Total Disolved Solids

PanZion

PanZion

Member
Hi long time grower new to the forum, I hope your all staying safe in these weird times... I've recently transplanted my out door ladies in to 5 gallon pots, so far so good. Yesterday I did a soil test and the PH was an average of 6.8 and TDS was 300, my concerns are firstly: did the water I used give me an inaccurate reading?? and secondly: if the reading is correct is 300 PPM too low? To be honest I'm pretty new at testing my TDS so not much experience. I'm about 2 to 4 weeks off going in to flower so if I understand correctly I should be upping the PPM now?
My soil amendment is made up from:
*Worm castings 10%
*Veg compost 20%
*Organic soil mix from my local nursery(7% phosphorus, 10% calcium and 2% silicon) 35%
*Coconut husk 10%
*Perlite 15%

I know this is lacking a little potassium but I'll start adding that during the early stages of bloom.

One question I have about doing a soil test is I know it's best to use RO water(PH of 7 and 0 TDS) but I don't have a filter yet and here in Latin America options are limited. I googled bottled RO water and Evian was one brand that was recommended so I got a couple bottles of Evian's but Evian is not RO it's reading was 7.2 PH and over 150 PPM..
Because I used the Evian does this mean now my soil test is completely off? Or can I minus the extra 0.2 over the nuetural PH level on my reading so 6.8 was actually 6.6?
I have rain water available which has 0.1 TDS but the PH is 5.5..
My tap water is actually nuetural at 7.0 but contains minerals so maybe I use the tap water just for the PH reading.. does that work? And the rain water for the TDS test because it's basically at 0 PPM? Any help here would be greatly appreciated

Sorry if this is confusing but basically I am asking if I use one type of neutral water(my tap water) at a PH of 7 for the soil test will the PH be correct or will the TDS throw that number out? And vice versa if I use my rain water(0.1 PPM) for a TDS soil test will that be more accurate than using Evian(150ppm)?

Maybe someone can also please recommend a brand that is actually RO bottled water.
Thanks in advance ✌
 
PanZion

PanZion

Member
I'm still not sure if I'm worried about nothing but I did another soil test today with my rain water(TDS 0.1) and my PPM was around 90 so the majority of the minerals that were in the reading(300ppm) I took using the Evian water yesterday. I've just transplanted so maybe the soil has to have a few good waters for a more accurate reading but I have no idea..
 
Kassiopeija

Kassiopeija

Well-Known Member
Hi,

best to skip the Evian and use the rainwater only.

When testing the EC of a soil the amount of water you give is critical: because it dilutes your tested numbers.
So you gotta take the right amount, relatively speakin.

You either go 5:1 or 10:1 in water:soil.

Take normal soil for the 5:1 test, it should be a bit moist just like before you give water.
For the 10:1 test you let the soil dry out completely.

This is gonna give you a glimpse of the amount of electrolyte charge the roots may experience when xou give water.
 
PanZion

PanZion

Member
Kassiopeija said:
Hi,

best to skip the Evian and use the rainwater only.

When testing the EC of a soil the amount of water you give is critical: because it dilutes your tested numbers.
So you gotta take the right amount, relatively speakin.

You either go 5:1 or 10:1 in water:soil.

Take normal soil for the 5:1 test, it should be a bit moist just like before you give water.
For the 10:1 test you let the soil dry out completely.

This is gonna give you a glimpse of the amount of electrolyte charge the roots may experience when xou give water.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the fast reply, you don't think the PH of the rain water(5.5) will affect the TDS reading? I'm not scientifically minded enough to even guess. I will test the soil now at 5:1 as it's moist and see if that gives a higher reading. How long do you let the slurry sit before you test it? And do you strain it? Thanks again
 
PanZion

PanZion

Member
Kassiopeija said:
Hi,

best to skip the Evian and use the rainwater only.

When testing the EC of a soil the amount of water you give is critical: because it dilutes your tested numbers.
So you gotta take the right amount, relatively speakin.

You either go 5:1 or 10:1 in water:soil.

Take normal soil for the 5:1 test, it should be a bit moist just like before you give water.
For the 10:1 test you let the soil dry out completely.

This is gonna give you a glimpse of the amount of electrolyte charge the roots may experience when xou give water.
Click to expand...
Also..

"When testing the EC of a soil the amount of water you give is critical: because it dilutes your tested numbers.
So you gotta take the right amount, relatively speakin"

Does this basically mean the water or feeding solution needs to be in the same PPM range reading as the soil for it to feed correctly or am I misunderstanding this completely?
 
Kassiopeija

Kassiopeija

Well-Known Member
PanZion said:
Thank you for the fast reply, you don't think the PH of the rain water(5.5) will affect the TDS reading?
Click to expand...
if the EC of any water u use is fairly low, like 0.01 ppm etc then the pH is irrelevant. Its just a bit atmospheric CO2 but it has no back-strength...

PanZion said:
Does this basically mean the water or feeding solution needs to be in the same PPM range reading as the soil for it to feed correctly or am I misunderstanding this completely?
Click to expand...
the water needs to be free of electrolytes, so take rainwater, purewater, distilled or RO water. EC/ppm O.O1

PanZion said:
will test the soil now at 5:1 as it's moist and see if that gives a higher reading. How long do you let the slurry sit before you test it? And do you strain it? Thanks again
Click to expand...
about 10 minutes. take warm water, stir well, let sit, stir again, filter & measure the water @ 25°C (or ATC).
calibrate your tools and take yourself time & extra care when measuring.
 
PanZion

PanZion

Member
Kassiopeija said:
if the EC of any water u use is fairly low, like 0.01 ppm etc then the pH is irrelevant. Its just a bit atmospheric CO2 but it has no back-strength...


the water needs to be free of electrolytes, so take rainwater, purewater, distilled or RO water. EC/ppm O.O1


about 10 minutes. take warm water, stir well, let sit, stir again, filter & measure the water @ 25°C (or ATC).
calibrate your tools and take yourself time & extra care when measuring.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks for explaining, I followed your steps and got a reading of 204 PPM on my one smart pot which has a slightly different amendment so not too bad.. but the other pots tested quite low at 70 PPM. What is the disadvantages of such low levels of TDS and how do you recommend I adjust it? Thanks again mate ✌
 
Kassiopeija

Kassiopeija

Well-Known Member
PanZion said:
Ok thanks for explaining, I followed your steps and got a reading of 204 PPM on my one smart pot which has a slightly different amendment so not too bad.. but the other pots tested quite low at 70 PPM. What is the disadvantages of such low levels of TDS and how do you recommend I adjust it? Thanks again mate
Click to expand...
your soil is amde up of either organic long-term fertilizing substances or inert material:
PanZion said:
*Worm castings 10%
*Veg compost 20%
*Organic soil mix from my local nursery(7% phosphorus, 10% calcium and 2% silicon) 35%
*Coconut husk 10%
*Perlite 15%
Click to expand...
so there isn't much of what could be dissolved in such a swift time. What's diluted by the water is mostly the free mineralic content.... this type of food is only set free after micros digest it - or a lab burns and measures it.

These readings are extremely low. Even simply garden peat is ten times as strong than your lower reading.

BTW what do you actually wish to achieve by measuring the soils EC?
 
PanZion

PanZion

Member
Kassiopeija said:
your soil is amde up of either organic long-term fertilizing substances or inert material:

so there isn't much of what could be dissolved in such a swift time. What's diluted by the water is mostly the free mineralic content.... this type of food is only set free after micros digest it - or a lab burns and measures it.

These readings are extremely low. Even simply garden peat is ten times as strong than your lower reading.

BTW what do you actually wish to achieve by measuring the soils EC?
Click to expand...
Soil is made from mostly home made compost, and worm castings plus an organic mix made locally which is a mixture of top soil, ash, lime stone more vermicompost and composted organic chicken shit. Coconut husk and perlite for aeration.

I had this local nurseries soil mix recommended but because it's new and unknown to me I wanted to test the PH on the finished amendment and figured why not test the TDS too mainly because I heard it's beneficial for the rhizosphere. My last plants didn't have the fat white roots I like to have so basically fishing for a possible reason and solution. But truth is I don't know much about EC and if I should not just stick to what I'm doing and focus on feeding the microbes and improving the soil web each round.

And yes the super low reading is what had me semi concerned
 
PanZion

PanZion

Member
kmog33 said:
I haven’t owned a tds meter in 6+ years. You don’t need them, learn to read the plants.
Click to expand...
I popped my first seed in 94 and had no idea about PH, TDS even proper harvest time but thanks to South Austrailia's perfect outdoor climate those mid 90's years were some of the best years yet and most unique phenos I've seen
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I have a TDS meter but I rarely use it. I've been using the same nutrients for so long I just measure them out using an old plastic measuring spoon. I don't feed heavy 1.6 - 1.8 EC maximum throughout the grow. I also don't bother to check pH very often anymore. The water here is treated to be a certain pH and I just measure out the same amount of pH down per gallon as normal. When I do check it's always within the range where I want it to be. That's with coco. In soil I never check anything. When I mix nutes for soil I use half what I use for coco and I don't even worry about pH and have never once in my life bothered checking TDS in soil which isn't in any way reliable by performing a slurry test. That's used to test pH.

If you feed a plant properly from start to finish you won't have any deficiencies. A good percentage of deficiencies are not caused by a lack of anything but too much of something. So don't overfeed and you won't have any issues.
 
radiant Rudy

radiant Rudy

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
I have a TDS meter but I rarely use it. I've been using the same nutrients for so long I just measure them out using an old plastic measuring spoon. I don't feed heavy 1.6 - 1.8 EC maximum throughout the grow. I also don't bother to check pH very often anymore. The water here is treated to be a certain pH and I just measure out the same amount of pH down per gallon as normal. When I do check it's always within the range where I want it to be. That's with coco. In soil I never check anything. When I mix nutes for soil I use half what I use for coco and I don't even worry about pH and have never once in my life bothered checking TDS in soil which isn't in any way reliable by performing a slurry test. That's used to test pH.

If you feed a plant properly from start to finish you won't have any deficiencies. A good percentage of deficiencies are not caused by a lack of anything but too much of something. So don't overfeed and you won't have any issues.
Click to expand...
Bro its better to test than guess no amount of stoner bull shit, cheap skate bullshit, or phony expertise can change that.
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
radiant Rudy said:
Bro its better to test than guess no amount of stoner bull shit, cheap skate bullshit, or phony expertise can change that.
Click to expand...
Why would I bother testing anything? I'm using the same water soluble dry nutrients I've been using for years. They haven't changed. The same measurements I was using 7 years ago give me the same EC today. I know how much of each part to use. If the EC doesn't change after so many years why bother testing each time? Same thing with pH. My water is always within 0.1. My nutrients and water haven't changed so it takes the same amount of pH down to get to 6.0 pH which is where I like it for coco. In soil I don't check anything. There's no need to keep checking the same thing when the results are always the same.

It has nothing to do with stoner bovine excrement. Stoner bovine excrement is fiddling with your plants to no end instead of letting them grow which is really all you need to do to have healthy plants from start to finish.

It has nothing to do with cheapskate bovine excrement. If being a cheapskate means not getting ripped off by marketing companies selling crap you don't need to grow cannabis then I'm a proud cheapskate.

You're phony expertise comment is rather funny. I watch all these so called growers with crispy fried plants constantly posting about this deficiency or some other issue all while using every worthless product targeted to naive cannabis growers known to man. Testing runoff, trying to get runoff to match what they put in. Endless wastes of time with many doing more harm than good to their plants.

I grow more than just cannabis and have been growing plants of one kind or another for 5 decades. I have a garden and harvest loads of delicious produce from healthy plants. I grow berries and harvest gallons of sweet berries. I grow flowers and have a yard full of beautiful flowers. I have probably 50 houseplants of different kinds growing in my house. I grow orchids and other exotics. I have a greenhouse and start everything from seed. I grow more than just cannabis but one thing is the same regardless of what I grow. All my plants grow healthy and lush.

If you want to call me a phony that's your right and I'm not going to give it another thought. I can look at my plants or go out in my garden. The results are all I care about and they're always good.

Have a nice day.
 
bk78

bk78

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
Why would I bother testing anything? I'm using the same water soluble dry nutrients I've been using for years. They haven't changed. The same measurements I was using 7 years ago give me the same EC today. I know how much of each part to use. If the EC doesn't change after so many years why bother testing each time? Same thing with pH. My water is always within 0.1. My nutrients and water haven't changed so it takes the same amount of pH down to get to 6.0 pH which is where I like it for coco. In soil I don't check anything. There's no need to keep checking the same thing when the results are always the same.

It has nothing to do with stoner bovine excrement. Stoner bovine excrement is fiddling with your plants to no end instead of letting them grow which is really all you need to do to have healthy plants from start to finish.

It has nothing to do with cheapskate bovine excrement. If being a cheapskate means not getting ripped off by marketing companies selling crap you don't need to grow cannabis then I'm a proud cheapskate.

You're phony expertise comment is rather funny. I watch all these so called growers with crispy fried plants constantly posting about this deficiency or some other issue all while using every worthless product targeted to naive cannabis growers known to man. Testing runoff, trying to get runoff to match what they put in. Endless wastes of time with many doing more harm than good to their plants.

I grow more than just cannabis and have been growing plants of one kind or another for 5 decades. I have a garden and harvest loads of delicious produce from healthy plants. I grow berries and harvest gallons of sweet berries. I grow flowers and have a yard full of beautiful flowers. I have probably 50 houseplants of different kinds growing in my house. I grow orchids and other exotics. I have a greenhouse and start everything from seed. I grow more than just cannabis but one thing is the same regardless of what I grow. All my plants grow healthy and lush.

If you want to call me a phony that's your right and I'm not going to give it another thought. I can look at my plants or go out in my garden. The results are all I care about and they're always good.

Have a nice day.
Click to expand...

You’re a fucking riot with your recycled bullshit daily.

you’ve posted the same tent picture with the same plants since I’ve joined here, my guess is that’s was your only healthy crop and you took a picture to repost weekly for the recycled bullshit paragraphs you spew.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top