Nutrient Consumption ???

[Cali clouds]

Ok farmers, here's my question. Does anyone know how to monitor actuall nutrient uptake? I know you can just watch your ppm's falling, but I want to know what actuall nutrients are being used. I hate listening to people at the hydro shop saying things like my plants use a lot of p or k or so on.
I call bull shit. I think that myself and 95% of everyone else in this industry doesn't know shit about botany, chemistry, or the proper ways to test and monitor nutrient uptake. I grow bomb weed but I think you can get away with a whole lot of overfeed/underfeed and the plants will do ok if you don't really f it up. I have never gave my plants a cal mag supplement and done just fine. I have been using a cal mag supplement for 2 weeks and see no difference. Obviously the plants were getting enough before but are not getting toxic levels so they are maintaining just fine. Another example I have used big bud anywhere from .25 oz/gallon-.5oz/gallon and really see no difference. No burn, no bigger buds, just more money to me and more salts accumulating in the root zone.
So I want to test my water after I mix, and after feedings to see what is really being used by the plant. I would also like to be able to check my coco and see what is accumulating. I've always been told coco holds onto cal mag and there is no need for supplements, but I have no idea how true that is or how much that affects the genetics I'm running as they could or could not be using what is being supplied.
I already know to watch the plants and monitor for deficiencies or burn/ lock out. I'm not looking for that answer. The nute company's know how to build nute profiles on for a generic cannabis diet. How do they know at what time frame a plant uses more p and k and less n? I want to be able to say " ok I put in 250 ppm n, 250 ppm p and 250 k and check after a feed and see what is left, and what the plant is actually up taking. Just watching ppm's fall just means my plants are eating and tells me nothing else. Thanks and sorry for the long rant

 

[ken dog]

It sounds like you want to learn more about plant biology... time to hit the books.

 

[Cali clouds]

I think so. I wish I would have went to school for this stuff

 

[PhatNuggz]

How much nutrient a plant uses and which more than others has to do with genetics, ambient temps, rez temps, quality of AR lighting and bio-availability of the said nutes

Depending on the stages of growth plants will use more or less of the various salts

I use Emerald Harvest 2 part nutrients for bloom and 3 part for veg, which cover all their macro and micro needs.

Instead of getting a PHD (hundreds of thousands of $$$s and 8+ years in school, I simply change nutes out in veg every 2 weeks and in bloom every week

 

[Sativied]

How do they know at what time frame a plant uses more p and k and less n?

As we say in dutch, where it rhymes: measuring = knowing.

The problem with that is that the equipment needed to measure is expensive. See hanna photometers for example. The cheaper they get, the mini portable ones for example, are less precise and less consistent.

That allows to test what the plant takes up, which is not automatically what it would prefer. For a more complete, yet still incomplete, picture leaf samples are required.

Some day...

 

[ink]

it can be costly to also learn more commercial ways, steering away from nutriunt that they may sell in hydro stores etc.
it can also be rewarding in many way to learn these lessons to