I guess my q' about understanding ppm's is, if the ppm's are too high (260) will it drop the next day and continue to drop?

scottonfire said:

I guess my q' about understanding ppm's is, if the ppm's are too high (260) will it drop the next day and continue to drop?

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Hey Scott, I am just finishing my first grow in the UC system and have had a heck of a time. You gotta watch ph mostly, in most cases if the ppm is too high the ph will drop. Also different strains act differently in the system, I mixed strains, not a good idea! When these take off get ready to switch to flower if you are in a tent!

I've run well over 3000ppm in UC's. Just have to keep track daily to look for pH and EC/PPM drift. Should be able to feed harder in that system than any other. Just be sure that you're keeping each plant container highly oxygenated and your temps around 62-64° farenheit

I've been growing in UC for about 4 years now, the last 2 using CC nutes. What I've found that if you try and follow their feeding schedule exactly you will run into issues. I generally run at about half their recommended strength. When I move my clones to veg I start out using only cal/mag, Veg A&B and UC Roots. My veg system is 30 gallons so I start with 30 ml cal/mag, 20 ml A & B, 100 ml UCR. I aim for a ppm of around 180 (500 scale). This is with RO water at less than 20 ppm. For the first week or so the ppm will generally rise. Once the roots become more established it will start to drop. I generally don't mess with it unless I see the ppm rising very fast. I run this solution for the first 2 weeks or so, or until I see good growth, before changing it out and upping the ppm to around 250.

Even when the plants are at full growth I rarely get over 400 ppm. At that state CC recommends 600-650 ppm. When I've tried running that high I run into all kind of issues, both with ppm and pH, so I generally keep well below their recommendations and find my systems a more stable and generally get the desired pH rise while the ppm drops.

RoeBuck said:

I've been growing in UC for about 4 years now, the last 2 using CC nutes. What I've found that if you try and follow their feeding schedule exactly you will run into issues. I generally run at about half their recommended strength. When I move my clones to veg I start out using only cal/mag, Veg A&B and UC Roots. My veg system is 30 gallons so I start with 30 ml cal/mag, 20 ml A & B, 100 ml UCR. I aim for a ppm of around 180 (500 scale). This is with RO water at less than 20 ppm. For the first week or so the ppm will generally rise. Once the roots become more established it will start to drop. I generally don't mess with it unless I see the ppm rising very fast. I run this solution for the first 2 weeks or so, or until I see good growth, before changing it out and upping the ppm to around 250.

Even when the plants are at full growth I rarely get over 400 ppm. At that state CC recommends 600-650 ppm. When I've tried running that high I run into all kind of issues, both with ppm and pH, so I generally keep well below their recommendations and find my systems a more stable and generally get the desired pH rise while the ppm drops.

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That's what I'm finding as well using cultured solutions.

DetGrnThumb said:

I've run well over 3000ppm in UC's. Just have to keep track daily to look for pH and EC/PPM drift. Should be able to feed harder in that system than any other. Just be sure that you're keeping each plant container highly oxygenated and your temps around 62-64° farenheit

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Using what nutes? I can't get even close to that ?

Sonnyhad said:

Using what nutes? I can't get even close to that ?

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Test brix levels before you worry about strength of nutrient solution

DetGrnThumb said:

Test brix levels before you worry about strength of nutrient solution

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I don't know enough about the system except that it was tough to get dialed in, but once I did, it took off! I really have a lot to learn.

RoeBuck said:

I've been growing in UC for about 4 years now, the last 2 using CC nutes. What I've found that if you try and follow their feeding schedule exactly you will run into issues. I generally run at about half their recommended strength. When I move my clones to veg I start out using only cal/mag, Veg A&B and UC Roots. My veg system is 30 gallons so I start with 30 ml cal/mag, 20 ml A & B, 100 ml UCR. I aim for a ppm of around 180 (500 scale). This is with RO water at less than 20 ppm. For the first week or so the ppm will generally rise. Once the roots become more established it will start to drop. I generally don't mess with it unless I see the ppm rising very fast. I run this solution for the first 2 weeks or so, or until I see good growth, before changing it out and upping the ppm to around 250.

Even when the plants are at full growth I rarely get over 400 ppm. At that state CC recommends 600-650 ppm. When I've tried running that high I run into all kind of issues, both with ppm and pH, so I generally keep well below their recommendations and find my systems a more stable and generally get the desired pH rise while the ppm drops.

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Thanks for sharing, being my first grow in the uc system, I had similar issues. I found it hard to find info on it.

One thing I would note, my ppm's were high b/c I needed to recalibrate my HM meter. I thought it was only for a pH meter, but when we did the ppm's were actually 220 so it did make a difference in the reading.

Sonnyhad said:

Thanks for sharing, being my first grow in the uc system, I had similar issues. I found it hard to find info on it.

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This forum was very helpful for me when I first started. Search for posts by desertsquirrel. Several used to be stickied but aren't anymore. He has posted several guides which I found extremely helpful.

Basically running a UC system forces you to constantly be monitoring "runoff" since all the solution is running through the rhizosphere and returning to the control bucket. Your ppm/pH should stay as close to stable as possible the entire time. If you're running 1200 ppm at 5.8 pH the solution should remain at those levels as the plants continue to eat. If you have ppm/ph drift, you know to adjust accordingly to what the plants are telling you they want. It's also a very quick indicator of any root issues you may have in the system as well. Temps and DO (Dissolves Oxygen) levels are just as important as well. I always try to keep my solution at 62° and top off with 5 ml/gal of UC Roots (or any other hypochlorous sterilizing agent) to avoid pythium or any other bacterial issues.

DetGrnThumb said:

Basically running a UC system forces you to constantly be monitoring "runoff" since all the solution is running through the rhizosphere and returning to the control bucket. Your ppm/pH should stay as close to stable as possible the entire time. If you're running 1200 ppm at 5.8 pH the solution should remain at those levels as the plants continue to eat. If you have ppm/ph drift, you know to adjust accordingly to what the plants are telling you they want. It's also a very quick indicator of any root issues you may have in the system as well. Temps and DO (Dissolves Oxygen) levels are just as important as well. I always try to keep my solution at 62° and top off with 5 ml/gal of UC Roots (or any other hypochlorous sterilizing agent) to avoid pythium or any other bacterial issues.

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How often do you use uc roots? Thanks a million for sharing this stuff. There's not much current stuff out there and things change so much these days!

Sonnyhad said:

How often do you use uc roots? Thanks a million for sharing this stuff. There's not much current stuff out there and things change so much these days!

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Every three days @5 ml/gal

DetGrnThumb said:

Every three days @5 ml/gal

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That's probably a bit excessive. I have an ORP meter and have monitored the ORP levels daily for several months while using UC Roots. I add 3 ml per gallon when changing the system and then replenishing weekly at 3 ml per gallon. I have found that this is enough too keep the ORP at the level that Cultured Solutions recommends.

DetGrnThumb said:

Basically running a UC system forces you to constantly be monitoring "runoff" since all the solution is running through the rhizosphere and returning to the control bucket. Your ppm/pH should stay as close to stable as possible the entire time. If you're running 1200 ppm at 5.8 pH the solution should remain at those levels as the plants continue to eat. If you have ppm/ph drift, you know to adjust accordingly to what the plants are telling you they want. It's also a very quick indicator of any root issues you may have in the system as well. Temps and DO (Dissolves Oxygen) levels are just as important as well. I always try to keep my solution at 62° and top off with 5 ml/gal of UC Roots (or any other hypochlorous sterilizing agent) to avoid pythium or any other bacterial issues.

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I like to see the ppms drop daily, indicating that the plants are feeding, while expecting a slight rise in pH. If the ppm is rising I know my solution is too strong. I run my top off rez at the same ppm but a slightly higher pH, usually right around 6. I seldom have to adjust either my ppm or ph and if I see the numbers start to drift, usually both the pH and ppm dropping, it's usually a good indication that it's time to change out the whole system and add fresh solution.

This is a great informational thread. And I have gotten so much out of this forum over the last 4 or 5 years, I feel like I should try to contribute. So I thought I would explain my PPM process.
Turned out to be a novel ,sorry.
I run a perpetual grow, And what I want readers to take away from this novel is to get used to running very low ppms in the UC.
I use Fertmax Nutrients from Clean grow. They are very similar to Cultured Solutions.

Cloner:
I start in an aeroponic cloner and use bare root cuttings with Grow Stones.

Pre Veg: (Starting with 0ppm RO water)(Starting with Grow stones that were soaked in 5.0ph water overnight) I do what a lot of people call a "Pre Veg". I use UC Pro Tubs that hold 6 plants each(Non circulating),under T-5 lights , a high humidity environment and 75-78 degrees. In these tubs I start out with very low ppms(50 ppms to be exact)(10ml Cal Mag and 5 ml A and 5ml B in 35 gallons). For the first 3 or 4 days the ph will rise due the the high alkalinity in the grows stones. So Daily I bring ph back down to 5.8 and the next day it will be at 6.8 or so again and I knock it down again. After about 3 or 4 days of this the ph will settle down and I set it at 6.0-6.1. Because adding the ph down the first couple days tends to slightly raise the ppms I will now be at about 60 ppms on day three without adding any additional nutrients. On day 3 or day 4 I start raising the ppms up slightly to 80ppm (Cal Mag/A/B 1-1-1). The next day they drop and I bring them back up, a day or two later Ill go to 100pmm and so on. As they can take more ppms I add more ppms, but during the 14 days I am in Pre veg I never end up over 150ppm. By day 14 I have a great root structure started in my baskets,the plants will be about 14inches tall, and very healthy!I highly recomend starting plants off this way. So again, Two weeks of Pre vegging and never over 150ppm.
Veg:
Now the plants are 12-14 inches tall. I transplant the 12 plants into a UC12XL system. Mimicking the prior rooms environment a very high humidity environment and 75-78 degrees temp. I also am moving up in lighting to 400watt MH bulbs for a few days and then I switch to 600 Watt bulbs once the plants adjust to the intensity. I set the ppms in this system to exactly what they were when I came out of the tubs (150ppm, 6.1ph0. After a few days I will raise the ppms up by 25ppm, a few days later another 25ppm and so on. So I was in the UC Pro tubs pre vegging for 2 weeks total and now I will be in the UC12XL for another 2 weeks. At the end of this two weeks in the UC the plants will be 2-3 feet tall and healthy.During this two weeks of vegging I am trying to get my ppms up close to maybe 300ppm by the end of week 2. Im usually transplanting into my flower room when the plants are 3 feet tall and the plants are feeding at 300 ppm.And this takes about two weeks.
Flower Room: (UC12XXL16)
So above is my veg process. 4 weeks in total and plants are usually big enough to go to my flower room(2-3 feet tall).
Now again I start ppms where I left off in veg(usually 300ppm or less). When transplanting its also important that you copy the environment of the room you came out of meaning if you were at 70% humidity and 78 degrees in veg, and net pots water level was just below the baskets center shelf,similar CO2, similar light intensity. Start off this way in flower. also working your way up in light intensity is very important.
In flower I do things a little different.A few days after transplant into flower the plants will start feeding, then they will start eating like pigs!When this happens I start to follow more to the manufacturers schedule. To be more exact, I run 50ppm below the schedule in flower.
Anyway , Thats pretty much how I handle the ppm thing. Sorry this got lengthy,
Take away:

• People coming from soil growing can struggle with the low ppm thing because they were used to maxing out at 2000-2500ppm. Comparably, I have never gone over 650 max ppm and as mention I start out at only 50ppm.
• UC Pro Tubs are a great way to start off rooted clones in your 8 inch baskets.
• High humidity in early veg is very helpful (Im at 70% in the begining)
• Work your way up slowly in light intensity(I didnt talk much about this. This could be as important as anything else. Not only can you shock your plants but more light , more uptake = lockout)
• Like Current Culture preaches: Less is more!lol

Anyway , This is pretty much the system that works for me . Hope I didnt put anyone to sleep.lol

Just use ppm as a reference point don’t try to grow by them. Follow your nutrient chart feeding schedule for hydro and add cal mag if you’re running ro water and even if you’re running tap really. You have to worry about underfeeding more then over feeding in this system.

Ppm is just used like this:
You fill your system at cal mag 5ml per gallon and 4ml per gallon of nutrient a & b and supplements. Total ppm is say 600 and ph is at 5.8. If you come back in the next day and the ph is at 6.0 and your ppm is 500 you know your plants just ate hard so when you add back nutrients via your top off you might wanna bump it up some.

If ppm goes up and your ph goes down that means you have a problem and it’s either gonna be root rot or you just fed them overly hard somehow and they only drank the water. In the latter example the ph wouldn’t drop very much probably and they would be looking real hard and stressed out with clawed leaves so in that instance you would wanna add probably just cal mag and water and water your solution down some.

Don’t stress out over ppm too much just use it as a marker for what normal is and that’s that.

Sonnyhad said:

Using what nutes? I can't get even close to that ?

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He's using h2o... ahah :)