Rikismom420 said:

Watered my 1/2 FFOF 1/2 coco. Today 2 gal pots ak47 autoflower 5 weeks just started flowering 2 300wt LED grow tent fans and filter
Ph water was 6.2
Ppm water 860
Run off ppm 1460 on 1 plant 2700 on 2 plant
Using health metric tds ec monitor.
What do I do with those numbers, wasn’t expecting big difference , thought this would,be easier with checking runoff but WTF .

HELP please. I on stuck in the middles of adding Nutes 3 days ago 1/2 tsp ff grow big ,gal water . Did t have meter so couldn’t measure the runoff

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az2000 said:

What do your plants look like? Runoff ppm may not apply to all soils and nutrients. With mine, I would have lockout at 2400-2500. (1460 would be normal early flower.). But, I'm in a very light soil. I've seen others using heavier soils with high ppm runoff and no signs of problems.

Your tap water is 860ppm? (Mine is high, but maybe not that high most of the time. I can't grow with it. It's like useless ppms clogging the soil, blocking the good ppms frm being taken up. I mix 25% tap to 75% RO water to get a starting 150ppm water.).

Have you calibrated your TDS pen? If you have a fairly accurate gram scale, you can mix 1g salt (from the kitchen table) in 1 liter distilled water. That's 1000ppm. (For growing, that's good enough to calibrate. You don't need lab-grade calibration solutions.).

Photos of the plants are always good.

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Rikismom420 said:

Thx no the water is distilled with ph down in it

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Rikismom420 said:

...no have not calibrated it since I got it...

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Rikismom420 said:

Thx no the water is distilled with ph down in it...no have not calibrated it since I got it...I only used distilled water and adjust ph as necessary .plants look a little droopy , but temp stays around 80 but for autoflower I read it was fine....I need to get a pic..but thx for the calibration. ..that. Will do and try again with the meter. Thx hun appreciate your time and info
Blessings And happy growing

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Rikismom420 said:

Watered my 1/2 FFOF 1/2 coco. Today 2 gal pots ak47 autoflower 5 weeks just started flowering 2 300wt LED grow tent fans and filter
Ph water was 6.2
Ppm water 860
Run off ppm 1460 on 1 plant 2700 on 2 plant
Using health metric tds ec monitor.
What do I do with those numbers, wasn’t expecting big difference , thought this would,be easier with checking runoff but WTF .
HELP please. I on stuck in the middles of adding Nutes 3 days ago 1/2 tsp ff grow big ,gal water . Did t have meter so couldn’t measure the runoff
Second grow , first was photo ..fair product same Nutes ..not sure when to add calmag
Thx ahead of the time...need input please
Blessings and happy growing Man this is rocket science ..or rocket science would,be easier.

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Aqua Man said:

Just gonna say this is how you ask for advice... Well done on the info.

I'm not a coco grower but sounds like a flush and feed might be in order. Looks like you could back off the nutes a bit going forward but they don't look bad at all

I repeat I'm not a coco grower just my thoughts out loud

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oldskol4evr said:

id check that meter,no way the ppm is that high with out showing those plants look ok other than to green ,meaning way to much nitrogen,i see a little splash on one leaf but they look good,got to ask why the 1:1 mix of coco? did you rinse that coco before using?i got a brick one time took about 50 gal water to get that salt out is why i ask,but double check that meter,do you have a ph pen? i really couldnt say which way to go with your ph,soil feed is 6.5,coco i feed about 6.2

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visajoe1 said:

ocean forest has enough food in it to last a while for plants that size. maybe in a couple weeks start feeding, lightly. enjoy the autoflower show

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Rikismom420 said:

Being noob I just thought well the coco good for root system and the FFOF had lots of nutrients....so.... the pic was edited .and no I didn’t rinse the coco and I think that maybe why I have small plants going into flower, but this is auto flower...yes I ph everything ..run about 6.2 6.3 distilled ph d water, water every third day..I wanted I. Larger pots but autoflower....you know..don’t dare transplant...seems my middle femmed plants is doing well now.they perked up.. I lst on two of them..so I guess live and learns..I am recalibrating my tds meter.so hopefully get Lower ppm...dang spell. Check...geez..thx all for the info. Appreciate all and everyone ..
blessings and happy growing

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oldskol4evr said:

id check that meter,no way the ppm is that high with out showing those plants look ok other than to green ,meaning way to much nitrogen,i see a little splash on one leaf but they look good,got to ask why the 1:1 mix of coco? did you rinse that coco before using?i got a brick one time took about 50 gal water to get that salt out is why i ask,but double check that meter,do you have a ph pen? i really couldnt say which way to go with your ph,soil feed is 6.5,coco i feed about 6.2

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az2000 said:

You're talking about nutrient solution ph'd down, the result is 860ppm? That seems high for soil. I feed 400-500ppm (counting my water's 150ppm).



It wouldn't hurt to check that. And, about looking droopy... photos help. Could be overfeeding. Could be keeping the soil too wet.

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Rikismom420 said:

My meter says auto calibrates.

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Rikismom420 said:

Hi , I tested my distilled water this morning ppm was 10 ec 5....I must have tested the ph up water in it yesterday....feel like a noob, my meter says doesn’t need calibration ..so guess I do plain water .... I won’t do Nutes u til next thurs , does this sound correct.to you..just looking for solutions...thx hun for your time ..appreciate it so much
Blessings and happy growing

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az2000 said:

Which meter (brand/model) do you have. You need to check the calibration. Either the cheap way, or the way it expects to "auto-calibrate." I might be able to find your meter online and understand what it needs.

If you're feeding too strong, that can become a vicious cycle. The stronger it is, the more ph-up you have to use... which adds even *more* nutrients (most ph-up products are, essentially, nutrients. They don't publish it on the bottle as an NPK value because it's not sold as a nutrient.). So, you start off with too much salts which typically makes the water more acidic. And then add more salts to raise the ph. The stronger the salt concentration in the water, the harder it is to move the ph -- so you add even more phup -- adding even more salts.

If something like that's going on, then the salts can buildup in the soil, turn the soil acidic to the point nutrients aren't available. That quickly becomes a vicious cycle because the plant's consuming less (because the nutrients are unavailable). The grower sees runoff ph going south, so they add more ph-up to their nutrients. (Even more salts).

You don't look like you're having that problem. The photos you posted yesterday, the plants look good. So, you might be reacting to the runoff ppms which may not mean anything in this case. (I've seen people with very high runoff ppms and no problems. Maybe there are different materials washing out of the soil that aren't salts. Just something that affects the conductivity of the water, which is what the meter measures. But, doesn't affect the plant.). Or, as mentioned, your meter might need calibrating.

It's good that you're on top of all this before the plants show signs. Your nutrient solution does sound strong to me for soil. I think most people overfeed. It might be good to feed half strength for awhile and see how that goes. I only feed about 200-350ppm not counting the water's initial 150ppm.

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Rikismom420 said:

so many people feed all these different Nutes and I have cal Mag I also bought for autoflower

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Rikismom420 said:

as with any coco ...soil mix ., seems everyone on internet says different info but I guess that doesn’t really happen here

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az2000 said:

I've grown a plant with just one fertilizer product (Grow More - Sea Grow 16-16-16, and once with MiracleGro Tomato 18-18-21). As long as the product is balanced that way (equal amounts), that's all the plant needs. Jack's Classic 20-20-20 is (or used to be) very popular. People fed it through the entire grow without messing with "lineups."

I think the lineup stuff is bad because people don't think about the NPK ratios they're feeding. You're basically buying into a franchised *program*. Follow the proprietary schedule. I'm sure it works. But, the grower isn't really involved. They aren't learning to "read their plants." They aren't thinking in terms of "last week I fed 1.2-1-1.8. This week I'll feed 1.5-1-1.7. The franchises don't make that info available. All you know is "that cross-eyed giraffe stuff works well!" If you get into the actual ratios of nutrient being fed, you can walk away from the franchise and create the same ratios using generic stuff found on the shelf at the garden center.

Do you remember the old Tareyton cigarette commercial? "I'd rather fight than switch!" The themed lineups remind me of that passion people had for their cancer sticks. :)

The "calmag" might be useful to add (maybe 2ml/gal) because you're using distilled water (with zero ppm, almost). I mix 25% tap to 75% reverse-osmosis drinking water (from the coin-operated dispensing machine). I start with 150ppms, and presumably a sane amount of mg, ca, fe, etc. If I didn't do that, and used pure water, I would add "calmag". Or, epsom salt (for mg) and gypsum (for ca). That stuff's cheaper. And, better (IMO) for treating deficiencies. Usually it's one deficiency or the other. Not both. I like to treat them individually. (If it's a ca:mg ratio problem, adding both might perpetuate that.).

But, your plants look fine to me. I wouldn't mess around. The soil probably has plenty of minerals to compensate for the water's purity.



When I grew my first plants, I spent a lot of time googling. It's confusing because there's soil, soiless and hydro. You read statements about something like: how important it is to bubble your nutrient solution overnight. It took me a year to realize that was a hydro-specific thing (or, organic soil growers making teas). You see people talking about drying/curing (post-harvest). Some say hang it 7 days. Others say use a brown paper bag. What's never mentioned is the environmental conditions which can make one necessary, an the other possible catastrophe. (I live in the desert and I can barely hang to dry longer than 2 days... But, they're still not dry. Just crispy on the outside. I nee slower drying. But, that would cause someone in Miami to have bud rot.).

It's hard to understand the context of what you read.

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Rikismom420 said:

Hi . I tested my distilled water this morning and the ppm were 5 and ec was 10. My meter says auto calibrates. The water I tested yesterday with ppm being 800 something .....I gues was the water with the Nutes in it....does this sound right...my soil is still damp so I not going to water it but
Will sun or mon and test run off, they look good through and are perky with flowers.....just looking for some validation. I am doing it right....☺☺
Blessings and happy growing

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