PPPM/EC too high in medium help

[tokeycones]

Hey growers, 70/30 coco perlite mix feeding synthetic coco a+b nutrients. My ec meter broke on me so i hadn't tested runoff for a good few weeks. I guess i wasn't getting enough waste because i got a new ec meter and my ppm in runoff was 2000 with 800 going in. ph was 5.3 with 5.8 going in. I'm in week 5 of flower just wondering if i should give 1/2 strength nutrients each watering until it comes back down or give a full flush with ph'ed water?tyia

 

[fanleaf]

Hey growers, 70/30 coco perlite mix feeding synthetic coco a+b nutrients. My ec meter broke on me so i hadn't tested runoff for a good few weeks. I guess i wasn't getting enough waste because i got a new ec meter and my ppm in runoff was 2000 with 800 going in. ph was 5.3 with 5.8 going in. I'm in week 5 of flower just wondering if i should give 1/2 strength nutrients each watering until it comes back down or give a full flush with ph'ed water?tyia

Just feed until you have a bunch of runoff next time to flush that shit out.

 

[Metal Halide]

Just keep pumping reg nutes in until your runoff matches what's going in and then monitor. Check again tomorrow but just 5% to see how your plant is drinking. I don't check runoff much. It's wildly inaccurate at times. The best method is to see how quickly your plants drink. If they aren't up-taking then lower EC and monitor. If they are uptaking, look healthy and are thirsty, then carry on. Good luck

 

[Barney86]

Yeah just half strength them mate. Shouldn't ever really need to go much higher than that. Always feed to run off and feed every day and you shouldn't get any problems

 

[tokeycones]

Yeah just half strength them mate. Shouldn't ever really need to go much higher than that. Always feed to run off and feed every day and you shouldn't get any problems

Ok great man easyu enough, I have a ppm pen instead of going 1/2 strength should i go for a certain ppm?

 

[Barney86]

400-600ppm or 0.8-1.2ec (not including the water) is usually good for seedlings up to quite a fair size mate. They don't need much. Can grow a 4-5ouncer on 500ppm from start to finish no worries. Anything bigger than that needs more though. And some strains just need more. 500ish be a good number though.

 

[tokeycones]

400-600ppm or 0.8-1.2ec (not including the water) is usually good for seedlings up to quite a fair size mate. They don't need much. Can grow a 4-5ouncer on 500ppm from start to finish no worries. Anything bigger than that needs more though. And some strains just need more. 500ish be a good number though.

What if they are quite big? ones at the bag are about 5'5

 

[tokeycones]

What if they are quite big? ones at the bag are about 5'5

Before you panic haha its not all crammed in there like that veg tent just got a bit out of hand in this pic

 

[Barney86]

Just reread your original post mate. 800ppm is sweet for plants that size. Just do what you were doing but water more often and they'll mint

 

[tokeycones]

Just reread your original post mate. 800ppm is sweet for plants that size. Just do what you were doing but water more often and they'll mint

So i found my issue yesterday , i went to my local hyudro store took my ph pens/ppm as they are bluelab and fairly new. My ppm pen on 700 setting was reading 1130 in 1970 solution. Have been over feeding them to fuck because of the pen

 

[tokeycones]

It ruined my harvest too, got 6-7 oz off a plant big enough to pull 14-16 the buds never swelled as they usualled would just matured without a decent substance and the tops all crunchy was so gutted.

 

[Barney86]

It ruined my harvest too, got 6-7 oz off a plant big enough to pull 14-16 the buds never swelled as they usualled would just matured without a decent substance and the tops all crunchy was so gutted.

If it makes you feel any better mate I've just lost an easy pound of amnesia haze due to a light timer malfunction (me being drunk and knocking it to ON)
They were 3 weeks or so Into bloom when I re veggedthem. Looked like they were gonna go massive then they just stopped. Got a full bin liner of awesome hash making material though. Still gets you wrecked, just that it's stringy,leafy, fluffy shite with the odd gram of bud here and there lol.

 

[tokeycones]

Came so close to doing the same thing.... Replacing my carbon filter must have bumped the timer switch to open/on. got a solid 38 hours of light before i noticed. lucky it was in my old shitty tent and i saw purple coming from one of the cracks haha new tent doesn't leak a thing.

 

[Barney86]

Came so close to doing the same thing.... Replacing my carbon filter must have bumped the timer switch to open/on. got a solid 38 hours of light before i noticed. lucky it was in my old shitty tent and i saw purple coming from one of the cracks haha new tent doesn't leak a thing.

Mines is in the attic so only check it every few days. Leave em a week at a time when I know I can get away with it and that was unfortunately one of those times lol. Was at least 4 days of 24/0 they got before I clicked. Maybe more but either way they're fucked haha. Can't win them all though.
Oh Yeah, regarding the ppm and ph meters. Check them against a major brand of bottled water. The ph is always on the bottle and quick Google will get you the ppm if it's not there.
If the meters match up then they're accurate.
If you've got a reliable source of tap water then from that point you can just use that but I believe most places fluctuate quite a lot. I'm lucky with mine, Scottish water probably the cleanest tap on earth but only a hundred miles away it's barely drinkable so you'll have to figure that one out yourself

 

[tokeycones]

Ahh ye fair enough mate. we have about 20=30ppm in our water here.
Coco's made to be watered once a day minimum once your roots have established. You must be getting mad salt buildup in your medium going a week between feedings ect.

 

[Barney86]

Ahh ye fair enough mate. we have about 20=30ppm in our water here.
Coco's made to be watered once a day minimum once your roots have established. You must be getting mad salt buildup in your medium going a week between feedings ect.

Full hydro for me mate, I use reservoirs mostly.
I always grow coco aswell but I just sit the 10-12L, 70/30, coco/peri, fabric pots into a roughly 4L basin.
Fill it to the top with nutes and fill it back up once it gets low. Probably 3 days average at the minute.
I feed the coco plants the same nutes as I feed the reservoirs. Just different times.

I only use 20L reservoirs so they're real sensitive and you can see exactly how strong to make the feed by averaging the ppm change over a few days.
The one blooming at the top is an auto, as is the tiny one to the left of it that you won't see unless you zoom lol. She got dominated by the dutch passion auto glueberry!
They're both 10-11 weeks I think. Half 12/12 and half 18/6 but about to go back to 12/12 for the remainder.

The rest are photos that were rooted seedlings planted there 4 weeks ago.
1 Left and 1 right are in coco, 4 in the centre are in a 20L NFT res.

In that time I've fed 10L to each res for week one.
Topped them both up with the same strength 10L for week 2.
emptied and refreshed the res for week 3 with 10L again.
Topped up wth the leftovers a few days In.
Went in the res 1st of last month and thats all ive fed them. The autos had 1 start and 1 top up previously.
Give or take a couple days here and there but that's all I've had to do so far.
Never ph adjusted anything other than the initial batches either.

The 2 In coco pots have maybe been fed 7 times.
Were all in starter cubes under a 130w CFL until then and used less than 10ml of anything between them.

I need to empty them again now as you can see. Few ph symptoms going on with the bottom res plants but its cool.
I'll empty and reset the res' tomorrow and they'll be back to perfect soon enough

It honestly astonishes me how much people feed plants. I'm too tired for the maths but that 7x7ft canopy has had less than 200ml of nutes so far between everything and they all came from seed.
Maybe 250ml at the very most. I'll work it out tomorrow.
Easy 30oz there if i can keep up with the leccy bill haha

 

[Barney86]

Photos are 5 weeks old not 4.

 

[tokeycones]

Photos are 5 weeks old not 4.

looking great mate, So i always seem to end up with a bit of clawing/nitrogen toxicity through flower yet my veg growth is great. The range i use is nutrifield coco A + B at no point do they call for a change in ratio of a+b which kinda tells me there is no drop in nitrogen ? any suggestions

 

[Barney86]

looking great mate, So i always seem to end up with a bit of clawing/nitrogen toxicity through flower yet my veg growth is great. The range i use is nutrifield coco A + B at no point do they call for a change in ratio of a+b which kinda tells me there is no drop in nitrogen ? any suggestions

Well that sounds weird doesn't it. Hang on, off to Google I go.....
Wow. That is weird. Wtf is that stuff?
Says on the tinterweb that
A is NPK @1-4-2 and the other bottle the writing is too small for me but I'm guessing it's a bottle of ca/mg/fe + a few other things.
Ahh, it must be a "Lucas formula" thing. Someone's finally bottled it lol.
Basically years ago a dude called Lucas figured out that with gh trio nutes there's enough of everything in the micro and bloom so you don't need the veg bottle.
Theres a little N in the bloom and a little N in the micro and it's enough to get them through veg but not enough to damage them in bloom.
Never tried it but seen it enough times to know it works for the most part.

Short answer is Yes, but, you can't drop the N alone without either dropping the micro or bloom nutes.
First obvious option is to lower the A bottle as that has more N, that will drop the PK levels too though so you might find a PK booster is needed to keep them happy.
Unless you're just feeding too strong anyway. Should only need like 600-800 ppm to keep them happy if they're not unusually large., how much you feeding? Maybe Should be asked that first lol.

 

[tokeycones]

Ok man thanks that's some good info , I'll try provide you with what i can. So Here are some pic's of the coco A + B and whats in it, i've been about 650-700 ppm for the last week (week 3 bloom)Use the full nutrifield addative range water to runoff daily at 5.8 ph.
girls are quite big though had a decent veg. no matter what size ect i always seem to get really rich dark leaves and if i drop the A+B ml per liter too much i get other issues + the calmag suppliments on offer all have a fair bit of N.