PPM question

[chronosync]

i recently got a TDS meter and a PH meter. Finally!

my tap water comes out @ 320ppm/7.0ph

my question is: if i am shooting for 700ppm do i factor in the 320ppm of the water? therefore giving me a final reading of 1020ppm?

 

[_tessarecting]

You want to RO that junk food in your water. 700ppm is 700ppm.

 

[chronosync]

i wont be ROing anything soon. yeah who knows what is in there, it is well water tho, hopefully thats better than city. thanks.

 

[Mikell]

Depends on your well. Unless you dug it yourself you should have a water quality report.

And yes, EC of water used must be factored into total EC.

Note the lack of ppm reference in this post

 

[chronosync]

?

?

Note the lack of ppm reference in this post

... noted. why? my understanding is: my TDS meter measures EC then converts it to read in PPM, i cant measure EC directly, the only number i can go by is PPM. English 1.0 EC converts to 500ppm by chart. this is all i have to go by right now. ive been giving them around 700ppm @ 6.5ph the whole time!

so what i did was to start low w/ 5.8ph. feeding 500ppm, then 600, then 700, this morning read around 800ppm. tell me if you think this is ok? or.... sorry im new, right. trying to get used to doing things technical. and while im trying to get it right, i may as well TRY to know what im doing and why. trust me ive been reading and reading, researching, im sure you can remember what its like to sift through endless conflicting info. everyones got their own thing going on and thats great, each case is slightly or largely different. feed back is all i want. SORT me out please...



https://www.icmag.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[Naut.s.33]

Well Mikell is spot on with his post. If you missed it though he mentioned "water quality report" This will tell you what is in your water IF your well was dug via the city or w/e. If personally done you will have to or should get it tested. Eg. If you have a shit ton of calcium or rust from your pipes or something in it you will need to adjust your ferting to compensate, so you don't get lockouts. Based on your PPM of your water there is definitely something to adjust.

 

[chronosync]

ok guys thanks alot, appreciate it. best wishes.

 

[Mikell]

My point with that comment was just that EC is simpler/more universal. Like the metric system.

Which conversion scale (500 640 700) your meter uses to give PPM depends on manufacturer/country. Unless one gives scale every time they post ppm readings it's rather confusing for the rest of us.

Clarity isn't always a strong point of mine.

 

[chronosync]

oooh, yeah. apparently mine either because i knew about the diff conversions. sorry. its a cheap-o us .5? scale? 1.0EC = 500ppm

i guess my question is almost impossible to answer anyways.

im going to go with [email protected] for a week and see what happens. if its all good. i'll start bumping it up. maybe thats when ill start using the koolbloom. should i start testing runoff now too? was just wondering if what ive been doing sounds way off? or reasonable.... i guess its a wait and see. do i really have to burn my plants? i'd rather not. but then, how will i know if they are hungry? i guess i thought they would stretch more, most people fight the stretch, but it makes me think they arent growing fast enough. no clue. really. thank you.

 

[Mikell]

I didn't make that clear either.

If you're feeding close to the limit the plant can take, you must factor water EC into total feed strength. If you have a large buffer (feeding well below upper limit) it isn't as important (depending on nutrient profile of plain water).

This varies on medium and style as well. I feed my coir at 1.0-1.2. If my water wasn't <0.1 (of which I am not smug about at all...) I would factor that into total feed strength. If my goal was 1.2 and initial water was 0.4 I would raise EC 0.8. The opposite of what you initially proposed.

I think of bloom boosters in the same way. If I want 0.2 of PK, I lower base by the same.

Hungry plants exhibit slow growth and early signs of deficiency. Without expensive equipment it's just simpler to burn/back off.

Experience with a strain is the only real way. Everyone goes in somewhat blind with a new variety.

Can't really comment on your feeding regime without basic information on the grow.

Run off can indicate issues if the measurements are extreme, but generally it's unreliable.

Some of this is opinion, some not. YMMV.

 

[chronosync]

ok. great! weather some of that is your opinion or not, i dont care or mind, its obviously an approach based on experience and knowledge, basically i was hoping for was a response like that, thank You!

one last question: how quick can you see a plant respond in coco? i imagine it would be much quicker than soil. would raising EC by 0.1 every 3? days be too quick? each feeding? (i mostly feed each day or every other)

also i apologize for giving you guys almost zero information about how ive been feeding, my post started as an *as if* question which was answered, and more, i really appreciate you breaking it down like that for me. Good Stuff.

what happened i'm realizing, is early on i got pretty scared of burning my plants. i turns out i was adding calimagic to nutes made for coco (plenty Cal.mag) and using hard water AND the ph would have been 6.8 the whole time. so no wonder why they were getting wonky. burning from the center of the leaf outward.

thanks for the help. Good Growing and Yule tidings