What should the EC be

[makoman]

Hi All I got myself a Ec wand today to figure out what's going on with my sick plant .I just tried it out and the reading was Ec 0.6 if that's to low how do I raise it?? when should I check water and what is the optimum reading ??
Cheers in advance
Kev

[makoman]

Cheers I'll have a read ,this plant is a bit of a guniea pig for a first time Dwc attempt LOL so it's had a pretty hard life but I'm learning a lot real fast !!!
Kev

[DankwingDuck]

I’m growing in dwc , my meter only tests ppm not ec . And I have used a range of ppm over this grow . I found that in full veg about 500-550 ppm is perfect . But she handled up to 1000ppm with out any issues .

It it is important to remember that the nutes are not food to the plant . They are the equivalent to you or I taking a multivitamin . Your plant needs water light oxygen and co2 . It needs the nutes too but giving it more nutes isn’t going to make it grow faster or bigger . Only light will do that . So it’s better to find a nice middle ground with your nutes .

I found this online it may help

“ To obtain an approximate sodium chloride TDS value, multiply the EC reading (in milliSiemens/cm) by 1000 and divide by 2. To get an EC value, multiply the ppm reading by 2 and divide by 1000. Thus, if your EC is 1: 1*1000/2= 500 ppm. “

based on this equation it is assume that 1.0 ec is 500 ppm . This is fairly accurate . 1.0-1.2 would be a good ex for dwc in full veg this would be a ppm range of 500-600 .

Depending on the age of your plant the ec/ppm can change greatly ranging from 50ppm in its first week of seedling up to 900ppm in full bloom . I have even read a few grow journals where people go up to 1400-1600 ppm in full bloom . Which seems extreme to me . Because we have already determined that a plant gets its food from light not nutes and nutes are only a supplement to assist in the process of photosynthesis . I’m not saying that these nutes are not important to the growth of your plant . What I’m saying is the level in which you use them is greatly effected by the intensity of the light you use . Which bigger more intense lights you also need greater levels of nutes to support the rate of growth via photosynthesis . 500ppm maybe be good in full veg fore me but someone using a 1000w light may choice to run a ppm closer to 700-800 range . In fact the dosing on your nute bottles is based on a 1000w HID light so someone using a smaller light such as a 600 or 200w HID may need to cut that number down greatly .

Basically what im saying is there is no set number for ec/ppm it changes greatly per light per plant and per personal preference. You need to start low and work up weekly, watching your plant to see at what level it grows best and if that growth slows down once you exceed a certain level .

I personally saw slowed growth at 900ppm / 1.8 ec . But lowered to a range of 550ppm /1.1ec and saw noticeable growth in 2 days . You will need to play with this number for your own grow and see what her sweet spot is .

It also best best to grow one strain for a few grows as she will get better and better as you learn all her tricks . Once you master one then you work on a new one . I know we wanna grow everything we can put hands on but to really get the full potential out of your strain you have to grow her a few times and get all the kinks worked out .

[DankwingDuck]

I agree since I learn a lot from camp he is def a great source of information .

And come on bud I only try to give good advice lmao .

[DankwingDuck]

What I meant to say is ty for the compliment 😜

[Chefbjy]

I think that equation is for hanna 500 scale it's always safer to use truncheon 700 scale.

[Chefbjy]

Here's a conversion chart.

[DankwingDuck]

oldjarhead100 i think it was you who posted a video about nutes and additive the other day . If it was you can you post it again because I can’t find it now .

[DankwingDuck]

It could be

[DankwingDuck]

I have gotten this information from more then one person and more then one site online have a read it . I’m not going to stand behind it as fact I have bee. Wrong before and you know far more then I do on the subject .

[DankwingDuck]

I’m going to compile the info as I come across it again . The problem I’m having is I have never looked for it before so I don’t know how to look for it now . I just came across it by random . So I’ll have I do the same again.

[DankwingDuck]

This is one of the videos I have seen yes but not the only one .