Adjusting Nutrient levels

Should I be feeding at as high an EC as possible without seeing problems, or as low as possible without seeing problems?


Experimenting with just the gh trio I discovered there’s a pretty big window.

Logically it seems like right in the middle of that window would be a safe bet, but with a lot of things less is more.

Some good info here on EC.

A.k.a said:

Should I be feeding at as high an EC as possible without seeing problems, or as low as possible without seeing problems?


Experimenting with just the gh trio I discovered there’s a pretty big window.

Logically it seems like right in the middle of that window would be a safe bet, but with a lot of things less is more.

Click to expand...

Follow the chart for the product. The fertilizer company spent millions to develop their feeding recommendations. When you start guessing. Thinking more is better. That's when things get fucked up. So follow the directions.

Beehive said:

Follow the chart for the product. The fertilizer company spent millions to develop their feeding recommendations. When you start guessing. Thinking more is better. That's when things get fucked up. So follow the directions.

Click to expand...

The problem with following feeding charts is many nutrient companies have you overfeeding if you follow their feeding charts. Some have people feeding as high as 3.0 EC. I don't think many of these cannabis specific nutrient companies spent millions developing their feeding recommendations. Some didn't even spend enough to put up a decent website. Many just copied someone else's formulas and feeding schedules. They just changed the ratios slightly and use different packaging but I've read enough labels to know that there isn't much of a difference between many of the brands out there. The ingredient lists read basically the same just in slightly different proportions for many of the products people are using. Many of these designer companies are just knock offs of other brands and spend more on marketing and getting some youtuber to push their products than anything else.

Beehive said:

Follow the chart for the product. The fertilizer company spent millions to develop their feeding recommendations. When you start guessing. Thinking more is better. That's when things get fucked up. So follow the directions.

Click to expand...

Everything is dependent on the strain you are growing. Watch the plant and do as it asks you to do.

xtsho said:

The problem with following feeding charts is many nutrient companies have you overfeeding if you follow their feeding charts. Some have people feeding as high as 3.0 EC. I don't think many of these cannabis specific nutrient companies spent millions developing their feeding recommendations. Some didn't even spend enough to put up a decent website. Many just copied someone else's formulas and feeding schedules. They just changed the ratios slightly and use different packaging but I've read enough labels to know that there isn't much of a difference between many of the brands out there. The ingredient lists read basically the same just in slightly different proportions for many of the products people are using. Many of these designer companies are just knock offs of other brands and spend more on marketing and getting some youtuber to push their products than anything else.

Click to expand...

I'm gonna buy GH in bulk and put it in a cool colorful cartoon coved bottles. My brand will be SuperBuds.

This place man.





Ok so to rephrase, say a plant shows no issues if you feed it anything between .5-.9 EC. Below .5 you get deficiencies, over .9 you get toxicity.


What do you feed it for the best results, in general.

A.k.a said:

This place man.





Ok so to rephrase, say a plant shows no issues if you feed it anything between .5-.9 EC. Below .5 you get deficiencies, over .9 you get toxicity.


What do you feed it for the best results, in general.

Click to expand...

Try .7 then. If they look like they want more go to .8.

As farming fisherman said, it's on a plant by plant basis. I have four plants going atm, and they are all feeding at different rates. If I was to feed one 900ppm, the runoff comes out around 750. Another I'm feeding at 700ppm, and the runoff is came out at 1100 today, so I'll have to back off for a while.

I find checking runoff daily gives you a good indicator of metabolic rates. One of mine was feeding insane during stretch, but dropped off significantly when vertical growth stopped, another didn't start feeding heavily until stretch stopped.

Following the feed schedule on my nutes would lead to radioactive level burn. For example I'm running one plant in Canna terra medium. Their feed schedule says 6ml/L of vega, 1.5ml/l rhizotonic, 2.5ml/L Cannazym and 2-4ml/l of boost three times per week for pre flower and that's light-notmal feed on their site. In reality I'm at 5ml/L vega on wednesday, and tap water on Mon/Thursday, and the plant is borderline nitro toxic.

Beehive said:

Follow the chart for the product. The fertilizer company spent millions to develop their feeding recommendations. When you start guessing. Thinking more is better. That's when things get fucked up. So follow the directions.

Click to expand...

No just no…..

PadawanWarrior said:

Try .7 then. If they look like they want more go to .8.

Click to expand...

I am in agreement.

A.k.a said:

This place man.





Ok so to rephrase, say a plant shows no issues if you feed it anything between .5-.9 EC. Below .5 you get deficiencies, over .9 you get toxicity.


What do you feed it for the best results, in general.

Click to expand...

There's no one right answer...you gotta go with how the plant is responding. Some want more, some want less...in the specific example you gave, .7 would be a good choice...but then the same plant right next to it may very well demand more or less.

I've never needed anything much more than around 1.4ec +-.
But in the hydroponic tomato industry the standard is 2. 0-2.3 I don't think I've seen under 2 and I've visited several.
Also ec in the professional greenhouse industry is also used to steer the plant.

Either way, as long as the pressure (osmotic pressure I think?) in your plant is always higher than your nutrient ec. Your plant will be taking it in.

Beehive said:

Follow the chart for the product. The fertilizer company spent millions to develop their feeding recommendations. When you start guessing. Thinking more is better. That's when things get fucked up. So follow the directions.

Click to expand...

The nutrient charts given by the companies never state the size of pot, plant size, the medium, how many times /days per week @ to use it @certain strength etc.
If i used 2.0ec on my 16 x 7 gallons while trying to prevent ec buildup. I'd be going through an insane amount of $$$.
Someone using it on a few16x 1gallons pots trying to prevent ec buildup will have a different experience.

A.k.a said:

This place man.





Ok so to rephrase, say a plant shows no issues if you feed it anything between .5-.9 EC. Below .5 you get deficiencies, over .9 you get toxicity.


What do you feed it for the best results, in general.

Click to expand...

For reference.

18L pots (approx 3.5G) coco

fed twice daily at 0.9EC source water 0.2EC so 0.7 of nutrients.

my nutrient manufactures schedule would have me at 2.4EC + source water.

I’m a firm believer in this phrase

“it’s easier to correct an underfed plant than an over fed plant”

Dank Bongula said:

There's no one right answer...you gotta go with how the plant is responding. Some want more, some want less...in the specific example you gave, .7 would be a good choice...but then the same plant right next to it may very well demand more or less.

Click to expand...

I kill heavy feeders...no mercy

If you can feed a plant anywhere from .5-.8 and it looks the exact same, what would you give it?


There’s no seeing what it wants or how it responds, there’s no visible changes to leaves or color as long as you stay within that window.

Do you go .5 because that’s as low as you can go before it has problems, or .8 because that’s as high as you can go before it has problems?


Basically is there any benefit to feeding above the minimum it needs to be healthy I guess is what I’m getting at.

A.k.a said:

If you can feed a plant anywhere from .5-.8 and it looks the exact same, what would you give it?


There’s no seeing what it wants or how it responds, there’s no visible changes to leaves or color as long as you stay within that window.

Do you go .5 because that’s as low as you can go before it has problems, or .8 because that’s as high as you can go before it has problems?


Basically is there any benefit to feeding above the minimum it needs to be healthy I guess is what I’m getting at.

Click to expand...

A plant will only uptake what it can use without showing signs of abundance.

if you feed at 0.5 and get deficiencies then you up it.

If you feed at 1.1 and they show signs of over fert then you back off.

think of hydroponics.

When you’re dealing with a reservoir :-

set your res at given EC and pH

after 24 hours test Res.

If EC is higher then adjust back down.

if EC is lower then we adjust back up.

Always trying to find the sweet spot where EC comes back to the res after 24 hours exactly the same as it left.

this is the sweet spot or the equilibrium where nutrients and water are being taken in at the same rate.

this rate though changes as the plants age so the sweet spot is never the same all the time.

Does that make sense?

A.k.a said:

If you can feed a plant anywhere from .5-.8 and it looks the exact same, what would you give it?


There’s no seeing what it wants or how it responds, there’s no visible changes to leaves or color as long as you stay within that window.

Do you go .5 because that’s as low as you can go before it has problems, or .8 because that’s as high as you can go before it has problems?


Basically is there any benefit to feeding above the minimum it needs to be healthy I guess is what I’m getting at.

Click to expand...

Ultimately feeding at the highest point before you see abundance is always best as the plants are always growing so demand could always be there for more.

the need will never be less than it was before until you hit ripening stages.

During ripening stages the plants use less nutrients and this manifests in hydro as higher EC returning back to the rest before harvest is due.