

I make it in a bucket for cheap. I have used it on hydro and soil. I did journal on here where I grew the entire lot from just my home brew and water very infrequently.

This is a plant I cloned and had in soil 1 week before putting it in my flower tent. I gave it no feed at all just water. Bloomed as it should...running only on water as the soil was correct the entire time. I did nothing but clone, plant in soil 1 week, bloom and water once a week.





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Proper organics is a living soil. It is not adding organic things, that is irrelevant. the plant is not a hippie and does not care where nitrogen comes from. It cares that it is mobile enough and in the right concentration. The issue is all the other stuff that gets in the soil in the process. Also getting things out of balance is easy to do manually but hard to do if you are out of control and letting the bacteria do all the work.

A bacteria rich soil that is constantly breaking down the materials into the nutrients at the right speed that the plant wants it is always feeding correctly and is much easier to manage than trying to dial in. No need for PPM monitoring unless you are running hydro but even then...A good organic hydro can be left alone much more and is simpler to run.
 
another way to put it is... in soil... after a few grows you understand a lot about the plant unless you are a fool and PPM in soil is not of concern. it is easy to monitor from the plant visual health and there are very clear guidelines for how to handle and correct things. There is no need to monitor it. It is not a relevant factor.

PPM's should be run low not high that is why everyone gets problems.

In an organic soil... a good one...I add nothing the entire grow. the bacteria self regulate the PPM and it never gets too high. they wont allow it that is the point. Organic done right is autopilot and you only add water I am telling you.

You can reinvent the wheel and try to make things more difficult ...but monitoring PPM in an organic soil is nonsense information. Even if it is "high" it is because that is what the balance needs right then. The whole point of a living soil is you let it take control and you don't care anymore as the bacteria balance all the levels for you. That is why it takes 6 months for the compost to ripen. and you keep adding and it keeps growing.

It turns black in 6 months and then is amazing stuff that you just watch work and water once a week. Twice a week in bloom.

With hydro you need to monitor PPM to maintain good pH but even then you just keep topping of with tea and it sucks it right up faster than chems at the same PPM.

Using a EWC tea as your base food is only needed the first grow in soil but in hydro you keep adding it. Done correctly in hydro you don't need to flush using a living res.


But monitoring PPM as you are suggesting wont tell you a thing nor help you if you want to test real organic soil grow.
If you are talking about using nutes from a bottle that says organinc on it instead of nutes from a bottle that says chemicals on it...you are missing the point and wasting time...there is no difference there. It is strictly how well you apply it. The brands are all the same garbage and a waste of money. If you want to use bottles pick a brand and dial that in the way you like to use it.

If you want to just go straight to the advanced way to do thing go read up on EWC tea and start playing with making your own brew at home. Better results...way less cost.
 
You know, to a plant, it really doesn't care where it get its nutrients as long as the plant can take them up in a chelated or unchelated form and the plant will take care of the rest. So, is there really any difference in using bottled nutrients compared to so-called organic living soil, NO! Sure you can argue their is a difference, but to the plant you are feeding there is clearly no difference to them! But let me add this... real organic gardening has nothing to do with so-called living soil. As everything you place in your so-called living soil is an amendment, you yourself had to make it up, and that to me is not organic gardening. What is organic gardening to me, its taking the plant you want to grow and placing it in the mist of an already growing companion plant or plants that will feed your plant from seedling until harvest and all you have to do is water it. And yes there are a few "Super Green Manure" plants in nature that can grow a cannabis plant better than any of us by just putting your cannabis plant in their root zone!
 
So like General Hydroponics feed? Thats not organic and i've used it in basic potting soil no problems. I did check PPM occasionally but only to monitor and make sure i wasnt going over too high a value. Also i would check it if i saw issues poppingup.

edit: I would add ph down to the gallon of nutewater, always. But thats because my tap is like 7.4
 
vyserage said:
So like General Hydroponics feed? Thats not organic and i've used it in basic potting soil no problems. I did check PPM occasionally but only to monitor and make sure i wasnt going over too high a value. Also i would check it if i saw issues poppingup.

edit: I would add ph down to the gallon of nutewater, always. But thats because my tap is like 7.4
Click to expand...
Thank you very much a straight forward answer relating to the question I asked, top man haha.

Stoners think way to much hahaha thanks everyone
 
Sorry for both taking it sideways as I thought you were asking about monitoring the organic process vs. a synthetic but now we got some misinformation on here.

There is a lot more to organic gardening than what is on this thread. There are very good sections on here to read about it. If you want to do real organics you will reduce labor and cost. But that is not a feeding schedule thing. Real organics...is way more fun to do if you are doing soil. Just seriously way easier and more fun. And I wont do hydro without it anymore. I saved many gross on here using it. It fixes almost all problems in your medium or hydro system.

You do you. Peace!

Very sorry
 
To be fair I was having a shitty day sorry if I come across a dick, my set up has been going 12 months this week, I save the compost each time and put it in my heap and using on my veg ( my dad said the tomatoes are the sweetest he's had them) it's currently steaming away but I will get round to recycling it and using in my tent, Iv been adding insect frass from eco charge and their microbe teas and use less of the bottled stuff from biobizz since using it. If I had the time and space I would go full organic as you say and make my own teas etc... but that maybe in the future but for now I have a few rooms set up so can experiment and have some fun with different feeds etc hence this thread.

Thanks man it's been good reading.
 
I've only used Biobizz & Hesi nutrients neither did i PH adjust final solution to this very day for growing in soil & still do NOT !
Its really about the PH of the soil o_O

Organic based nutrients are difficult to get E.C - electrical conductivity & PPM - parts per million readings from due to the nature of organic based nutrients.

Where as salt based/synthetic nutrients are far much easy to take E.C / PPM readings.

Hesi was salt based 50 ml to 5 l of water never measured E.C or PPM just got on with it for the soil growing, i did run a hempy bucket with perlite with same nutrients for hydro followed same guide lines & only PH adjusted for the hydro style of growing.


Living organic soils well its still dirt but with a bit more in it... Ever heard of SubCool's super soil well its a bit like that.
 

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