Ec never drops
- Thread starter dimebag87
- Start date
FilthyFletch
Mr I Can Do That For Half
How are you growing? Hydro, aero, soil, soiless? What nutes do you use?
dimebag87
Well-Known Member
Hey deetee. Ive had an issue with my plants act. You commented on one of my threads about it last week. They were getting a patchy yellow look about them and growing slow. Two have started to pick up quite nicely but the other ones have still got a paleness about them as well as being quite slow growing. I'll upload a couple of pics shortly if you don't mind taking a look?
dimebag87
Well-Known Member
In a wilma man
jimmygreenfingers
Well-Known Member
EC does not rise when plants take in nutes, it drops. So if you find the EC on the rise this tells you your nute mix is too strong so you add plain water to lower the concentration of your nutes. If there is a sharp drop it means that the plants want more so up your nute levels a notch and see what happens, your looking for the sweet spot, where the EC stabilzes itslef and remains more or less constant. It will always drop if things are going well but there shouldnt be a massive drop or rise at all. Check your PH OP, and throw up a pic, might help you getting an answer to your problem.
DeeTee
Well-Known Member
No problem, if I can help I'd be glad too.
DeeTee
Well-Known Member
Dimebag: I owe you an appology, I'm so stoned, in answering your post I mistook ec for ph sorry abt that, jimmygreenfingers is right, my ec never goes up.Hi guys. Another noob question. I am growing for plants. They are just under three weeks old. What I'm wondering is why my ec reading never seems to drop. I assumed that as the plants use nutes that the reading would lower. Am i wrong? Thanks for any input
jimmygreenfingers
Well-Known Member
Ofcourse you did, LMFAO
haole420
Active Member
edit: just saw the pics lol. water+light.
are you topping off with pH'd water without nutes every day? sometimes, my meter reads higher than the day before, but after i top off my system, ppm/ec actually went down. it could be the case that nutes are being absorbed, but water is also being absorbed and/or evaporated so that the concentration stays the same. try topping off your res before taking readings. also make sure your probe is clean and calibrated and always stored "wet." i store mine in the top-off water trash can, which is pH'd but has no nutes (low ppm/ec). i think most manufacturers recommend storing it in pH 4.0 calibration solution.
concentration or ppm is a ratio of "stuff" (number of particles) to water (per million water molecules). EC is essentially the same thing. pour a cup of salt in 5 gallons of water, then get an EC reading. pour in another 5 gallons of water, and the EC reading will go down, but that doesn't mean there is any less salt in the res.
higher ppm/ec isn't going to feed your plants any faster or make nutes any "more available" than a lower concentration. consider this: a 5 gallon bucket at 1200ppm has the exact same amount of nutrients as a 10 gallon res at 600ppm. system chemistry, including pH, is more stable with a larger res volume. plants absorb nutrients faster in a lower concentration than in a higher concentration because of a more favorable osmolar gradient.
if you're seeing deficiencies, it's not necessarily about just adding more NPK nutes. don't just blindly add more micro and bloom. you have to figure out what the plant is short on and make sure you feed it more of THAT nutrient. carefully diagnose the deficiency, then find the appropriate remedy.
try an endomyco product to revitalize your roots from the inside-out. healthier, beefier roots are going to absorb nutrients a lot better than thin, sad-looking roots.
if your plants aren't getting enough light, they're not going to do a whole lot. try adding more lights to increase the plants' NEED for nutrients. i think a lot of times, people sit there and split hairs, assuming the problem is the ph or ppm/ec or this micro nutrient or that macro nutrient or whatever. a lot of times, you just need to blast it with tons of light energy to get it going. internal chemistry of the plant is going to be fucked even with the "perfect" nutrient solution if you don't have enough light to provide the energy needed for tons of different reactions to occur.
hope some of this helps!
are you topping off with pH'd water without nutes every day? sometimes, my meter reads higher than the day before, but after i top off my system, ppm/ec actually went down. it could be the case that nutes are being absorbed, but water is also being absorbed and/or evaporated so that the concentration stays the same. try topping off your res before taking readings. also make sure your probe is clean and calibrated and always stored "wet." i store mine in the top-off water trash can, which is pH'd but has no nutes (low ppm/ec). i think most manufacturers recommend storing it in pH 4.0 calibration solution.
concentration or ppm is a ratio of "stuff" (number of particles) to water (per million water molecules). EC is essentially the same thing. pour a cup of salt in 5 gallons of water, then get an EC reading. pour in another 5 gallons of water, and the EC reading will go down, but that doesn't mean there is any less salt in the res.
higher ppm/ec isn't going to feed your plants any faster or make nutes any "more available" than a lower concentration. consider this: a 5 gallon bucket at 1200ppm has the exact same amount of nutrients as a 10 gallon res at 600ppm. system chemistry, including pH, is more stable with a larger res volume. plants absorb nutrients faster in a lower concentration than in a higher concentration because of a more favorable osmolar gradient.
if you're seeing deficiencies, it's not necessarily about just adding more NPK nutes. don't just blindly add more micro and bloom. you have to figure out what the plant is short on and make sure you feed it more of THAT nutrient. carefully diagnose the deficiency, then find the appropriate remedy.
try an endomyco product to revitalize your roots from the inside-out. healthier, beefier roots are going to absorb nutrients a lot better than thin, sad-looking roots.
if your plants aren't getting enough light, they're not going to do a whole lot. try adding more lights to increase the plants' NEED for nutrients. i think a lot of times, people sit there and split hairs, assuming the problem is the ph or ppm/ec or this micro nutrient or that macro nutrient or whatever. a lot of times, you just need to blast it with tons of light energy to get it going. internal chemistry of the plant is going to be fucked even with the "perfect" nutrient solution if you don't have enough light to provide the energy needed for tons of different reactions to occur.
hope some of this helps!
dimebag87
Well-Known Member
thanks a bunch man!!as of the last couple of days things have picked up. root production has exploded from what i can tell with alot starting to crawl out of the drain holes in the pots. currently feeding them at 200 ppm. things seemed to improve drastically after i took them off the seedling nutes and switched to the heavier feed. this first grow has been one big learning curve haha
