Help with lowering ec of runoff

[Jonnypierce]

Hi there can anybody help me out I've currently got 8 palnts growing in coco 5 weeks into flower, I've had nothing but problems due to my own fault, anyway I've checked my run off ec tonight and it seemed a bit high, so I tried it again and I ran sum water through at 0.6 and my runoff came out at 1.8 what is the quickest safest way to bring this down, I'm new to this and there's probably loads of info you need that I haven't supplied, I'm hand watering in coco once a day until I get 20-25 % run off, I'm growing under 600 w hps lights, temp and humidity is spot on, I've got a 6 inch inline fan drawing in fresh air from outside, and a 6 inch ac infinity fan and carbon filter exhausting air outside the tent , I have two 8 inch fans in the room circulating the air, please go easy on me any help will be greatly appreciated plants are clawing send also foxtailing

 

[phxazcraig]

I'm just a rookie here, but here is my 2 cents worth: The curling and foxtailing are signs of light stress. Raise them or dim them.

The runoff EC is opposite mine. I'm growing in coco/perlite, and my runoff is consistently 100 to 400 EC lower than the input. The difference? I think it is your watering practice. Once a day in coco isn't enough. The salts are building up as the water is used up by the plants and by evaporation.

The solution is to water a lot more often. I run halo drippers for 30 seconds and get about 10-20% runoff, and if I don't I add another watering per day. I'm up to 5x a day and only in 2nd week of flower. My input EC right now is 1550, and the output lately is about 1450. Not unusual for me to see it down 300 points. The EC drops the most when I've added another watering and the coco is more saturated. The plants are monsters.

 

[Jonnypierce]

I'm just a rookie here, but here is my 2 cents worth: The curling and foxtailing are signs of light stress. Raise them or dim them.

The runoff EC is opposite mine. I'm growing in coco/perlite, and my runoff is consistently 100 to 400 EC lower than the input. The difference? I think it is your watering practice. Once a day in coco isn't enough. The salts are building up as the water is used up by the plants and by evaporation.

The solution is to water a lot more often. I run halo drippers for 30 seconds and get about 10-20% runoff, and if I don't I add another watering per day. I'm up to 5x a day and only in 2nd week of flower. My input EC right now is 1550, and the output lately is about 1450. Not unusual for me to see it down 300 points. The EC drops the most when I've added another watering and the coco is more saturated. The plants are monsters.

Thankyou

 

[jguit]

Just run about 2-3 times the volume of your container with nutrients set to your desired EC. This should reset your coco.

 

[Jonnypierce]

Just run about 2-3 times the volume of your container with nutrients set to your desired EC. This should reset your coco.

Hi pal my pots are big pots, like 35 litres, so to reset my coco I should put 70 - 100 litres of 1.3 ec water through them if 1.3 is what I'm wanting?

 

[jguit]

I wouldnt want to flush pots that large.. What is the EC you typically feed? and what is the runoff EC you're considering high?

 

[Jonnypierce]

I wouldnt want to flush pots that large.. What is the EC you typically feed? and what is the runoff EC you're considering high?

Well when I checked it last night I only used really low ec 0.6 and my run off was 1.8, I ideally want to be feeding 1.4 ec

 

[jguit]

I mean, when you were feeding it regularly (not when you fed ow EC) what was the difference between the input and the runoff?

For instance, were you feeding it 1.5 EC and getting 2 EC out? Or feeding it 1.5 EC and getting 3 EC out?

 

[Jonnypierce]

Basically this runs been a fuck up from start to finish pal, well no that's not true everything was fine up until I flipped to flower well about 3/4 week into flower things didn't look right and with some help off some guys on here we came to the conclusion that they where trying to reveg due to a light on my heater been bright as fuck and running all lights off, so I addressesd that issue and took the light out, then I've noticed the plants been really dark green and clawing which looked like nitrogen toxicity and that's when I've checked the run off ec which I'd never done before and it was really high like 1.9 2.0 and I was only putting in 1.1, then last night I gave it a really low ec 0.6 and it came out at 1.8, I never checked the run off ec before just checked the ec of what I was putting in because they looked really healthy before

 

[Jonnypierce]

Ever since I had the problem with the light it's really thrown me off, its only the third time I've grown so I'm new to it anyway bit it's the first time I've encountered any problems and I feel well out my depth at the moment if im honest, feel like just chopping them down and starting over but I've too much money and time invested in them to just quit, I know alot of the damage as already been done and is irreversible so it's basically a salvage mission at the moment to get the best out of what ive left. Few recent pics of what I'm working with

 

[jguit]

It's all a learning experience.. I'm curious why you're using such big pots of coco? If you can't use smaller containers and automate your watering, maybe consider using something like ProMix HP in 3 gallon buckets instead of coco? You'd be watering every 2 days give or take.

So you put in 1.1 EC and it came out around 2 EC? That doesnt seem terrible. My threshold for runoff EC is 1 EC above input but i'm also fertigating a 1 gal pot numerous times a day. If i see runoff going over my 1 EC threshold, that tells me i need to either increase my frequency, increase the amount of liquid or both, @phxazcraig is correct. Obviously with smaller pots you'd need some sort of automation for your watering.

Maybe try watering twice a day or more (to runoff) and see if it starts to bring your EC down after a few days. I'd hate to start messing around and flushing huge pots this late in flower.

Here's a pretty decent explanation:

Getting Technical - Fertigation and Continuous Liquid Feeding

How many times a day (week, month) should I be feeding my plants with Jack's Nutrients? That's a great question, and while ultimately, the answer varies between grows, this week we give you the information to determine what works for the setup you have in place. This week's Getting Technical...

www.jacksnutrients.com

 

[Jonnypierce]

It's all a learning experience.. I'm curious why you're using such big pots of coco? If you can't use smaller containers and automate your watering, maybe consider using something like ProMix HP in 3 gallon buckets instead of coco? You'd be watering every 2 days give or take.

So you put in 1.1 EC and it came out around 2 EC? That doesnt seem terrible. My threshold for runoff EC is 1 EC above input but i'm also fertigating a 1 gal pot numerous times a day. If i see runoff going over my 1 EC threshold, that tells me i need to either increase my frequency, increase the amount of liquid or both, @phxazcraig is correct. Obviously with smaller pots you'd need some sort of automation for your watering.

Maybe try watering twice a day or more (to runoff) and see if it starts to bring your EC down after a few days. I'd hate to start messing around and flushing huge pots this late in flower.

Here's a pretty decent explanation:

Getting Technical - Fertigation and Continuous Liquid Feeding

How many times a day (week, month) should I be feeding my plants with Jack's Nutrients? That's a great question, and while ultimately, the answer varies between grows, this week we give you the information to determine what works for the setup you have in place. This week's Getting Technical...

www.jacksnutrients.com

Thanks bro I used coco because the last grow I did it was all I cud get hold of at the time and it turned out really good so I just stuck with it this time around but had nothing but problems this time, even though it was my fault with the heater

 

[phxazcraig]

Thanks bro I used coco because the last grow I did it was all I cud get hold of at the time and it turned out really good so I just stuck with it this time around but had nothing but problems this time, even though it was my fault with the heater

Well, consider how it will go next time if you head off the problems you had this time! My first grow a year ago was mostly a throw-away crop, learning experience. I overdid everything. Overwatered my seeds so that half drowned and didn't sprout. Overwatered the seedlings and stunted them. (And these were 3 different autos, so no way to recover). Over fertilized, even though I diluted for autos. Bought stronger LED light and promptly overlit them. Had a bum pH pen, but didn't know it at the time. Overwatered vegging plants. Overwatered flowering plants too. Ended up with 3 OZ's of badly cured smoke. But learned a lot and replaced a lot of poor equipment with better equipment. Only 4 autos because I could only get 4 seeds out of 12 total to sprout)

My second grow was in soil as well, but photoperiods. 5 plants, because my seeds came in sets of 5. (Learned that 4 trained plants can fill a 4x4 as well as 5 trained plants, but you have more space in the middle to work.) In this grow I underdid almost anything. Sprouted plants May 1 and immediately put into 5 gallon fabric pots in soil. I had soaked the pots earlier, and it took them almost 4 weeks to completely dry to where I was comfortable watering again (and fertilizing). They started very slowly, but my intent was to take things slowly and not overdo it. And with photoperiods I was able to just give more time in veg state to recover from underfeeding. I vegged for 3.5 months, flowered for 9 weeks and harvested 18 oz's of dried bud. And learned a lot more.

So my coco grow is going well, partly because I learned from previous mistakes, partly because I've been following good advice, and partly because I have good measurements to judge from. I have a Bluelab pH controller that is accurate and keeps my reservoir stable. I have a Quantum PAR meter that takes the bullsh*t out of determining LED strength. I have a good EC meter to judge nutrient level. I have a good fan controller that helps me control both temperature and humidity. And I've learned a bunch here in this website since January that has probably tripled my knowledge level about growing cannabis.

 

[mark360jones]

Hi there can anybody help me out I've currently got 8 palnts growing in coco 5 weeks into flower, I've had nothing but problems due to my own fault, anyway I've checked my run off ec tonight and it seemed a bit high, so I tried it again and I ran sum water through at 0.6 and my runoff came out at 1.8 what is the quickest safest way to bring this down, I'm new to this and there's probably loads of info you need that I haven't supplied, I'm hand watering in coco once a day until I get 20-25 % run off, I'm growing under 600 w hps lights, temp and humidity is spot on, I've got a 6 inch inline fan drawing in fresh air from outside, and a 6 inch ac infinity fan and carbon filter exhausting air outside the tent , I have two 8 inch fans in the room circulating the air, please go easy on me any help will be greatly appreciated plants are clawing send also foxtailing

Are you drain to waste

 

[Jonnypierce]

Are you drain to waste

Yeah pal

 

[2Bad]

@Aqua Man has been a long Hiatus but he taught me what I know (which isn't that much) but he says that he feed really low E.C. and that as long as your plant looks good then runoff doesn't matter. during the last few weeks of flower just lower your E.C. Leaves look good a little clawing is fine as long as its not the entire plant.

 

[Jonnypierce]

Well, consider how it will go next time if you head off the problems you had this time! My first grow a year ago was mostly a throw-away crop, learning experience. I overdid everything. Overwatered my seeds so that half drowned and didn't sprout. Overwatered the seedlings and stunted them. (And these were 3 different autos, so no way to recover). Over fertilized, even though I diluted for autos. Bought stronger LED light and promptly overlit them. Had a bum pH pen, but didn't know it at the time. Overwatered vegging plants. Overwatered flowering plants too. Ended up with 3 OZ's of badly cured smoke. But learned a lot and replaced a lot of poor equipment with better equipment. Only 4 autos because I could only get 4 seeds out of 12 total to sprout)

My second grow was in soil as well, but photoperiods. 5 plants, because my seeds came in sets of 5. (Learned that 4 trained plants can fill a 4x4 as well as 5 trained plants, but you have more space in the middle to work.) In this grow I underdid almost anything. Sprouted plants May 1 and immediately put into 5 gallon fabric pots in soil. I had soaked the pots earlier, and it took them almost 4 weeks to completely dry to where I was comfortable watering again (and fertilizing). They started very slowly, but my intent was to take things slowly and not overdo it. And with photoperiods I was able to just give more time in veg state to recover from underfeeding. I vegged for 3.5 months, flowered for 9 weeks and harvested 18 oz's of dried bud. And learned a lot more.

So my coco grow is going well, partly because I learned from previous mistakes, partly because I've been following good advice, and partly because I have good measurements to judge from. I have a Bluelab pH controller that is accurate and keeps my reservoir stable. I have a Quantum PAR meter that takes the bullsh*t out of determining LED strength. I have a good EC meter to judge nutrient level. I have a good fan controller that helps me control both temperature and humidity. And I've learned a bunch here in this website since January that has probably tripled my knowledge level about growing cannabis.

Yeah pal I totally understand you and this is 3rd time growing now first time I grew in 60 40 mix just did 4 plants in a 1.2 x 1.2 x 2 m tent and everything went fine although I wasn't entirely happy with the yield can't remember exactly what it was but it wasn't brilliant although it was a nice smoke, so next time I did 4 mimosa from clone in these 35 litre tubs but this time I added an extra light to the mix but I cud only get canna professional mix so I used that, vegged for 5 weeks flowered for 9 with no issues whatsoever all the way through, (wasn't checking ec or anything) and I pulled 21 oz of dry bud and it was knockout bud too, so then 2 grows under My belt and especially with the second grow turning out better than the first I obviously think I'm dogs bollocks at growing weed, so doubled up on my setup and went for 8 plants, and I've learned the hard way I'm not the dogs bollocks at all tother point I've considered giving up on this grow, but I'm not one to give up and I'm determined to get them over the line ! And like yourself I've used this site previous times and it's full (well not full it has its dicks like everywhere) I'd say 95% full of good knowledgeable guys willing to help out and share there knowledge

 

[Jonnypierce]

@Aqua Man has been a long Hiatus but he taught me what I know (which isn't that much) but he says that he feed really low E.C. and that as long as your plant looks good then runoff doesn't matter. during the last few weeks of flower just lower your E.C. Leaves look good a little clawing is fine as long as its not the entire plant.

Yeah i mean apart from the clawing and slight foxtailing the plants look healthy enough not burnt or anything and maybe a tad too dark shade of green but if they was sick I'm sure they'd look alot worse, limp lifeless etc but I've read alot of stuff on here from aquaman and that guy really seems to know his stuff so if your both saying that then that's good enough for me ! Cheers man

 

[2Bad]

Yeah i mean apart from the clawing and slight foxtailing the plants look healthy enough not burnt or anything and maybe a tad too dark shade of green but if they was sick I'm sure they'd look alot worse, limp lifeless etc but I've read alot of stuff on here from aquaman and that guy really seems to know his stuff so if your both saying that then that's good enough for me ! Cheers man

Yeah they look good any algae? hows the PH runoff also @phxazcraig did mention light stress maybe decrease the intensity a tad bit or raise the light

 

[Jonnypierce]

Yeah they look good any algae? hows the PH runoff also @phxazcraig did mention light stress maybe decrease the intensity a tad bit or raise the light

I've just taken these pics, the lights have just come on at 9 pm so 8 mins ago, pots aren't dry at all so I don't think I need to water more frequently, the top of the soil does look a bit green algae like but you've gotta look really hard, ph is 6.1, temps when lights on are 26, 21 when lights are off and humidity stays between 40-60, forgot to puts pics up