Mr.furley
Well-known member
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.
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.
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