Hi guys i am a little confused with EC'S and watering frequency,
I currently have 4 plants in 11l pots using 70/30 coco and perlite pre buffered bags.
Im also using the full mills nutrients range and im having a big headache with keeping EC'S in range and keeping the meduim wet/aerated
I cannot possibly follow the mills recommended feeding chart as the second i start to ramp up the strength of feeding the plants show signs of tip burn and nitrogen toxicity. The highest i can possibly go is 1.4EC MAX (At this stage of flower mills recommends upto 2.5 E.C i flow peak flower), but my outflow keeps slowly creeping up to the high 1.9-2.0+ with only baby food of 1.4E.C.....with another ballache of rootzone PH slowly dropping into the mid to high end of 4.5-5. Preventing optimum rootzone PH levels for phosphorus and potassium uptake. (I PH my solution to 6.0-6.2).
Now i have tried so many different things to counter this such as, lighter nutes more frequently as im currently doing now so im giving them 1.4 E.C, 0.5l every 3 hours to keep the medium constantly Saturated between 90-100% to try and combat salt build up but sure enough within a couple of days the run off is sky high,
Ive also tried allowing it to dry out for 24 hrs and flushing with
calmag and ph tap water to push out exess salts and nutrient build up but the same thing happens when feeding resumes,
Ive tried lowering
calmag and increasing base nutes, lowering base nutes and increasing
calmag, eliminating
calmag altogether which just leads to deficiencies within a couple of days, im at a total crossroad here...
Im getting more stable results with the 4 smaller but frequent feedings during lights on but tbh it just isnt practical Nor cost effective as im tipping 80% of what i feed down the toilet, But because im keeping the moisture content so high its also messing with my humidity percentage and is going to cause mould issues as im in mid-late flower now.
When i feed, my run off is way way way more than it should be, i seem to put more town the toilet than the plants are drinking just to try to keep E.C'S within range
Has anyone got any experience with mills nutrients using coco? If so what was your regime to keep a nice balance between feeds, moisture levels and salt build up.
Im flushing weekly before the next week feed schedule so the substrate is fresh and can uptake that next given weeks nutes without adverse effects but like i stated....its getting a bit too impractical.
Im thinking about autopots for my next grow but with eratic E.C's im a little unsure if this is a good idea as with auto pots there is NO run off which "in my head" will make things ALOT worse with no way of pushing salts and excess nutes out the pot. Sorry for the rambling on guys im just trying to put asmuch info in as i can.
Cheers in advance
Peace out