Understanding PPM

[420hydrodude]

when mixing nutrients for an Ebb and Flow watering system i have heard the use of the three letters "PPM" but realy have no idea on what it means or how to measure the nutriants ussing this calculation. I'm a bigginer so using "Recipe For Success" that was recently purchased but have not mixed it yet since I have to understand what "PPM" means.



Best Regards.

 

[Krack420]

PPM stands for "parts per million". It represents the level of salts(nutes) in your water. PPM is measured with a TDS meter, which stands for Total Dissolved Solids. Cannabis needs a wide range of PPM levels, depending upon its stage of growth.

When you mix your nutes, you can use the TDS meter to measure the PPM of the nute solution. Plants need 0-800ppm for vegging, and up to double that for flowering. Different strains require different feeding levels, so nobody can give you an exact level.. Also remember that different manufacturers of TDS meters use different conversion factors, which will cause some confusion. You should read up on all of this before purchasing a TDS meter. You can get one for as cheap as 20$.

 

[Krack420]

Sacred feces, Batman!! 1600 ppm for cannabis?! Almost everything I have read says weed should be fed at half of whatever the instructions say. Even that is too much, sometimes. "The Marijuana Growers Bible" if I remember correctly (not stoned yet!) says tosatrt with 1/3 nute level and adjust from there. My experience leads me to believe this is true. I have a KaliMist X BC Skunk that gets burned tips if I go half nutes but I push them right to the edge. Currently sitting at 675 ppm 5.8 ph, with slightly burned tips.

Growers in hydro with TDS meters with a .7 conversion commonly list 1500ppm and more. What you said is great advice for any new grower, and I definitely recommend you start slow and work your way up with nutes, but as I said above, some plants need different levels of nutes.. so just because your plant (you didnt even say what stage of growth the plant was in or how big it is) is getting burned at 650ppm doesn't mean that all plants will.

Peace and happy growing.

 

[Growin4myhead]

Growers in hydro with TDS meters with a .7 conversion commonly list 1500ppm and more. What you said is great advice for any new grower, and I definitely recommend you start slow and work your way up with nutes, but as I said above, some plants need different levels of nutes.. so just because your plant (you didnt even say what stage of growth the plant was in or how big it is) is getting burned at 650ppm doesn't mean that all plants will.

Peace and happy growing.

agreed, I have Barneys Farm *** 2 Weeks into flower at 1800ppm and they are loving it! It's a learning curve that's for sure!

 

[ol hippy]

It also depends on your water, my water out of the tap is 580 ppm and my total ppm is around 1500 right now at 5 weeks into flowering. I think I need to push them a little more but they got burned afew wks ago so I'm a little gunshy.. So don't forget to subtract the tap water # from the total # = nutes ppm. You can also do what your doing with your nutes, mine say add x amount per gallon for early grow and x amount after a few wks etc. Or you can just follow the nutes recommendation and watch your plants for any adverse signs. Than adjust.