Buds Buddy Does DWC: Critical 2.0 For The 1st Time

Buds Buddy said:
I did check run off a few times but according to @MrSauga & @InTheShed there's no need to check run off with MC. They said to only worry about pH going in. I did that & it worked out good.
I did have a little problem when I wasn't pH-ing the nutes going in. But that cleared up quickly once I did.
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Cheers mate only trouble I’ve had so far was a slight iron deficiency a couple times.once in veg and once at the start of flip but a simple jump of .2g a L and fixed within a couple days
I’m only running 1.1gram a L not gal but havnt seen a sign to increase since hitting that mark
 
Black Thumbs said:
Cheers mate only trouble I’ve had so far was a slight iron deficiency a couple times.once in veg and once at the start of flip but a simple jump of .2g a L and fixed within a couple days
I’m only running 1.1gram a L not gal but havnt seen a sign to increase since hitting that mark
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I found it best to just go by the color of the new growth to determine when to up the nutes. When they started getting light green leaves I upped it a little at a time. Little jumps just like you are doing works great.
 
Buds Buddy said:
I did check run off a few times but according to @MrSauga & @InTheShed there's no need to check run off with MC. They said to only worry about pH going in. I did that & it worked out good.
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So checking runoff is good with coco, but with Promix or FFOF(or any soil/soiless product) checking runoff pH is pointless. The proper way is to do a slurry test. If you re testing runoff then you are trying to determine the pH of your media and the only way to properly do this is through the slurry test.

If your medium is buffered with dolomitic lime as an example, then there is no need to pH your nutes. The alkalinity of the water causes the pH to drift up over time and the higher the akalinity the faster the pH will rise in the media. Eventually that buffering agent wears out and you need to pH your nutes but typically it's good for at least one grow.
You can re-buffer the media by adding lime prior to a new grow.
 
Hey there @Pennywise , I need your help understanding how to read this EC pen. My pen gives me a 4 digit number with no decimal point. It usually reads something like 0855 for instance.
My bucket pH only changes about .1 - .2 in 24 hours. Water Level hasn't really changed. So I would call these 2 things static. Just not sure about the EC thing since there's no decimal in the reading.
However, I believe it's OK because the plants are surely growing. I have a few fairly long roots in the water now & several more starting to come through the net pot. I'm guessing water level should start dropping as more roots get to the water. All in all, plants look much better.
 
Black Thumbs said:
Now your roots are in the water it should take off:thumb:
How many grams a gallon of MC are you using?
I have a starting water value of .2 EC and 1 gram a L gives me EC of 1 so that’s give or take 3.7grams a gallon to give you 1EC if your starting value is the same as mine
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At 2 grams of MC per gallon My plants were all curled up & weren't growing. I started with 7 grams per 3.5 gallons but had to go down to 4 grams per 3.5 gallons. Then things started looking good.
The ppm at 4 grams per 3.5 gallons is 348. Water Temp is at 72.4 & water hasn't really went down much at all. The EC I don't understand. My pen is giving me a reading of 0788 with no decimal in it. I'm guessing this to be 0.788 ? Which means the EC would be low ?
Is so, how do you raise the EC without raising ppm ? Not sure how ppm works in relation to EC.
I'll post a link to the EC pen I bought so you can see it. Back in a minute.
 
Buds Buddy said:

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That’s the same meter I use, except I generally just use the ppm feature rather then the EC... but it doesn’t matter they are measuring the same thing.
 
Buds Buddy said:
At 2 grams of MC per gallon My plants were all curled up & weren't growing. I started with 7 grams per 3.5 gallons but had to go down to 4 grams per 3.5 gallons. Then things started looking good.
The ppm at 4 grams per 3.5 gallons is 348. Water Temp is at 72.4 & water hasn't really went down much at all. The EC I don't understand. My pen is giving me a reading of 0788 with no decimal in it. I'm guessing this to be 0.788 ? Which means the EC would be low ?
Is so, how do you raise the EC without raising ppm ? Not sure how ppm works in relation to EC.
I'll post a link to the EC pen I bought so you can see it. Back in a minute.
Click to expand...
EC and ppm are the same thing just ppm has different standards of reading like Hanna and a couple other but EC is universal
7 grams for 3.5 gal isn’t over the top but on the high side for seedlings with no roots.now your getting roots you will find it will start to eat and go back to reading the plant once it’s got healthy new growth.Clones I took went well for a week with nothing then once roots were around an inch long started to show yellow then went to 3gram a gal and after a week went into auto pot at 2.5g a gal but had roots 6ibch by then.The curl is from to much nutes and no roots(engine) to use them :thumb:
 
So I can just go by ppm & not worry about EC ? That would simplify things a lot. I think I'll be going down to 3 gallons of water with 4 grams of MC at bucket change because there's very little room between the bottom of the net pot & the water level. I'd say 1/4" - 1/2" at most. That should increase ppm slightly & I'll increase if needed after that. Sound OK ?
You mentioned something about roots yellowing. So if I see roots turning yellowish should I do a bucket change with a lower nute / ppm value ? Don't have this issue; but nice to know before it happens .... just in case.
 
EC/ppm are the same thing, EC is the actual measurement. Ppm is a mathematical conversion. You only need to track one of them.
 
When it comes to the EC/PPM, I only use that measurement for the daily check on my plants to see if they are taking up nutrients. I’m not really concerned what the actual value is, as long as it continues to fall throughout the week. I don’t use it for mixing my nutrients. When I mix my nutrients I follow whatever grams per gallon of MC I’m at and whatever that EC/PPM it’s at, well it is what it is. I won’t go adding more MC to try to get it to a certain EC/PPM, mostly because everyone’s water has different starting point for EC/PPM.

Just dose your nutrients based on grams per gallon and use EC/PPM to track the uptake throughout the week.

*It is good to have a ballpark idea of what your nutrient mixture should be in case you somehow end up adding the incorrect amount of MC for whatever reasons, just as a simple back check. An example would be that the mixture should be 800 PPM and what you have mixed up is 1600 PPM, you would know something wasn’t right.
 
Buds Buddy said:
So I can just go by ppm & not worry about EC ? That would simplify things a lot. I think I'll be going down to 3 gallons of water with 4 grams of MC at bucket change because there's very little room between the bottom of the net pot & the water level. I'd say 1/4" - 1/2" at most. That should increase ppm slightly & I'll increase if needed after that. Sound OK ?
You mentioned something about roots yellowing. So if I see roots turning yellowish should I do a bucket change with a lower nute / ppm value ? Don't have this issue; but nice to know before it happens .... just in case.
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I meant leaves starting to yellow not roots that’s when I added more just the same as you would do in soil/soiless :thumb:
I only go by grams now.Stated with using EC reading at first but now just check run off for EC so I can see how much build up or in your case you will check it to monitor how much they are eating between res changes
 
Don’t check runoff it will just get you confused and will lead to non existent issues that you’ll never fix once you go down that rabbit hole.
 
Well it's been right about 3 weeks since the seeds sprouted & IMO they're still pretty small. 1 has 4 nodes & the other has 3. Since they are Auto's I had no choice if I wanted to Top these but to do it now. So tonight they got Topped.
ppm has dropped to 330 from 348 since last night. Not much difference in water level or temp.
Room Temps are staying 72 Lights off & 75 Lights on & RH is at 65%. Everything seems to be going OK right now.
Here's a few pics.
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