Ppm understanding

TreeFiddy350

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
I have been researching PPM and whatnot recently. Can somebody clear this up for me? I have tested my water and it sits anywhere from 70-80 with the PH corrected. With the PPM being low. That would mean that the amount of minerals and whatnot have low amounts vs say 100PPM. If that’s correct, would it be safe to say that the lower the PPM you have, the more nutes you would be able to add before it gets burned/ has the potential to get burned? Also, is that’s the case, could anybody point me in the direction of something to help me figure out approx how many PPM my plants can have throughout the veg/ flower stages? They will be a full 3 weeks old on Monday and I am thinking about adding nutes for the last couple of weeks of flower, then on to flower.
 
Hugo Phurst

Hugo Phurst

Well-Known Member
First off, I have to ask, are you on a water softener? (Your PPM makes me think so.)
If yes, the salt can be a problem in the long run.

You guess correctly.

Feeding depends on your growing medium. For example, in DWC I run my PPM between 750 & 1000 PPM.

Good luck.
 
TreeFiddy350

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
Right now it’s a mixture of a few fox farms. I will be watering today and will get a more precise ppm reading for the soil runoff ppm. And the 70-80 is straight from the kitchen sink with a PH down solution. As far as water softener, I don’t think so. The only thing I do is fill up the gallon jug then put a few drops of PH down to lower it. It’s usually around like... 7-8 for my ph water untouched
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
TreeFiddy350 said:
Right now it’s a mixture of a few fox farms. I will be watering today and will get a more precise ppm reading for the soil runoff ppm. And the 70-80 is straight from the kitchen sink with a PH down solution. As far as water softener, I don’t think so. The only thing I do is fill up the gallon jug then put a few drops of PH down to lower it. It’s usually around like... 7-8 for my ph water untouched
Click to expand...
You do not have water with a PPM that low coming out of a tap. Unless it's been through a softener.
 
TreeFiddy350

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
You do not have water with a PPM that low coming out of a tap. Unless it's been through a softener.
Click to expand...
If it has been through a softener, I have no idea where it is/ what it looks like. Low ppm, would be good, right? Or could it be bad also since there isn’t a lot of minerals?
 
TreeFiddy350

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
Your fucked up government there stopped reporting on hardness. Focusing instead on dangerous contaminants including arsenic and lead. I know this because i just downloaded the last 3 years of reports. Use store water.
Click to expand...
Well how fucking convenient lol which water/ brand would you recommend? Or do You think it would really make a big difference in the quality of plant and whatnot?
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
TreeFiddy350 said:
Well how fucking convenient lol which water/ brand would you recommend? Or do You think it would really make a big difference in the quality of plant and whatnot?
Click to expand...
Well no matter the brand it will be minus the lead and arsenic. Generic RO or "drinking" water.
 
B

Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
TreeFiddy350 said:
If it has been through a softener, I have no idea where it is/ what it looks like. Low ppm, would be good, right? Or could it be bad also since there isn’t a lot of minerals?
Click to expand...
My tap water is about 98 PPM all year

Interestingly they put in all new water pipes (whole new Street and sidewalk) within the last 3 years & the water went from approximately 105 down to 98ppm?

..not sure if the change of pipes had anything to do with it or not but I suspect it may have, they were over 100 years old if the contractor is correct
 
TreeFiddy350

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
So I checked my run off water and this is what my ppms are looking like

882 gorilla Zkittlez 2
1182- blue gelato
1357- purple queen
1217- gorilla Zkittlez 1

So I def won’t add any nutes for awhile.i assume the ppm rise is from the ff ocean forest, happy frog, and light warrior. Should I flush? Or should I just let them be and test the water in a few more days
 
B

Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
TreeFiddy350 said:
So I checked my run off water and this is what my ppms are looking like

882 gorilla Zkittlez 2
1182- blue gelato
1357- purple queen
1217- gorilla Zkittlez 1

So I def won’t add any nutes for awhile.i assume the ppm rise is from the ff ocean forest, happy frog, and light warrior. Should I flush? Or should I just let them be and test the water in a few more days
Click to expand...
That's not bad, do not flush, what was the pH of the runoff?

Are you watering to 20% run off every time?
 
TreeFiddy350

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
Beachwalker said:
That's not bad, do not flush, what was the pH of the runoff?

Are you watering to 20% run off every time?
Click to expand...
Well... I was a little stoned and totally forgot to measure the ph, but when I watered them, I used 6ph. I know it’ll prob change with runoff, but I didn’t. And I tru to shoot for 20% run off. I know the gorilla Zkittlez 2 with the 882 ppm, the drainage was horrible. The others were good. Should I try to... I guess retransplant in its same pot? Just add more perlite to it? Or....?
 
Mustangmike

Mustangmike

Well-Known Member
You could write your city and ask how the water is treated its surface water which explains the low Ppm more than likely it may have something added back in which is usually the case with surface water due to the lower ph that usually comes with surface water. Groundwater sources usually have a high mineral content which some municiple utilities will run through a softening plant (ie lime/soda ash softening). Looking at your water report there are several sources and three different treatment plants all sources being surface.
Good luck and happy growing.
 
B

Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
TreeFiddy350 said:
Well... I was a little stoned and totally forgot to measure the ph, but when I watered them, I used 6ph. I know it’ll prob change with runoff, but I didn’t. And I tru to shoot for 20% run off. I know the gorilla Zkittlez 2 with the 882 ppm, the drainage was horrible. The others were good. Should I try to... I guess retransplant in its same pot? Just add more perlite to it? Or....?
Click to expand...
I strongly recommend adjusting and maintaining a steady 6.5 pH with the soil you're using for best results, is there a reason you're using 6.0?

By the way I don't consider your water bad, in fact you have softer water than I have, I believe they consider hard water 200 or 250 PPM, I can't recall exactly but it's much higher than what you and I both have

Edit.. From what I can see without my glasses (and my first coffee) hard water is 121 to 180ppm if I'm reading Wikipedia correctly?
 
Last edited:
TreeFiddy350

TreeFiddy350

Well-Known Member
Beachwalker said:
I strongly recommend adjusting and maintaining a steady 6.5 pH with the soil you're using for best results, is there a reason you're using 6.0?

By the way I don't consider your water bad, in fact you have softer water than I have, I believe they consider hard water 200 or 250 PPM, I can't recall exactly but it's much higher than what you and I both have
Click to expand...
I have been seeing that around 6 is good. It was around 6.3-6.5, but I just recently lowered it last night.
 
B

Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
downloadfile-1.jpg
TreeFiddy350 said:
I have been seeing that around 6 is good. It was around 6.3-6.5, but I just recently lowered it last night.
Click to expand...
Not for soil, that's Coco territory. I recommend a steady 6.5 pH in the medium you're using

I wanted to add that I continued to look into what exactly is considered hard water and I found another measurement starting at 150ppm, so I guess it's an arbitrary number to some extent?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top