How to up nutes with out meter

BongboyMMA

Active Member
Hey so since you don't start with the full strength how do you up it? Ex. Company calls for 15ml/3.785l if i have 6.6lH2O in the res thst calls for 26ml nutes. So hypothetical if I started at half strength 13ml day 1 how do I start upping it to the full strength? Just add a little more everyday until the full strength is reached by the last day it's scheduled for. Is it possible to account for nutes that have been used up?

This is all with a less is more attitude but I'd like to make sure I'm doing it proper n dnt under feed and slow growth n deff not burn
 

BongboyMMA

Active Member
That I do!! Makes sense I that somehow id be able to use it to judge the particles in the water by interfering with a current being passed through.

I'm intrigued and excited lol what next (and I'm already guessing I'll need to used fresh declorinated H2O to get a bench mark of what's in that to start?)
 

BongboyMMA

Active Member
Actually never mind I just thought back to physics and chemistry and built myself a meter with a free dmm I had laying around. Calibrated it with NaCl and it's super consistent. Thanks for the idea!!! I'll post a pic in a diy thread later. It's not pretty but it took me 5 mins a dmm, duct tape and styrofoam
 

weedenhanced

Well-Known Member
Hey so since you don't start with the full strength how do you up it? Ex. Company calls for 15ml/3.785l if i have 6.6lH2O in the res thst calls for 26ml nutes. So hypothetical if I started at half strength 13ml day 1 how do I start upping it to the full strength? Just add a little more everyday until the full strength is reached by the last day it's scheduled for. Is it possible to account for nutes that have been used up?

This is all with a less is more attitude but I'd like to make sure I'm doing it proper n dnt under feed and slow growth n deff not burn
I learned to read my plants to when to up the nuts
 

BongboyMMA

Active Member
I learned to read my plants to when to up the nuts
So how do you judge how much to use?
For instance I just ridged up my ohm meter and filled my res fresh. Full strength would be 21ml of nute I used 15mls I believe my EC is at .5 so tomorrow when I check if it's at .5 I'll add the other 6mls to reach full strength but if I have a Lower ohm reading it means some of the nutes where used up by the plants so than how do I judge how much to add?
Basically I don't want to added half the amount then when I go to up it I'm not really upping it bc they are used up.
 

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
What EC is recommended at full strength do they say? How far into and what type of grow sytem you using? Yes post your DYI meter. I was going to do one but had read they were not very accurate so never tried, got like 10 of them lying around, i work in hvac field. .5 ec seems very low for anything but first couple of weeks but newb here. I have always ran lower than most when comparing EC but this run using new nutes I'm running 1.8 20 days into flower and the girls love it. As weed said, plants will tell you but its nice to know whats in the water to replicate it each run. Also I change my res every week and make changes then, i typically dont add back to the res. seems to keep things more stable and happy.
 

BongboyMMA

Active Member
image.jpg image.jpg Thanks for the reply. Yeah this meter doesn't seem to accurate just trying to distinguish my nute levels when upping. It doesn't make sense to me for instance. Dosage for week one of veg (These are 8 days from sprouted in towels to transplanted in hydroton) in a dwc w lots of bubbles) so the dose calls for 15mls/3.78L. If I add this the start of week 1 and they take to it ok. But if it's depleted by week 2 when it's supposed to be upped to 18ml/3.78L and the original concentration is way less then 18mls won't that shock them? That's why I'm trying to keep it a balenced increase so it's at the full concentration at the end of one week when it should be upped. I'm a newb so I hope this make sense. Pics are plants at 8 days and I sanded two nails to clean them up, measure them 1cm apart in a piece of foam to ancor them sodared a wire to each "prob" and cripped a female "crimp" thing to the other end ( the prob to the dmm fits right in there) taped it all up and set it to ohms. It read around 1990 pretty consistently but was all over the place. But 1/1990*(1000)= 0.5... I read to start at around 1/4 strength which is .4 ec what it calls for is about half what my recipe is 15mls of nutes and I got .5 Ec so I'm thinking it semi works. This could be completely wrong and with random formulas and ideas I read about after hearing about this
 

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
It should work to minitor swings I guess but variables like temp will throw it off. Break down and spend $20 lol. The reason I dont add back is I think what your talking about?? In order to keep things (ratios) in check I drain and refill every week with 30 gallon res.
 

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
How about looking up the nutrient makers web site and look for a Feed Chart? They all tend to have them and they list all your concentrations, from seedling to the end of flower. No meter needed!!!
 

BongboyMMA

Active Member
Right on I didn't realize a 20$ jammy would Work well enough.

It has the feeding chart on the back of the bottle. It's not a problem knowning ok week 2 gets 18ml/gal. So great I do a res change n add less then the recommended dose not to nute burn. It takes well so I go to up it to the max the next day however now the nute level is depleted so how do I know if I'm ever at the max. And like said earlier if I add the max at day 1 by day 7 it should be depleted and now comes res change and an even higher dose of nutes for week 2 gets added but it's going to shock them bc it's not a gradual increase
 

BongboyMMA

Active Member
Gotcha they Have a nute calculator on the site says ppm n EC. Thanks!
How about looking up the nutrient makers web site and look for a Feed Chart? They all tend to have them and they list all your concentrations, from seedling to the end of flower. No meter needed!!!
 

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
Right on I didn't realize a 20$ jammy would Work well enough.

It has the feeding chart on the back of the bottle. It's not a problem knowning ok week 2 gets 18ml/gal. So great I do a res change n add less then the recommended dose not to nute burn. It takes well so I go to up it to the max the next day however now the nute level is depleted so how do I know if I'm ever at the max. And like said earlier if I add the max at day 1 by day 7 it should be depleted and now comes res change and an even higher dose of nutes for week 2 gets added but it's going to shock them bc it's not a gradual increase
You wont see a change in a day. Just add a bit less than recommended for the week then up it if you want the next res change. Adjust upward every week at res change. Dont force feed it but keep it happy and green
 

Hydrotech364

Well-Known Member
That I do!! Makes sense I that somehow id be able to use it to judge the particles in the water by interfering with a current being passed through.

I'm intrigued and excited lol what next (and I'm already guessing I'll need to used fresh declorinated H2O to get a bench mark of what's in that to start?)

Careful about electrode spacing, make sure they can't move....Get a Mark and You'll be fine....I am surprised ya picked up what I was talking about.....I'll be watching You.EC=Elect Conductivity...
 

BongboyMMA

Active Member
Careful about electrode spacing, make sure they can't move....Get a Mark and You'll be fine....I am surprised ya picked up what I was talking about.....I'll be watching You.EC=Elect Conductivity...
Thanks bud. Yup there locked in place 1cm apart from the tips.
Ever do physics??on...weeeeeeeddd :-) ppm has been pretty much spot on with what it should be at recommended. And the babies look great
 
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