Run off EC too high

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BegginerGrower

Active Member
I've got 10 14 days autos and Ive been feeding them everyday.. Im in Coco an I always get the water between pH 5.7-6.2 an EC 1-1.1 but when I check run off the EC is 2.4-2.5, they're in 10ltr pots an I put about 15 ltr of PhD water to 5.8 after flushing the EC went right down to 0.5-0.7 but the pH went to 7.0, question is because of putting so much water through them..should I miss out watering tomorrow an start the next day?
 
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guitarguy10

Well-Known Member
The runoff won't tell you anything of any paticular value. You will want to do a slurry test with some of the coco coir similar to this one:

The first time I tried measuring runoff I had EC over 3.6 and my plant's grew just fine. It's because you want to test the EC of a coco or soil slurry, not of the runoff.
 
B

BegginerGrower

Active Member
Silentvirtue said:
Before you started did you rinse and buffer the coco or use it from the bag?
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It said on the bike ready to use from bag to pot since flushing then giving them a 1/4 strength feed with Cal mag they look fine,should I continue to water tomorrow or leave it a day?I'm in 10ltr pots an flushed 15ltr through each then fed them 500ml nutes/calmag,to be honest before flushing they looked good but the run off stuck at 2.4 now it's 0.6-7
 
Silentvirtue

Silentvirtue

Well-Known Member
Yeah leave it a day coco needs to dry too!

Also yeah some cocos are hot out of the bag, you should really (not super essential I've done it without but a pain fighting calmag) buffer with Calmag first as coco loooooves to suck up Calmag. Secondly the PH goes to 7 as coco is pH neutral with not rising you get loads of coco mulch in your run off which effects your PH.

Should be good for now if they are healthly just keep an eye on calmag issues especially if you have high powered QBs.
 
Silentvirtue

Silentvirtue

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
What do the plants look like? If they look fine leave them alone. Don't go chasing runoff.
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This is a fair point actually. I dont water to run off just to almost saturation. I gave up trying to balance top and bottom ages ago. Drain to waste....we cant supply water to most in need chucking it on the floor seems wasteful in my eyes.
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Silentvirtue said:
This is a fair point actually. I dont water to run off just to almost saturation. I gave up trying to balance top and bottom ages ago. Drain to waste....we cant supply water to most in need chucking it on the floor seems wasteful in my eyes.
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With coco if you take care of what goes in that's all that matters. And if the plant is healthy I don't know why anyone would bother checking runoff. There are people growing perfectly healthy plants that decided to check runoff and then end up messing up their plants trying to get the runoff pH or EC to match what they put in.

I don't water until runoff either. I grow with blumats and 100% coco and there is never any runoff except maybe the initial dialing in of the blumats and the drip set too fast.
 
Silentvirtue

Silentvirtue

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
With coco if you take care of what goes in that's all that matters. And if the plant is healthy I don't know why anyone would bother checking runoff. There are people growing perfectly healthy plants that decided to check runoff and then end up messing up their plants trying to get the runoff pH or EC to match what they put in.

I don't water until runoff either. I grow with blumats and 100% coco and there is never any runoff except maybe the initial dialing in of the blumats and the drip set too fast.
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Nice. I hand water coz I'm old skool and only do smaller scale stuff.
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Silentvirtue said:
Nice. I hand water coz I'm old skool and only do smaller scale stuff.
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I'm small scale as well but a blumat kit with 5 carrots is really inexpensive so I gave them a try and am glad I did. Now I just keep a small reservoir with nutrient solution and forget about watering.
 
Silentvirtue

Silentvirtue

Well-Known Member
xtsho said:
I'm small scale as well but a blumat kit with 5 carrots is really inexpensive so I gave them a try and am glad I did. Now I just keep a small reservoir with nutrient solution and forget about watering.
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Also just check them out. I take it you've linked it to a timer and pump ?
 
BIGBALLSJOE

BIGBALLSJOE

Member
runoff EC is very significative in coco ..like in rockwool

when your coco will dry out ( good thing in bloom), some salts will stay trapped in the medium

its very important to flush em by giving a runoff each time you water to saturation ... by doing this you will reset the EC in the medium

the 10 to 25 % runoff usually advised are by my experience insufficient
after 25 % runoff if you test the runoff EC you will usually notie that the runoff is still higher

when you finish your irrigation session(s) of the day, you want EC in = EC out

this way you are sure to restart on a fresh basis everyday

the best way to ahieve this is to recirculate the nutrients and to give a LARGE runoff every time

you can run to waste if you want but like the name say it waste water and nutrients

if you want to grow clean herb that burn clean and express terpenes at its best keep a stable and buildup free medium

thats what linger in the bud and give shitty smoke .. salt accumulations
 
BIGBALLSJOE

BIGBALLSJOE

Member
xtsho said:
With coco if you take care of what goes in that's all that matters. And if the plant is healthy I don't know why anyone would bother checking runoff. There are people growing perfectly healthy plants that decided to check runoff and then end up messing up their plants trying to get the runoff pH or EC to match what they put in.

I don't water until runoff either. I grow with blumats and 100% coco and there is never any runoff except maybe the initial dialing in of the blumats and the drip set too fast.
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plants can handle high EC inside the medium and still look healthy, but its seems that canna bis is a metal accumulator and then any excess could/will finish in the finished product

if you only want to care about what goes in ( thats my case lol im lazy i never measure) be sure to give a large runoff, then you are sure that ec feed=ec inside the medium

my 2 cents
 
Silentvirtue

Silentvirtue

Well-Known Member
spek9 said:
Salts accumulate in the medium, not the plant.



I'm not a coco grower, but all I ever hear them say is to never let coco dry out entirely.
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Yeah never let it dry out completely it's fucking hard to come back if it's gone to far. Get all sorts of fucked up shit happening. Damp/cool at worse.
 
BIGBALLSJOE

BIGBALLSJOE

Member
spek9 said:
Salts accumulate in the medium, not the plant.



I'm not a coco grower, but all I ever hear them say is to never let coco dry out entirely.
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entirely never .. of course
but if you want to steer a crop to produce flower/fruits ( generative stage) you ideally want bigger drybacks

for the veg stage you want a wetter medium to stimulate vegetative growth, so yeah, once the plant is rooted you can start to keep the medium wetter

from what i read/ experienced with WC meters, good range of water content for coco are around:

80%-60% for veg ( 80% at saturation)
70%-35% for bloom ( 70 % at saturation)
end bloom you can even take it to 20 % water content before watering .. thats what contribute to buds explosion

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Silentvirtue

Silentvirtue

Well-Known Member
I also know spek9 is a nonflusher where as I'm a flusher but flushing at the end would remove these build ups in mediums anyway so I can't say I agree that's the way you get clean burn weed......
 
BIGBALLSJOE

BIGBALLSJOE

Member
i dont use the intense deleafing/ stem twist
not sure about this

www.sea-of-green.com

Crop Steering with Rock Wool

In this article we will look at crop steering with rock wool using precision irrigation methods for saturation and dry back. Crop steering is the maximizing of growth rates, minimizing nutrient waste, pushing a crops potential for aromas, yields, essential oils, etc. Rock wool over all other...
www.sea-of-green.com www.sea-of-green.com
heres an article for crop steering with rockwool

pretty the same as coco

coco just needs a bit larger drybacks
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
BIGBALLSJOE said:
runoff EC is very significative in coco ..like in rockwool

when your coco will dry out ( good thing in bloom), some salts will stay trapped in the medium

its very important to flush em by giving a runoff each time you water to saturation ... by doing this you will reset the EC in the medium

the 10 to 25 % runoff usually advised are by my experience insufficient
after 25 % runoff if you test the runoff EC you will usually notie that the runoff is still higher

when you finish your irrigation session(s) of the day, you want EC in = EC out

this way you are sure to restart on a fresh basis everyday

the best way to ahieve this is to recirculate the nutrients and to give a LARGE runoff every time

you can run to waste if you want but like the name say it waste water and nutrients

if you want to grow clean herb that burn clean and express terpenes at its best keep a stable and buildup free medium

thats what linger in the bud and give shitty smoke .. salt accumulations
Click to expand...
I never have runoff and never flush. My weed tastes and smokes fine. But, I feed just the bare minimum without a bunch of additives at a very low EC compared to many.
 
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