Love's First Grow - 600w MH/HPS - 3 Juicy Fruit

SickSadLittleWorld said:

I just ignore the recommended PPM on the feeding chart especially since they don't give a conversion factor. That information is both useless and misleading.

Follow the feeding chart for a gallon of water, check the EC, and then adjust the recipe to get the desired EC for all your water. The correct nute concentration depends on the strain, so you will have to experiment to find the sweet spot. Luckily, an EC meter reduces most of the error from the trial and error.

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Ok Im lost er stoned er something. SSLW could you please explain the difference between PH meters EC Meters and TDS meters? Or am I just lazy? In stoner words.

EC/TDS meters are the same thing.

EC = Electrical Conductivity, measured in microseismens
TDS = Total dissolved solids, measured in PPM, a conversion from EC

SickSadLittleWorld said:

EC/TDS meters are the same thing.

EC = Electrical Conductivity, measured in microseismens
TDS = Total dissolved solids, measured in PPM, a conversion from EC

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So do they all read out in EC & TDS or do you have to make sure that its EC, or both.

Does EC have anything todo with PH?

SotaFats said:

So do they all read out in EC & TDS or do you have to make sure that its EC, or both.

Does EC have anything todo with PH?

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Should do both. The meter will always do EC since TDS is derived from it.

pH and EC are unrelated. pH measures free H+ or OH- ions in the solution, EC measures the conductivity of the solution.

Did you read that link I posted for CL on EC/PPM info? That's a pretty good read that should clear up any basic questions.

Here's what I'm still not grasping. You follow the feeding chart for a gallon and measure the EC. You refer to a desired EC, is that what you got from that gallon you just mixed? How do you know if it's right? Like if it's gonna toast the plants since the chart is in PPM. And say you get it dialed in at an EC of "a" and your plants look happy, how do you know if they're getting enough? And doesn't the amount of nutrients increase each week? So you just mix the next week's and make sure the EC is higher, but not a ton higher? I'm just struggling to connect how knowing the EC of your solution helps you when the chart is in PPM.

You also said that PPM is inaccurate and misleading but I don't really understand how.

Is there a thread that goes over this? I feel like when I do a thread search here on RIU I don't really get very relevant results. If it's too lengthy that you don't wanna type it or I'm not smart enough to grasp it I understand. I think between me and Sota we'll figure it out.... haha maybe

So the kids are starting to actually grow! They're showing pre flowers and hopefully my Ginormous comes in before res change on Wednesday so I can flip them to 12/12.

Here's some pics, we got the girls, the clones, and some roots!

WOW JFs recovered nicely, awsome growth. The clones made me jealous. The root porn is awsome. Ima go cry now.

SotaFats said:

WOW JFs recovered nicely, awsome growth. The clones made me jealous. The root porn is awsome. Ima go cry now.

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Ha all credit goes to the folks and info here on RIU and of course hydroponics. All I did was spend the money!

ColoradoLove said:

Here's what I'm still not grasping. You follow the feeding chart for a gallon and measure the EC. You refer to a desired EC, is that what you got from that gallon you just mixed? How do you know if it's right? Like if it's gonna toast the plants since the chart is in PPM. And say you get it dialed in at an EC of "a" and your plants look happy, how do you know if they're getting enough? And doesn't the amount of nutrients increase each week? So you just mix the next week's and make sure the EC is higher, but not a ton higher? I'm just struggling to connect how knowing the EC of your solution helps you when the chart is in PPM.

You also said that PPM is inaccurate and misleading but I don't really understand how.

Is there a thread that goes over this? I feel like when I do a thread search here on RIU I don't really get very relevant results. If it's too lengthy that you don't wanna type it or I'm not smart enough to grasp it I understand. I think between me and Sota we'll figure it out.... haha maybe

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You're still caught up on the PPM but I told you to ignore it to eliminate confusion. All it has caused is confusion. Since they don't provide a conversion factor for that random PPM number at the bottom, it shouldn't mean anything to you. The EC of the solution at .5 conversion for 1000ppm is 2.0 EC but for a conversion factor of .7, its 1.4 EC. See the huge variation? The difference in EC can be the difference between healthy plants and dead ones.

You'll know you have the right EC because the plants are healthy and free of deficiencies and the EC stays consistent between checks. If it drops, you need to add more nutes because the plants are taking them in faster than the water. The opposite is true if the concentration increases. Ideally, you want the concentration to remain the same as the water level decreases.

You've got 5 gal buckets that are easy to change the res, so do it every week and add the new proportions at a slightly higher EC to see if they take to it.

Ok so let me see if I've got this down. I don't know what the actually EC's would be so I'm just starting at 1 to make sure I've got this.

So I start week 1 nutes and get my EC to say 1.0 and the plants are happy. I could experiment and bump it up to 1.5 and if they're good, I'm good. If not, I want to get it back down to 1.0 until they're bigger. Next res change, when the plants are bigger, I mix to a 1.5 EC and they're happy. Week after I go up to 2.0? So on and so forth?

The EC does increase each week doesn't it? Or once the plants are happy that's the EC you always want?

I think I just don't understand how I know I'm at the right EC? I mean obviously if the plants look good I'm doing ok. If they yellow I need to up it and if they nute burn I need to drop it? I mean did you under and over nute while you were getting your EC dialed in?

I think I'm gonna owe you like a case of beer by the time this is all said and done for all your help! Do you ski or snowboard at all?

1.0 to 1.5 is a pretty big leap. I'd shoot more for increasing or decreasing it by .1 EC when you make changes.

According to the feeding chart, the plant should take increasing amounts of nutrients each week. I've been steady on my concentrations for the last couple weeks so you need to use that as a guideline, not an absolute fact. Whatever makes the plants happy is what matters, not some numbers on a feeding chart.

Like pH, the ideal nute concentration is a range. You don't have to pinpoint a number but get it within an acceptable range for the plan to prevent deficiencies or overfertilization. I have a tendency to put too much nutrients in, so I saw quite a bit of downward leaf clawing at the beginning of my grow.

I'm not sure what week you are on for feeding, but I'd be around 1.0-1.2 EC judging just by the size of the plants. They may be more or less vigorous, so you will have to adjust accordingly but that would be my ballpark guestimate for where to start.

SickSadLittleWorld said:

1.0 to 1.5 is a pretty big leap. I'd shoot more for increasing or decreasing it by .1 EC when you make changes.

According to the feeding chart, the plant should take increasing amounts of nutrients each week. I've been steady on my concentrations for the last couple weeks so you need to use that as a guideline, not an absolute fact. Whatever makes the plants happy is what matters, not some numbers on a feeding chart.

Like pH, the ideal nute concentration is a range. You don't have to pinpoint a number but get it within an acceptable range for the plan to prevent deficiencies or overfertilization. I have a tendency to put too much nutrients in, so I saw quite a bit of downward leaf clawing at the beginning of my grow.

I'm not sure what week you are on for feeding, but I'd be around 1.0-1.2 EC judging just by the size of the plants. They may be more or less vigorous, so you will have to adjust accordingly but that would be my ballpark guestimate for where to start.

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That makes sense. Thanks yos guyz!

Got some friends from college in town this week but here's some quick shots. They're growing like mad and going into 12/12 on Wednesday!

lol funny same story for me with the friends.
they look awsome tho, what was the total veg time?

They gonna be juicyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!

CyberSecks said:

lol funny same story for me with the friends.
they look awsome tho, what was the total veg time?

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Lets see, I got them February 14th as clones and their first day of flowering was yesterday March 17th so 31 days of 18/6 veg with me. Probably a week, maybe 2 before I got them. So 38-45 days of total veg?

I just did some Google'ing and it looks like flowering time is going to be 7 to 9 weeks. So that puts estimated harvest time around May 12th (8 weeks)

My 3 little clones are going into 12/12 on April 1st regardless of where they're at due time constraints involving moving and my lease. So it looks like they'll be about 2 weeks behind the Juicys

SotaFats said:

They gonna be juicyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!

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Man I hope so! I'll get some pics of the juicyness up when I get home from work tonight. Lights are off from 8am to 8pm so I have to spend my days fucking with the clones and wondering how the Juicys are doing in there in the darkness. I'm suffering from withdrawal!

So here everyone is!

Juicys after their 2nd day of 12/12

Getting taller

Clones starting to grow, that Trainwreck cross is crazy leggy!

Poppin roots!

Those clone roots make me wanna cry. Good shit bro, good shit!

So my hydro store is having a 20% off sale tomorrow so I'm gonna pick up another bucket for that TW so it can go into flowering. Probably gonna be picking up a Hanna pH/EC/TDS combo meter there as well. $100 seems legit for a meter that does everything for me.

In the meantime I started the clones on 50% of week 1 nutrients. They look pretty happy. TW is funky as ever. I'm stoked for these little guys to get under a real light. I've almost bought the 4 foot 6 bulb T5 setup like 3 times this week. My clone rack doesn't really have the res to support root size for any serious vegging, which means I need to get some 3 gallon buckets which would mean I'd need that T5. I guess we'll see how much birthday money I get. Since they're going into the flowering room in less than 2 weeks anyway I'll probably hold off on getting that T5 setup to replace my MH until my next grow.

Anyway here's some pics. Few shots of the plants, then them LST'd, some roots, and finally some clone shots. F'ing TW is already dwarfing the other two.

They really took off. Looking awesome.

That trainwreck cross is going to be a beast.