First PPM Meter...Now What?

[rwdyredhead]

Got my first ppm meter today and what a cool new tool to have. Of course I couldn't wait to check my reservoir water since my plants are only a few days into their first feeding. I checked all 4 buckets and got readings of 384-412. Nebula's chart suggests ppm for dwc to be between 400-1000, so does that mean I should bump the nutes up next time or should I increase it a little as the weeks go by? These are all autoflowers between 6 & 9 days from sprout.

[Burny]

There is a link to a nutrient feeding schedule for GH trio in the bubbleponics tutorial on GWE. It is what I use.

[OzBud]

This is the GH Flora Series Recirculation feed schedule from their website (full strength) and what the ppm would be at full strength.

[PigSquishy]

I am super glad that you asked this question, I remember when I got my first PPM Pen... in the end I figured out that as long as I followed the chart for the fertilizers at full strength I would always end up in the range of the chart, which got me to wondering why I needed to even know the PPM's to start with? In the end I figured out one thing with my PPM Meter(s), I use them to figure out when the PPM's start raising to high or start bouncing 3-4 digits instead of being one solid stable number as a sure fire way to know today is the day I need to change the res water. Beyond that I've never known to date how else to use a PPM meter... so maybe I too might learn something from this question.

[rwdyredhead]

Thanks Greenthumb! My 1st dwc grow so that will help.

[9fingerleafs]

Now you got the meter read this
http://www.just4growers.com/stream/p...explained.aspx
so you can convert everything to EC. When you Water a higher EC than the plants has the ions flow inside the plant/soil "feeding it". When you give a lower EC water than the plant/soil it leaches out the ions. This is the difference between flushing and feeding. So the increments must be done little by little so you got room to raise it without reaching he burning point

[rwdyredhead]

Great info there 9! The link made it really easy to understand the otherwise confusing details of ppm readings too. Love learning new info to help me be a better grower. Thanks

[9fingerleafs]

you are welcome, people think is about how many nutrients you give the plant, but is actually how can you measure and control the medium electro conductivity so the plant feeds itself what it needs when the environment is the right one, just like ph

[rwdyredhead]

Fascinating. This is a new and interesting subject for me & I'd like to learn all I can so if you run across anymore good reads please shoot them my way. I think I may look for a book on understanding cannabis nutrients if anyone has any suggestions.

[PigSquishy]

Well I know a couple of video's you love if you really want to understand your nutrients and walk away actually knowing them, not just feeling like you got educated beyond your years, but he actually leaves you walking away knowing more about the plant nutrients than any of the books and information you've ever read to date. Then I was able to really go back and read all that information about the specific nutrients and look at how a plant reacts when its to much or not enough and better understand how each thing ties more into each other. Harley Smith is also a published scientific author and he and his team are known for their work in the hydroponic scientific community as well. So you know its not just some sales guy dressed in a lab coat to make it look good, I didn't know that when I first watched these two videos until I would do some digging into him after reading more of his published work in Maximum Yield Magazine.

Full Plant Nutrient Rundown by Harley Smith (Part 1 of 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BleWpBYweHE

Harley Smith, Plant Nutrient Research Developer for RAW Nutrients breaks down and talks about each individual plant nutrient and how to utilize them in your garden.
06:44 Nitrogen
12:55 Phosphorus
20:50 Potassium
23:48 Kelp/Seaweed Extract
27:00 Humic Acid
30:30 Fulvic Acid
36:40 Silica
41:10 Yucca Extract
48:25 B-Vitamins

Full Plant Nutrient Rundown by Harley Smith (Part 2 of 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdkwTo79NXE&t=15s

0:25 Calcium/Magnesium
02:40 Amino Acids
13:20 Cane Molasses
20:30 Questions/Answers

I will say this for Harley Smith, I have been gardening all of my life, my family was big into all of my life so I know about plants and growing gardens enough that people take notice I can grow things a little faster and bigger than most people, but seriously after watching those two videos I went out and I bought a couple of the things I felt is what my different fruits trees and gardens needed based off from what I learned. As a gardener I know 90% of everything with plants is time, you know nothing major changes overnight to your favor... Only I kid you not seriously 3-days later I was at the window that morning in shock and had another come over to look, who also stood in shock... a week from that point I would have a pretty much non-stop parade past our house because of how much of a difference making some changes to our soil made to our trees and plants in our gardens. All kinds of people ran out and thought just buying it all and using it was the answer, not realizing it was the clearer understanding of what my soils lacked that I needed to change that made the difference, not the fact I could pour more into it. I know Harley tries to clarify that for people in the video too, but listening to it all it's easy to not think you're plants would just do better if you used it all.

[rwdyredhead]

Thanks GreenThumb, that's really nice of you to share all of that. I've wanted to learn all about nutes but there's just been so much other stuff to learn that it's gotten put off til now. I just used Nebula's GH chart, knowing it was a good one, until I could take the time to really learn about the plant nutrients. I did try to read about nutrients but quickly saw that it was going to be a lot to learn to really understand it. Now that I have my first grow behind me, I would love to tackle this subject so I'll check the videos for sure! I'll let you know what I think...

[PigSquishy]

Yes please do, I know how it really helped make sense out of everything for me, I seriously hope it does the same for you.