EC run off crazy high but plants seem happy IMO!

Hi All

Happy growing, new here and on my first grow, life long lover of the plant and grew a few outdoors 20 odd years back.
Done years of research as well as using first hand advice for this setup.
Considering a grow journal but a bit far in I think, second grow for sure and it will also be better with some of problems ironed out.
Anyways I have a quick question...
MY EC runoff is 3.6 or higher...that is as high as it reads and it flashes fast. It has been this way since I started flowering 3 weeks ago. Plants still look great, some very minor tip burn on a couple of leaves but otherwise seem very happy.
I have ran a few extra large irrigation run off's with lower nutes and still the same.
I guess I am interested in knowing if anyone has had similar and it has been ok, because ultimately I let the plants tell me what they want not the EC reader.
Experienced grower has seen the plants and thinks they look fine, he has always done things by eye and feel apart from PH so has no idea about the EC readings etc.

Some background...

60 Clones taken from White widow and gorilla candy.
Idea is to go almost straight to flower once clones are established, basically a traditional SOG (I think) This time they had a a couple of weeks of veg to recover...see below.
About 10 days in propagator with clonex and some root enhancer in rock wool cubes
Lost a few, but still over 50 left, then taken out of propagator but not acclimatised and basically every single one of them died, gone, yellow, keeled over, dry, game over! Bought 3 large cloches, put them over and left for a few days thinking no chance, but amazingly 48 came back to life. and starting pushing out some new leaves. Miracle in my book, must be that clonex working miracles on the roots.
Coco with approx 10% organic worm castings and some charge mixed in.
3 litre air pots bottom put in about an inch higher.
Starting light is an LED custom with full spectrum samsung diodes, drawing approx 375Watts (close to a 600 W HPS in my book)
After the plants recovered moved to flowering room 2x2 meter with 4 x 375 LED's (close to 2 x 1000HPS but much better light spread imo)
Early days they are on Canna A + B 5ml-10ml per gallon and 10ml calmag. PH water always around 5.7 (soft water, little acid added to get it down)
Now up until now I was not around (long story) but I took over here a few days after it was switched to 12/12 and this is when I started doing EC readings.
EC going in was approx 1.6-1.8, a little high for this stage I think. So anyways plants looked great and carried on for 10 days or so, like I said a few leaves with nute burn but nothing major.
I am now just ending week 3 of flower and using 3.5ml canna A and B 3.5ml Big Bud and 2.5ml canna boost and 4 ml calmag all per gallon or 5 litre jug. EC going in is 1-1.2. I water 1 a day at the start of the 12 light on cycle and get about 20-30% runoff. It is approx 20 litres a go.
Will be setting up an automatic irrigation system for next grow and see how that works, will continue to hand water once in a while though to get good even coverage in the media that irrigation system might not do.
Been doing this for approx a week and still EC runoff is off the charts, Nute burn has stopped though and plants look ok imo
I have also done 2 major leaf removals one at 10 days into flower and one 8 days after that ( 3 days ago, they have recovered and some in those 3 days)), they do not even blink and just keep going. Mainly the WW as they are so dense, just trying to make some space, Gorilla has legs and not much leaf removal needed.

I think I could set fire to the White widow and it would just carry on, indestructible, the Gorilla was the one that had a little nute burn - Oh and I should mention some of the gorilla leaves also have some curl on them, the mother was very similar, often curled leaves especially after a haircut, bit finicky but I know this could also be to do with the high EC.

I have left quite a bit out and will go more in depth on a journal, but just wanted to give peeps a quick idea of what I have so they can perhaps help me understand what is happening with the EC readings. My thoughts are that the worm castings and charge are keeping the EC much higher during run off but somehow not harming the plant as much as the chemical nutes would do at the same levels. That is the only explanation I can come up with. EC reader is new and definitely works. Tried and tested on various mixes. I am also thinking with the charge and worm castings being put in, perhaps feeding from the start should be much lower. On next grow will EC the mix before I transplant to know what I am starting with and take it from there. Feed a lot less to start with and see how plants react.

I have attached a few photos...A few of the clones (leggy ones are the Gorilla, stacked and stumpy = WW), one of the only mother I have left (White widow), starting next batch in a few days.
The two stumps I just put in to flower as I had some space, they are the mother gorilla which I cut down as prefer the white widow on what I have seen. "The church" was also in the running but flowering time is longer. This plant is crazy, growth is incredible, had to hack it down because it was taking over the world. I am excited to flower it off and see what it gives me. Dependant on the results I might do a couple of runs of this later on,I have a couple of clones from it elsewhere.

It should be said I am doing this mostly to see what I can achieve with quantity, quality, try different curing techniques, different grow techniques and different varieties I just love the plant. I will make extracts, oils, wine, CBD in the future with different strains... all for medicinal and experimental purposes. I do not smoke or sell anymore those days I left behind 20 years ago. I chose White widow to start as for many WW was where the indoor craze started and it is still one the best...The Church I chose because I loved "Mr Nice", Gorilla Candy was down to some super good reviews on its overall quality.

Appreciate any feedback on the EC, and stay safe.

Just going to bump this as it got stuck in spam, hope that is ok. Happy growing.

Well I got EC under control, even though I had no real ill effects with the very high EC I got it down and really reduced my overall feeding, I did do a feed of charge a couple of weeks ago, also faded off Big Bud and currently hitting them with overdrive whilst still reducing all over feed which is Canna A+B / Boost and Cal mag.

We are at 7 weeks flower for these clones.

Looks like Gorilla Candy is a bit of a spindly Pheno, the way the plant acts I do not think it likes this type of grow, I think it would be much happier spreading its wings with a good veg. But Damn the smell is incredible (Fruity and spicy)and the trichome production is intense, covering leaves to their tips as well as underneath. It might not produce a huge amount but I think it will be very potent. I think a week to 10 days left on this one, roughly. There is one thing maybe someone could chime in on. As you can see in a couple of photos I just found a couple of buds ith some brown tips on the tight leaves and a couple of calyxes (first thought was bud rot, but they are very firm and do not pull out, just break off and close inspection shows no signs of rot as I would expect as they are not densely packed, and humidity is around 45% with good ventilation), all other plants seem fine, just wondered if anyone knows what this could be, maybe over feeding at this late stage? I could have spilt some feed on them whilst watering too.

White Widow is just a trooper and seems to love life as a stocky clone, the buds are popping and could easily go another 1-2 weeks and put on considerably more weight, they too are producing heavy amounts of trichomes all over the plant with a much deeper, pungent smell. Very dense buds to the touch.

The one Church is the single tall one with solid Cola in the photos. It is a lovely plant and has a few weeks left, could be huge by the time it finishes. It did however throw out a few bananas not so long ago. Snipped them off and good for now. I have read The Church does do this sometimes. The Church mother is also in flower now. Has a real trunk and buds are forming nicely.

Next batch of just widow is week 3 since snipped from the mother, 1 more week give or take and they will be switched to flower. I hit them a bit hard with light early on (more testing the water than anything, to see how hard I could push them) and still need to work on a better transplant technique which I think I have sussed for next time, but they are by and large good and not 1 cutting did not make it. To be fair my coco mix is quite hot too, mixed with worm castings, lime, poultry manure and charge with a dash of microbe tea, bit of a shock for them but they will thank me later.

Any advice on the possible issues with the Candy Bud much appreciated. Cheers

plants seem very happy imo too. really nice lookin flowers.

pulpoinspace said:

plants seem very happy imo too. really nice lookin flowers.

Click to expand...

Cheers, not long now. Nice slow dry and proper cure and should be golden, providing nature has no surprises up her leave in the meantime. Then onto the experiments of oils, extracts and edibles as well as both fermented from scratch and infused wine with the candy as it has a beautiful aroma. Will also do a hydrosol with the trim as well as some bubble hash.