Ppm 3300

[HobbitGDF]

Hey my ppm going in was 650 and the runoff was 3300+
isnt that bad? I am using organic fertilizers and foxfarms happy frog soil with foxfarms strawberry fields soil. I havent had any nute burn yet and this is the first time I used my new ppm meter. Any help would be appreciated.

[growell]

mine were like that i stopped useing ppm meter just made sure ph was right had no problems i think its a headache u dont need to worry about i bet your grow was going fine got ppm meter now your flapping that my experience with them mate

[MeEasy]

Ppm is parts per million of dissolved solids so the high reading is normal coming out of the poop filled soil you are using

[ChadWestport]

So, I've been chasing this issue with a variety of soil companies. I hope to complete my research in a few months. What I can say is that if you take a bag of FFOF and pour 50ppm water, 6.0 Ph and 0.1 EC through the soil fresh from the bag, your runoff will be >3,000ppm, 5.0Ph or less and an EC in the 4+ range. How the hell and WTF.

My suggestion is, if you still have some of that soil in the bag, put the virgin soil into a little 4x4" container with good drainage and soak the soil until you get runoff. I'd be curious what your before and after numbers are. Then the question becomes, how many waterings at the "proper" measurements does it take to bring the soil run-off inline with the actual input. What happens if you don't Ph the water or use much food as a lot of new growers do. How many waterings does it take under those conditions to bring soil run-off to proper numbers?

[9fingerleafs]

Gotta agree with chad here, thats how hot fox farms soil is, not only that, nutrients are washed away with runoff

[HobbitGDF]

Yes yes yes. All them questions are in my head too. The plants are doing good. Not even nutrient burn. Maybe a little or it's a little light burn. Either way they are doing fine. Im going to record it and find out how many waterings it takes. Or how long it takes to show deficiencies with just ph water
your right tho, all my runoff is always between 4.5-5.5 when my water in is 7ish everytime.

[Mr.furley]

Have you done a Slurry test? Checked your soil with R/O or distilled water?

https://youtu.be/GB5HLqmJzVs

Soil runoff readings are inconsistent and inaccurate.

[ChadWestport]

Testing your run-off can be a good indicator but I'd agree that the slurry test is a better representation of what your soil Ph actually is. This is kind of a "where there is smoke, there is fire" type indicator with the run-off.

[CaptainWiese91]

Never tested my run off water, in my 8 years of growing to be honest.
Always just makes sure I have the right Ph - and I’m doing quite fine

[ChadWestport]

Lots of growers don't. Many don't have Ph problems. It seems like an easy and common error to get some Ph issues or lockout, so I usually recommend to check the run-off and see how it compares with what goes in. If they are drastically different, move on to doing the slurry test to confirm or deny that the soil Ph is in optimal range for nutrient absorption or not.

[CaptainWiese91]

If your soil ph is off. You don’t need run off water to tell you. The plant will tell you in matter of no time.
It’s a useless tool for nothing - checking the ppm and run off water when growing in soil.....

[growell]

How do u do slurry test then mate

[ChadWestport]

How do u do slurry test then mate

Here is a good quick video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB5HLqmJzVs

If you don't have distilled water, use water at the Ph level you would normally feed your plants with. If you use tap water and don't Ph, then use that same un Ph'd tap water for your slurry test.

[growell]

Ok mate thanks

[smoorman]

If you're putting in 700 ppm and getting 3000 ppm out does that not mean that you have either accumulated salts in the soil, which are rinsing out and being measured or the nutrients in the soil are high enough that you shouldn't even be adding any nute's until you start getting below where you want them to be? I was using FF coco-loco and adding nutes. Crazy high ppm's along with nute lockout and burn. Thoughts?

[ChadWestport]

Thats kind of my hypothesis on the whole thing. If the soil is high ppm to start out, is it best to feed normally or do you give only water and maybe minor supplements until ppm gets to 800 or so? Which grows more plant matter, which one has nutrient or Ph issues more frequently? It's baffling to me. People do nothing and get good results sometimes and others do everything by the book and get bad results all with the same brand / make of soil. Granted, there are many differences (hardness, ppm, Ph, micronutrients) in the tap or well water that people use in the various parts of the country / world.

I do know for certain that with straight coco, watching the ppm of run-off is important because you WILL feed more or less than the target dose based off of the run-off ppm. It is an accurate reflector of nutrients in the medium.

But it doesn't apply the same to soil, how it differs, I don't know. Much more going on within soil, but again, what does it all mean? Haven't found confirmable answers to that.

[HobbitGDF]

The plants are doing fine and growing fast and the ph runoff is always 4-5. It's got to be the soil. I watched the slurry video, and I also have homemade stir plate so that's cool.
I have been giving them less nutes than suggested. Maybe 1/2-3/4.
not really no nute burn yet either. I'm using all organic ingredients.
Should I lighten up on the nutes?
I've read that FF soils can do thisp

[smoorman]

If you're getting out more than you're putting in then there's already enough in there. I'd feed them pd'd water and maybe cali-magic until they show you they are hungry.

[9fingerleafs]

The way to go

[MeEasy]

I guess my ignorance is showing because... I don't see why you are suprised that there is shit in the water that you are straining though soil that you just put shit in?? If you don't want shit in your water then don't pour it in the shit.
ppm= parts per million of TDS= total dissolved solids...... which is measuring things like dissolved shit or many other things that dissolves when it gets wet. Am I right so far? We put many different amendments into our soil that will dissolve when we water it so that our plants have stuff to eat. Here's where I'm not getting it. Why are we suprised by the fact that there is dissolved shit in the water after it runs through the soil you just put shit in?

obviously I'm missing a key ingredient to this question. Personally I don't pour enough water into my soil to have it come out the bottom because I don't want to wash the shit I just put in it out through the bottom. I do understand that when I was using salt based nutes that to avoid buildup I would let water wash out the extra salt. I didn't then measure if there was shit in it, I knew there was because I put it in there. I did sometimes check the ph because if I didn't wash out enough of the salt it would cause my ph to go out of wack. Again I must be missing a major ingredient or piece of this puzzle..

[Mr.furley]

If your plants are doing fine and you are check runoff for a problem then most likely you're going to just create one.

First rule in soil grows is No runoff! only allow water to saturate the pot and what does come out the bottom if any gets sucked back up into the pot within a few hours. People get this mixed up when they see coco growers talking about 20% runoff and check ph and ppm's. Coco is a soilless medium treated like hydroponic with everything needing to be added , soil has what it's needs for a duration if not the whole grow and just needs proper watering practice and maintenance.

With new soil creating runoff to test is just wash away nutes and my first thought is that it is why you have a higher ppm number, you are losing nutrient that haven't been access yet or used by the plant and they are going to be missed later. Pots should be wateed to the size of the plant and not the whole pot untill it time.

How old are your plant?what size pots? What are your watering practices? Should have been the first questions ask here.

Checking runoff in soil is a not very reliable to me, there is too many variables that will cause the number to change from input to output and that is why I have moved away for asking soil growers, especially if they are new ones to check runoff. If you are feed in the proper range (6.2 to 6.8) that is good enough unless you have a visible plant problem showing.

To get a ball park figure on soil PH with runoff add the input number to the output number and divide by 2.
Input 7ph + output 5ph = 12 ÷ 2 = 6ph roughly.
If the total number is out of range (6.7 to 6.8ph soils optimal number) more then 1. Then you have the start of a problem, negative is the most common from lock out or deficiency.

Water in at 7ish is going to most likely cause you problems down the road and should be lowered to 6.5ish. In soil, input water at out of range will cause lockout and toxicity over time when corrected usually showing in the plant when they start to flower. looking at your input number being 7ish? and output number being 5ish? Its possible you're heading to lockout, this is why you are feed soil with minimal burn and just adding to the high output of ppm's with a healthy looking plant, add this together and I can see why ppm's are 3000ish. This is micro managing problems before they happen that would be best solved by proper watering practice alone but seens we are on this subject we'll "hash" it out a little farther.

With a Slurry test take 3 samples because the Ph around the pot (upper, middle, lower) will very. The best place to take is in the middle of the root ball for all of them, add all those test numbers together then divide by 3.

6.4 + 6.8 + 6.1 = 19.3 ÷ 3 = 6.43333 Ph

PH is way overly thought in my opinion especially in soil, just adjust the water to the soil in the proper range, 7ish isn't it, you should water to a little runoff for two or three times to get the ph back and sone of that liquid nutrient out then stop water to runoff completely and cross your fingers you dont needing a flush and the feeding of liquid nutrients thereafter.
With ppm's just check what's going in if at all, watch what you're plant are doing and if, I repeat "if" they show signs of deficiencies or toxicity then it's time to start investigating.

Again there are 101 way of growing cannabis and each person can have a different experience and different opinions. This is just what works for me.
No runoff test for soil. K.I.S.S.