High ppms in mini veg

[Ambyr]

Hi I just got a scary ppm reading after I just fed my mini veg plants. Running off at 2500ppm.. should I just add fresh ph water on top of it to drain out some of the nutrients or do I have to wait for next feed?

[DeadlyFruit]

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What was the number of the water going into the pot? The number coming out can tell you something but it is important to look at the difference. 2400 is really high (from my experience but I don’t monitor it as closely as many) so I would probably reduce the amount of nutes in the water and give it pure water with maybe just cal-mag for a couple feeds. My nute water is usually in the 800 range, but I only occasionally look at that these days so others would have better info.

[Ambyr]

I fed them at 900 ppms ..so I should just wait for next feed to do the water and cal mag? Thanks for your help hope yours having a groovy Saturday

[DeadlyFruit]

As groovy as a pandemic Saturday can be! 🙂

That is a pretty big difference between what’s going into the pot and what is coming out. Without looking at other factors it seems like you have really hot soil. If you water daily I would just wait until the next normal time to give plain water and cal-mag but if you are every 3 or 4 days I would do it now. Give them a relatively good soaking and collect and test the runoff. If at the end it is a more normal number I would carry on as usual with slightly less nutes, although it would be useful to figure out how your soil got so hot. Do you water them with plain water and cal-mag about once a week to flush some of the leftover nutrients out of the system and prevent buildup? What is the grow medium? Soil or coco(if it is a soil with nutrients available to start with you shouldn’t add nutrients for a while until they are mostly used up)? Do you use slow release nutes in the soil as well as in the water (most growers shy away from soils with slow release formulas)? Do you have any leaf tip burn or other signs you are giving them too many nutrients? If you have no signs of nutrition problems you could be just catching a problem as it starts. Feel free to post pics if you want input - everyone here prefers pics to look at as they can convey a lot more info that you might miss as a new grower.

[Mr.furley]

Are you checking runoff is soil? Or is this coco?

[Ambyr]

Coco per light

[Mr.furley]

Ambyr yeah that's too high
First how do the plants look? Pictures? Next without info on your watering practice I would guess that you are not giving enough water for 20% runoff every time. Meter in calibration? Cheap one or Trustworthy?

If so its Time to flush your pots, give then plain Ph'ed water in one go till you drop that number down to 500-800 ppms

[Ambyr]

I got my clones from someone else and they unfortunately feed at really high numbers, should have known not to give them a full feed. Thanks for your help. I feed every three days right now, and I didn’t end up flushing them out, and now I see a little bit of signs of tacoing and also color changing I will send photo in a min, even though they are not dry should I go ahead and flush them with ph cal mag water?

[DeadlyFruit]

If it were me I would go ahead and do it. If your pots have good drainage it won’t hurt them to get a thorough watering now and again, as long as the roots aren’t sitting in mud regularly. I water my own plants daily, although I balance the water and nutrients to account for it.

[azorahai]

You don't need to water your substrate according to any recommended schedule, but rather according to what your plants actually need. When you water/feed them, lift the pots ever so slightly so you'll have a feel for how heavy they are, and when you think they need to be watered, lift them again. Unless they are significantly lighter, they could probably do without being watered for the day.
Regarding feeding, you're probably giving your plants a lot more nutrients than they are able to absorb, so they'll just accumulate until it reaches toxic concentrations. You should definitively flush your pots until the run-off registers approximately the same ppm as your water, and immediately feed them as you regularly would. Next time you think they need to be fed, instead try to just water them very slowly (so the substrate has enough time to absorb the water) with very little run-off. Measure that run-off just to make sure you shouldn't be feeding, but they'll probably register a reasonable ppm from remaining nutrients.
Alternatively, you could just flush them every time you want to feed them, in order to remove any remaining salts before adding in more nutrients. Coco coir is supposedly good for this as it won't compact and asphyxiate the roots. If you're using a hydroponic solution, you could also just "flush" them with nutrients, as the remaining salts will quickly dissolve and run off the pot as you feed them. Keep track of the ppm so you know how much to give them until you're close to the solution concentration.
In due time, you'll know when they need watering and feeding, according to the specific conditions they are being grown in.