Is Runoff Analysis Valuable?

[Bush Doctor 77]

Do you analyze your runoff/waste/flush water? I never have, even when I worked in soils labs. All it tells you is what you can flush from your media with a certain solvent. Change the ionic composition of that solvent, and the composition of the flush water will change. Let the discussion begin!?

 

[Hydroholic]

To me it’s pointless in soil. My way of thinking is that as soon as you feed, your mixing what’s there and what you are adding even if it’s water. Your results are mixed not true to what the plant is seeing before. Like you are always behind the curve.

 

[Weaselcracker]

In my experience usually it just adds to the pain.
It ‘might’ be helpful to confirm what you already know. Usually I see three scenarios. None of them helpful .

- My plants look good. I check the runoff. The runoff seems good. Everything must be good. This rarely happens.

-My plants look good. I check the runoff. Oh shit the runoff looks weird. Now I’m going to start screwing with everything. Now my plants look bad. Now I’m confused. And wet.

- My plants look bad. I check the runoff. My runoff looks weird. So now what?

Save on the water, trouble, and mess, and sleep better at night, would be my advice.

 

[Emilya Green]

I tell people all the time that runoff readings of pH or ppm are meaningless in soil, and I equate it to coffee from a percolator coffee pot. The more water you run through it, the weaker the coffee gets. At what point of runoff, 2%, 5% or 20%, does the reading actually correspond to something going on in the soil? The answer is never.... the reading is totally arbitrary.

 

[bobrown14]

If in soil and you could actually measure whats in there in a lab situation you could gleen a few things

Nutrients in runoff you can conclude 2 things:

Low CEC
Low SOM

But both of these can be measured in a soil test so what wood be the point.

Just get your soil tested.

 

[corinth]

Kinda confused to me it sounds like would this guy check his run off eith different meters as in ph ppm etc. But then u see those soil spike things tjat suppose to read npk etc. Im watching jeff lowenfel explain soil culture and im just curious too as in whats in my median im using a promix with some ph perfect nutes.

 

[corinth]

Now im wondering what can i add to help benefit microbial life in the median im using.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Kinda confused to me it sounds like would this guy check his run off eith different meters as in ph ppm etc. But then u see those soil spike things tjat suppose to read npk etc. Im watching jeff lowenfel explain soil culture and im just curious too as in whats in my median im using a promix with some ph perfect nutes.

Spike things that read N/P/K are about as useful as teats on a boar hog. All three can only be determined by lab analysis. Farmers send their soil to labs for analysis. They do not use meters.

 

[Emilya Green]

Now im wondering what can i add to help benefit microbial life in the median im using.

Realgrower's Recharge, Voodoo Juice, URB... and there are others.

 

[corinth]

Professor lowenfel cant stress enough on testing soil . I always thought there was an easy identifiable meter.

 

[corinth]

Realgrower's Recharge, Voodoo Juice, URB... and there are others.

hello emilya yea ive heard of voodoo juice im wondering how people implement these in their nutrient line up. Is there phing involved. Just ordered the gh ph kit on amazon . My whole grow id never ph so i got that ph pppm tester from vivosun hoping itll help benefit what im putting in.

 

[Emilya Green]

if you are truly growing organically you have no need to pH adjust anything, as long as the fluids you start with are within normal human consumption rates. The products listed here are simply microbes with a little bit of food for them, and they should be applied regularly so as to keep the microbe population high.

 

[corinth]

Emilya wow thx yea i was hearing of stuff to help microbial life . So would i combine all those or are they for specific feeding schedules

 

[Emilya Green]

Emilya wow thx yea i was hearing of stuff to help microbial life . So would i combine all those or are they for specific feeding schedules

if you are growing using nutrients, you can forget the microbes... one or the other is probably a waste of money. Use one or the other for best results. Microbes are for organic, water only super soil or living soil grow models mostly, but some lines do supplement themselves with them, such as Fox Farms and it is possible to enhance many grows with them if you can keep them coming in regularly. In the Fox Farm line, their Big Buds product is mostly a very rich microbe compost tea and it is given with each and every nutrient watering.

 

[corinth]

Ah yea makes sense since its a soiless median. But im just wondering so theres no chemical nutrient way to stimulate microbial effort in a pro mix type of median? I ise advsnced nutrients there basic line i think. The a b c with their big bud nirvana and over drive in flower and just basic micro n grow in vege. I also use the bud ignitor for first few weeks in flower.

 

[corinth]

Just wanna apologize to bush doctor 77 for barging in on his topic but i hope it helps us both.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Just wanna apologize to bush doctor 77 for barging in on his topic but i hope it helps us both.

No sweat!

 

[TurboBucket]

I tracked run off for my first two grows. I found it helpful as a comparative tool for noticing trends more than anything. It kind of allows you to use that hydro chart everyone loves. You have to be consistent with your measurements as Emilya mentioned the numbers change the more runoff you get. Depending on how often your checking it it could tell you if your over or under feeding before the plants show you.

Here's a question though. I switched to a recirculating top feed. So technically my run off is my supply. Or rather a portion of it. I do check my reservoir daily, does that count as checking run off? Or just monitoring what goes in?

 

[corinth]

Yea i havent used the feeding charts really. I just follow what the bottle says. I wanna start checking my ph as it goes in. And im just curious as to what comes out ive never tested it. Also thinking of switching my nute line. Ive always used ph perfect because i was confused with ph. But now as im trying to take it more seriously with each harvest i feel comfortable i can use a more better nutrient line. I still have so many other areas i need to work on though 1st so i should probally stick with the advanced for now.