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