Ppm

[pete2]

I kinda understand what this is,but I don't know what to compare it with.Is there a chart or something that tells you how many ppm the are suppose to be in your water. Also how do you control the ppm to bring it up or down ? Im using dwc system and Im new to this.Any reply would be helpful.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

PPM - parts per million.

Basically means the more or less nutrients in a given quantity of water will effect the PPM value.


Most nutrient brands will have a rule of the thumb feeding chart you might need to do an online search for that ?

But in general the veg growth the PPM levels are lower & of the top of head some where around 500ppm to 1000ppm depending on size of plant etc in flowering in may start out roughly around 1200 going up 1600ppm.

I'm pretty sure most other references to such will say some thing like that.


Ya need to change res of each bucket every 10 to 14 days most peeps will say, some more hard core DWC growers will do this once a week.

Topping up the bucket during this period i think most use a 50% strength solution of what is used in the buckets ?




You may wish to view this link - Deep Water Culture - DWC more likely find some thing in there.

 

[Stealthboat]

Fuzzy Duck nailed it. ppm is just a measure of how many 'nutes' you have in the solution. Adding water will reduce the ppm while removing water will raise it; this will tell you what the plant is feeding on as the ppm changes (water or nutes). So if ppm starts to go up, add water to keep it down. If ppm goes down, time to add in some more nutes. That's the basics from what I know

 

[dbkick]

PPM and TDS are based on EC .
some meters use a conversion factor of .5 and some use a conversion factor of .7 to convert EC to PPM or TDS .
EC is the only true reading.

 

[go4snypr]

What dbkick is trying to say is that depending on how your PPM meter is calibrated you can end up with different ppm, that is why EC (electrical conductivity) is "the only true reading".. Example a meter calibrated at a .5 conversion factor will give you an EC reading of 1.0 @ 500 ppm. A meter calibrated to .7 will give you an EC reading of 1.0 @ 700ppm. If i am using one meter and you the other, when I give you a reading of 700ppm that may be 1.0 EC on your meter, but 1.5 on my meter as they are calibrated differently. Hence when you talk ppm, you need to know what conversion the other person meter is calibrated to. But yes to make more or less PPM you need to add nutrients or add more water. starting with Reverse Osmosis water your ppm will be near 0 as the water should be clean, then add nutes to it to bring it up to the desired reading. As far as I have read, using tap water with "X" amount of ppm and not knowing what it is, leaves you less room to add the nutrients that you want.