Ec and why should I care

G

GreenPeace22

Active Member
Hello! Can someone explain me what's this EC really about and why is it important? For example my medium bag it has an EC of 1,2, other medium bag say ec 2,4.
What the difference between EC in soil and EC in water? How is it different when growin in soilless without organic matter vs soiless medium with organic matter, vs hydroponics? DO I really have to adjust the EC on my nutrition water? How do I know the EC of my soil after I water? And so on... I'm really confused.
 
R

redivider

Well-Known Member
EC is used to measure PPM values or how much nutes/solids are in there.

there's a chart you can use, but for general purposes EC 2.1 = PPM 1470 (max nutes you want on a plant by week 2 veg, past seedling stage, during seedling you want half), EC 3.0 = 2100 ppm (PPM for week4), EC 3.3 = 2300 PPM (max nutes for week 8), then as you get further into flower taper it down to 1100ppms again......

if you don't take into account the medium EC then you add nutes, you burn the plant....

What the difference between EC in soil and EC in water?
How is it different when growin in soilless without organic matter vs soiless medium with organic matter, vs hydroponics?

soiless mediums require more nutes and more acidic envirnomnet. for example - coco requires more nutes and care than soil, hydro requires more care than coco..... the difference is a small difference in EC in soil doesn't affect as much as differences in EC in coco/hydro because the soil buffers it a little bit.

DO I really have to adjust the EC on my nutrition water? How do I know the EC of my soil after I water? And so on... I'm really confused. YES. you need to know the nutes you are putting into the plant. if you put too little the plant struggles to grow, if you put too much it burns the plant until it dies.

Example:

if my tap water has PPMs of 500, and I add 1400 ppms of nutes, i end up with 1900 ppms.... if you want to have max ntues for 2300 but you add enough PPM to bring distilled water up to 2300, you'll end up with a solution of 2800 and you are poisoning hte plant....

There are EC meters out there not too expensive..... but yes EC is important.
 
Last edited:
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
in fact soils mixes come precharched in nutrients ... the 1.2 ms is a light mix ( what i like to use) and the other one contains 2x more ... which means it suited to transplant in it and only use straight water for the first waterings
.
with the light mix you will soon have to had liquid nutrients inside water .. with organic nutrients you dont measure the EC of the solution, you must estimate by eye the dose required .. which is 2x less than the nutrient companies advise .. trust me

measuring EC of a solution is a tool to estimate how much salts ( nutrients... or other salts) are dissolved in it
 
G

GreenPeace22

Active Member
Ok guys, so I grow one auto in peat medium with EC 1,2. How do I know how much nutes to feed her in seedling stage and after that? Where do I find that chart (again, I grow autos, they need lesser nutes than photos)?. I use bottled water and biobizz nutes. Does medium Ec change overtime? If yes, how do I know the new medium ec? Because the ec meter is for water only. Damn, this is so complicated.
 
R

redivider

Well-Known Member
GreenPeace22 said:
Ok guys, so I grow one auto in peat medium with EC 1,2. How do I know how much nutes to feed her in seedling stage and after that? Where do I find that chart (again, I grow autos, they need lesser nutes than photos)?. I use bottled water and biobizz nutes. Does medium Ec change overtime? If yes, how do I know the new medium ec? Because the ec meter is for water only. Damn, this is so complicated.
Click to expand...
you learn by trial and error, you ain't gonna get it right the first time, unfortunately you could be on your 20th grown and still make adjustments as you go... not every plant responds the same... you could have 10 plants same seed bank, same strain, same gene pool and one burns easier than the others... it's just the nature of the beast...

just aim to get the solution ec's right and the PH on point and look at your plants... if they're healthy, you good.... no need to want to understand all the science behind it....
 
R

redivider

Well-Known Member
Kassiopeija said:
hello, can I ask you if you are in possession of such a chart sporting values specifically for Cannabis
Click to expand...
not sure what you mean... recommended ppm cannabis ppm, google it and look at the images... there's a few charts there you can use as a guide....
 
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
GreenPeace22 said:
Ok guys, so I grow one auto in peat medium with EC 1,2. How do I know how much nutes to feed her in seedling stage and after that? Where do I find that chart (again, I grow autos, they need lesser nutes than photos)?. I use bottled water and biobizz nutes. Does medium Ec change overtime? If yes, how do I know the new medium ec? Because the ec meter is for water only. Damn, this is so complicated.
Click to expand...
autoflower are specials .. thats the only plant i would directly put in the final container, with no repotings
funny you talk about biobizz
last auto session i did was in 17 liters pots of biobizz promix(or batmix i dont remember)
i had to feed biogrow and bloom at 1ml/l because the plants quickly eaten all the nutes in the promix .. some even finished yellow

you must keep your plant healthy green if you see them becoming clearer during stretch give em some biogrow ..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top