Importance of an EC meter

[snicol]

How important is the use of an EC meter, the guy at my grow shop said it's really of no use, but the more I read the more im not sure. Also how would you change the EC readout if it wasnt within the normal range. Sorry if this is redundant and stupid. First time grower, and I'm sure i am overcomplicating things.

 

[djblowens]

ec is very important it alsodepends on hydro or soil. hydro needs them a little more than soil, it is a tool to check the total dissolved solids in your runoff, it can tell u your nute strength, or in the feeding water. it can also tell u if your feeding to much or not enough .

 

[massah]

yeah i use my EC meter all the time to see what im giving my girls...you can pickup cheap ones on ebay for like $10...slap in a 9v battery and yer off to the races

 

[bengalyork]

are the cheap ones as good as the higher ones?

 

[lordjin]

are the cheap ones as good as the higher ones?

Now come on. When have you ever known the cheap ones to be as good as the more expensive ones in anything?

 

[lordjin]

How important is the use of an EC meter, the guy at my grow shop said it's really of no use, but the more I read the more im not sure. Also how would you change the EC readout if it wasnt within the normal range. Sorry if this is redundant and stupid. First time grower, and I'm sure i am overcomplicating things.

then how the hell are you supposed to know how much you're feeding your plants? By sense of smell?

That's why I hate grow shop guys.

 

[tip top toker]

EC meters are useful, but TOTALLY unessential. I bought one under advice from all the folk on these forums, used it maybe twice in almost 3 years. growing pot is easy, even in hydro, there is no need for fancy bells and whistles unless you feel so inclined. Growing cannabis is piss easy, some folk just seem to like to add extra steps to the process, i say complicating the process, no need for it

You know how much you're feeding your girls because you measure how much food you give them. EC meters have not been around for very long, seems people managed, and still do manage, jsut fine wihtout this "essential" piece of equiptment. It is very easy to observe if you are feeding your plants too strong or weak a solution, it's called powers of observation, it's not too difficult a concept to grasp. If the plant is happy the plant is happy, i'm failing to see where the need for an EC reading comes in. If it starts to burn, drop your ml per litre, again, still no requirement to take an EC reading, all that is is an alternative form of ml per litre. You can certainly argue that you can take a reading mid feeding cycle to see if it' too strong, but well again, i've never found a need, seems people take EC swings as a far bigger problem than it really is.

 

[supchaka]

If your going to use tap water at all and specifically in hydro. Sure once you have several grows under your belt with a consistent water source you will use the meter less and less. But I'd certainly recommend getting one, I have a $15 eBay one and it works fine for me. Im growing in soil but I still like to periodically check it, I also use it to check the family's drinking water.

 

[lordjin]

Doing away with the ec/ppm meter might be fine if you're always growing the same strain in the same manner time after time. But for people who want to try different strains with different feeding requirements, knowing the exact numerical concentration of nutrients is very helpful...in fact essential. Visual indicators are useful, but why wait for burn spots as your sole indicator without knowing just how much this particular strain is happy with?

If you have a set routine you've been doing for years, sure, you can do it with your eyes closed... But especially for beginners starting out, the ppm reading is a far more accurate guage than 'eye-balling' by ml to liter or gallon. The most common error I see here with new hydro growers is overfeeding because they just followed the instructions on the bottle without a ppm meter. I disregard the instructions on the bottle because it's always a good 45-60% more than my system requires. I grow by my ppm readings alone.

 

[snicol]

Thanks for all the comments. If i could ask one more thing, here is the one i was looking at on ebay and input?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-PH-PPM-T...item2569869053​

 

[lordjin]

Thanks for all the comments. If i could ask one more thing, here is the one i was looking at on ebay and input?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-PH-PPM-T...item2569869053
​

Yeah, get it. I use a tri-meter just like that... never had an unsuccessful grow because of it.

Of course you can take anyone's advice you want. But you gotta ask yourself, "Should I listen to the people telling me to gauge my chemicals? Or should I listen to the people telling me not to gauge my chemicals?" You decide.

 

[tip top toker]

Doing away with the ec/ppm meter might be fine if you're always growing the same strain in the same manner time after time. But for people who want to try different strains with different feeding requirements, knowing the exact numerical concentration of nutrients is very helpful...in fact essential. Visual indicators are useful, but why wait for burn spots as your sole indicator without knowing just how much this particular strain is happy with?

If you have a set routine you've been doing for years, sure, you can do it with your eyes closed... But especially for beginners starting out, the ppm reading is a far more accurate guage than 'eye-balling' by ml to liter or gallon. The most common error I see here with new hydro growers is overfeeding because they just followed the instructions on the bottle without a ppm meter. I disregard the instructions on the bottle because it's always a good 45-60% more than my system requires. I grow by my ppm readings alone.

It is not essential in any way else i would not be getting harvest after harvest of different plants at the moment If you are growing new strains then you will have to wait for burnspots for you to know what EC is too high, it is more accurate than knowing that 40ml is too much, but the point is this increased accuracy is totally unnecessary.

Your idea of new users overfeeding because they do not know what the ppm is hogwash. If they are overfeeding, it's because they are overfeeding, knowing the ppm will not stop them overfeeding, as they will not know what ppm constitute overfeeding with this plant. They can either do it the traditional way and simply drop the amount of ml per litre, or they can get fancy and use an electronic meter to tell them that they are feeding it fewer ml per litre. You seem to be failing to understand that a ppm reading is little different to a ml/litre reading, whether i follow the direction on the bottle which i have happily done since my first grow without issue, if i knew that the advice was 50% strogner than my plant would want it, then i'd simply adjust the amount of nutrients i feed it, i have no use for a meter to confirm what i already know.

So again, sure, they can be useful if you want to make use of it, but are in no way needed soil or hydro experienced growers or beginners. Half the growers i talk to don't even bother Ph'ing their water, let alone ECing it. So much bullshit has been put into the concept of growing, growing cannabis has been around a lot longer than digital meters have and it did just fine and still does

 

[forgetiwashere]

i agree with lrdjin i completely ignore the bottle im running less than a 1/3 of what they recomend on the gh nutes any more would be suicide. i love my ec meter upgrading to a super duper good one ws the best thing i ever did i can monitor exactly how much nutes my plants are taking up and adjust my feeding schedule as often as i like and very accurately thats what i find most usefull about it there is no guess work and i dont have to wait till a deficiency or burn starts to show to know what the plant needs. if the defficiency or burn is showing then the damage is done imo

 

[lordjin]

It is not essential in any way else i would not be getting harvest after harvest of different plants at the moment If you are growing new strains then you will have to wait for burnspots for you to know what EC is too high, it is more accurate than knowing that 40ml is too much, but the point is this increased accuracy is totally unnecessary.

Your idea of new users overfeeding because they do not know what the ppm is hogwash. If they are overfeeding, it's because they are overfeeding, knowing the ppm will not stop them overfeeding, as they will not know what ppm constitute overfeeding with this plant. They can either do it the traditional way and simply drop the amount of ml per litre, or they can get fancy and use an electronic meter to tell them that they are feeding it fewer ml per litre. You seem to be failing to understand that a ppm reading is little different to a ml/litre reading, whether i follow the direction on the bottle which i have happily done since my first grow without issue, if i knew that the advice was 50% strogner than my plant would want it, then i'd simply adjust the amount of nutrients i feed it, i have no use for a meter to confirm what i already know.

So again, sure, they can be useful if you want to make use of it, but are in no way needed soil or hydro experienced growers or beginners. Half the growers i talk to don't even bother Ph'ing their water, let alone ECing it. So much bullshit has been put into the concept of growing, growing cannabis has been around a lot longer than digital meters have and it did just fine and still does

Without a ppm reading, how will the grower know how much they have cut back if burning occurs? Just slosh in some plain water and hope it was enough and not too much?

This guy makes no sense. Who you gonna listen to, snicol? Again, it's your choice.

 

[tip top toker]

Yup, i make no sense. Lol. You enjoy complicating your grow and trying to justify your expenses, i'll sit here happily with my simple yet bountiful grow I guess some people are just capable of growing good weed without having to have special meters and hudreds of additives and sterile environemtns and perfect climate control and the rest of the scam associated with growing

If we're talking making sense, it's spelt "guy" not "go"

 

[lordjin]

Yup, i make no sense. Lol. You enjoy complicating your grow and trying to justify your expenses, i'll sit here happily with my simple yet bountiful grow I guess some people are just capable of growing good weed without having to have special meters and hudreds of additives and sterile environemtns and perfect climate control and the rest of the scam associated with growing

If we're talking making sense, it's spelt "guy" not "go"

Yeah, you go on and "sit happily" with your "awesome grow." Great pictures of your "awesome grow" btw. I guess we'll just have to take your word for it.

You're criticizing me because of a type-o which I fixed? Look at how you write. You can't form a complete sentence. I wouldn't go pointing grammar fingers if I were you.

 

[Forte Blunt]

I haven't used my EC meter in over 2 years... PH is much more important but hell I don't even use one of those... When I first started growing I spent hundreds on meters to help me grow better and all it did was complicate things and keep me chasing ph and ec constantly trying to get it perfect. I guess if your pumping your plants full of chemical ferts or growing in Hydro they are a necessity but I suggest a good organic program, re use your soil and if you use RO or Distilled water then you will never have a problem and your nug will be the dankest of the dank...

 

[forgetiwashere]

its probably different in soil but here is how to make it as simple as it can get for a beginner in hydro. start feeding your plants really low nutes like 200ppm then monitor your res for changes in ppm. if it stays at 200 then everything is all good your plant is taking in equal amounts of water and nutes. if it drops your plant is taking in more nutes than water and you should make your next feed stronger. if it goes up then your plant is drinking more water than nutes and your headed for nute burn so lower your ppms in your next feed. using this system you can easily and accurately adjust your feeds for exactly what your plant wants no guess work no waiting for the damage to show. im sure with experience you can read the plants without an ec meter but for a beginner like me this system just makes it so simple and with great results.

and for your other question u can calibrate them you get a buffer solution that will have an exact ppm or ec and u test your meter if its not accurate then u can calibrate it to match the known reading... i hope that makes sense. its hard when you want good advice on here but all u end up with is a debate.

 

[lordjin]

I guess if your pumping your plants full of chemical ferts or growing in Hydro they are a necessity but I suggest a good organic program, re use your soil and if you use RO or Distilled water then you will never have a problem and your nug will be the dankest of the dank...

If this guy was interested in growing organically in soil, he wouldn't be asking about an EC meter in the hydro section, would he?

 

[Forte Blunt]

My Bad.... Didn't realize I was in the Hydro Section I was browsing the New Posts. Fuggin Stoner I Am lol... In that case you better spend good money on a good tri meter that sits in the solution so you have constant monitoring. When I grew Hydro (UCDWC) mine would send me an email if the PH, PPM (EC) or Temp would drop below or raise above a certain level. Spare no exspense when it comes to guages and equipment for the dro grow...

If this guy was interested in growing organically in soil, he wouldn't be asking about an EC meter in the hydro section, would he?