Bib4tuna
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Hi there, no need to apologize and there are no such thing as a stupid question. So, I being an outdoor grower my recommendation is limited for your type of growing. Lets start with ph, this is as important instrument in a grower tool box. I'm lucky with my water, I pull from a well and the ph is always around 6.3. When I add my nutrients to the water, the ph usually goes up somewhat so I use a ph down additive and attempt to be around 5.8 to 6.2. I gauge my feed using EC method as well as checking the ppm just for the heck of it.Ok guys,Im coming thru with more stupid newbie questions so I apologize in advance. pH & ppm are all new to me with this being my 2nd indoor grow ever. I wanted to do things right this grow so I bought GH soil testing kit with pH up & down & GH floraduo A & B nutes. After doing some reading up on Google it says due to the complex nature of organic soil EC readings will be inaccurate so to go by watching plants for signs of nutrients deficiency. Do I need a ppm meter? Also because im using well water do I need to know ppm? And is this GH adjustment kit strictly for hydro or can I use the pH adjuster for soil & how? Every video I seem to look up has pH up & down for hydro & using natural things to adjust the pH for soil. Im so confused.
Thx,im sure youre approach isnt much different than mine except maybe the soil depending on what ur using. Im using coast of maine bar harbor blend organic soil. Im using well water like you & GH nutrients. Im going to try & do like you said. As far as the ppm after what I read & what aquaman said if I do get a TDS meter itll just be to get a general idea of things but I wanna keep it simple. I havent tested my water yet but ive had lots of well water over the yrs & mine tastes great so hopefully its in neutral range. But if I understand you correctly I check the pH of my water then add my nutes & check again & add my pH up or down to get optimal lvl. Then check pH of run off & adjust accordingly?Hi there, no need to apologize and there are no such thing as a stupid question. So, I being an outdoor grower my recommendation is limited for your type of growing. Lets start with ph, this is as important instrument in a grower tool box. I'm lucky with my water, I pull from a well and the ph is always around 6.3. When I add my nutrients to the water, the ph usually goes up somewhat so I use a ph down additive and attempt to be around 5.8 to 6.2. I gauge my feed using EC method as well as checking the ppm just for the heck of it.
Good luck
My soil is 50% potting soil with no additives, 30% cocca, 14% vermiculite (course A3) and 8% perlite. I feed the plants with Mega Crop and Sweet Candy as well as weekly I add RAW NPK nutes to the food. For the medium, I feed it with Recharge weekly. Been using this menu for a number of yrs with great success.Thx,im sure youre approach isnt much different than mine except maybe the soil depending on what ur using. Im using coast of maine bar harbor blend organic soil. Im using well water like you & GH nutrients. Im going to try & do like you said. As far as the ppm after what I read & what aquaman said if I do get a TDS meter itll just be to get a general idea of things but I wanna keep it simple. I havent tested my water yet but ive had lots of well water over the yrs & mine tastes great so hopefully its in neutral range. But if I understand you correctly I check the pH of my water then add my nutes & check again & add my pH up or down to get optimal lvl. Then check pH of run off & adjust accordingly?
Thx,I think its gonna be a little bit of trial & error for me being my 1st time around doing this. I dont plan on using much nutrients to beging with. Im going to start with half of recommended dosage or less just to be safe. Also if I run into trouble im glad I have the forum to turn to. Hopefully all goes well.My soil is 50% potting soil with no additives, 30% cocca, 14% vermiculite (course A3) and 8% perlite. I feed the plants with Mega Crop and Sweet Candy as well as weekly I add RAW NPK nutes to the food. For the medium, I feed it with Recharge weekly. Been using this menu for a number of yrs with great success.
Once I get the mixture put together and lastly check the ph which usually is higher then before I added the food. The ph is around 6.3 before adding the food, then it raises to around 6.8 - 7.0, that's when I add a very small amount of pH down to the mixture and shoot for around 6.0.
I then check the EC and verify it's roughly close to the desired target. When all is well I add the mixture to the soil and collect runoff to compare the EC and pH against the amount that went into the soil.
For example, if my plants are about 11 weeks old and late into vegetable state, the desired EC is 1.3 (ppm is 660) and of course the pH is hopefully 6.0.
If the EC reading on the runoff is somewhere in the desired range, the plants are eating everything I'm giving her, If the runoff is higher (say over 1.4) then I'm feeding too much and if the runoff reads lower, I'm not feeding enough.
Same with the pH, as long as it is within the 5.8 and 6.5 the plants are OK with that. If the pH reads around 7, its time to flush and pick-up where you left off.
As a warning - The above stats works for me and may not work for everyone. I live in the deep south and we have a lot of sun as well as rain.
Good luck
Yes, I would think they are better then just guessing and will put in the realm of what you are working with.Are these things useful at all?
Ph isn't so much the concern. It's more the alkalinity. You can buy alkalinity meters or a crude guess based on ppm.Ok,so I checked pH of well water with the GH pH testing kit & pH is 7.0.
Ill order an alkalinity meter then. Pool testing strips were reading 240 ppm but like I said theyve been in garage awhile so I dont know how accurate they are.Ph isn't so much the concern. It's more the alkalinity. You can buy alkalinity meters or a crude guess based on ppm.
Honestly you won't get much use out of it. Ppm meter is close enough for our use. You can also take a sample to most pool place or pet stores that carry fish and they will test it free. You only really need to find out once.Ill order an alkalinity meter then. Pool testing strips were reading 240 ppm but like I said theyve been in garage awhile so I dont know hiw accurate they are.
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