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Do I really need an EC pen?


Professor_X

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5 minutes ago, catweazle1 said:

One thought: if the coco was scavenging calcium and magnesium to the extent of symptoms, how would you know without checking runoff ec against feed ec?

 

I would imagine the plants would not look as good as they should. 

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Just now, shire said:

@catweazle1, I've no idea mate, would need to look that up lol 

I think you need an ec pen at the start to get to know what's going on and after familiarity you can rely on experience.

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On 12/05/2020 at 7:42 AM, murran said:

You can get buy without,  you can just calculate feed with mls per litre. It does help to tell you if you are over feeding though by giving you the option to test your runoff.

If you are going to get one i can recommend a blue lab truncheon, ive had mine years, bomb proof and no need to calibrate just clean it occasionally. 

Does the Bluelab do PH too?

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Just now, Professor_X said:

Does the Bluelab do PH too?

 

no, the truncheon doesn't.

Edited by thatman
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@Professor_XWhen I moved to coco I thought it would be smarter to spend a extra £10 on nute's and get advanced nutrients sensi coco with "ph perfect technology"  than get a £80

 piece of kit that I am likely to fuck up using/drop. 

 

yanks love them. Save's you buying EC and PH pens 

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56 minutes ago, BonnieAuto said:

@Professor_XWhen I moved to coco I thought it would be smarter to spend a extra £10 on nute's and get advanced nutrients sensi coco with "ph perfect technology"  than get a £80

 piece of kit that I am likely to fuck up using/drop. 

 

yanks love them. Save's you buying EC and PH pens 

You mean an extra 20 quid for grow and bloom and how long will that last? It's supposed to be pH balancing, so it doesn't negate an ec pen.

Edited by catweazle1
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@catweazle1 I'm using bloom for my plants in veg atm, I doubt there is much between them lol 

 

£80 for ec pen and depending the way the you choose to ph, the blutab ph pen is £65, those pricey's made me go for sensi's stuff 

and used the saved cash towards a 8" EC stealth extractor. 

 

From Advanced nutrients themselves :yep:

 

"when using our pH perfect line of nutrients,  There tend to be many other components besides dissolved fertilizer in the water. (eg. pH buffers, humic and fulvic acid, amino acids etc...)
Because of this, an electrical conductivity (EC, TDS, PPM) reading can be difficult for the grower to properly ascertain.
Instead of reading the PPM/EC, we recommend following our nutrient calculator, but starting off at 1/4 strength of your base nutrient for small clones and seedlings,
Gradually working your way to full strength as the plant matures over a period of 3-4 weeks."

 

also the nutes are "chleted" making them available to the plant at a wider range of ph, nothing is "balanced" my young grass hoppa 

 

That's the way I looked at it starting out...... unrelated but that fan packed in last month :crybaby:lol 

Edited by BonnieAuto
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You can get away with it - I'm currently on my 2nd coco grow with no EC or pH monitoring (Canna A/B). It's risky though, it could take you a few harvests to get a feel for how your water and nutes affect your plants, and you might get disheartened and give up before you get it all dialled in but if you want to rely on data rather than guesswork and trial and error, get an EC pen. It'll be one less unknown when you have issues with your grows.

I did look up the water measurements for my postcode area and used that for my starting assumptions and also feed less than the recommended dosage on the Canna website.

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If new to growing for the sake of a few quid get yourself a decent ph pen and ec pen imo. Better to learn the basics and get some experience under your belt. Best of luck with the growing, hope it goes well for ya.

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10 hours ago, catweazle1 said:

If you want believe Advanced Nutrient's spiel, it's your life

I take it you don't like them lad ? lollol 

 

they have been around for over 2 decades and are THE most popular bottled nute's in the world.....  

 

On 5/12/2020 at 6:18 PM, catweazle1 said:

how would one ascertain the cause

Measuring drainage or run-off alone will never be accurate. It may give the grower an idea based on experience but that is all.

 

I suppose you still "flush" your plant at harvest to get rid of all the "salts" 

you dinosaur :rofl: 

 

10 hours ago, thekingofobsolete said:

how the fuk are u going to measure the amount of ferts your administering the dope

by ml per litre like the nute's that i am using/suggesting...... 

 

@iShouldCoCo when your nutes run out, Get ph perfect nute's.

That way if your tap water changes your not fucked. 

what you are doing is risky as fuck imo 

 

@stummer it's not really only a few quid lad, catweazle spent £170 on 2 EC and a PH pen's..... or spend a extra 10er on nute's. 

 

Mon then i'll take the lot of you :boxing:lol 

 

 

Edited by BonnieAuto
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1 hour ago, BonnieAuto said:

I take it you don't like them lad ? lollol 

 

they have been around for over 2 decades and are THE most popular bottled nute's in the world.....  

 

Measuring drainage or run-off alone will never be accurate. It may give the grower an idea based on experience but that is all.

 

I suppose you still "flush" your plant at harvest to get rid of all the "salts" 

you dinosaur :rofl: 

 

by ml per litre like the nute's that i am using/suggesting...... 

 

@iShouldCoCo when your nutes run out, Get ph perfect nute's.

That way if your tap water changes your not fucked. 

what you are doing is risky as fuck imo 

 

@stummer it's not really only a few quid lad, catweazle spent £170 on 2 EC and a PH pen's..... or spend a extra 10er on nute's. 

 

Mon then i'll take the lot of you :boxing:lol 

 

 

lol do I sound like a cunt if I say 170 these days is just a few quid? Not that I'm loaded because said before money depends on where your at at the time. A tenner when your skint has more value than a bullseye when you don't it. Just these days 170quid doesn't go that far.

 

Anyway I can't comment on the other type of nutes as just always used canna. Seems like there are options so just need to decide what works best for you. Best thing I would say is keep it simple, stick to the basics and just get some experience. 

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On 14/05/2020 at 9:44 AM, BonnieAuto said:

 

@iShouldCoCo when your nutes run out, Get ph perfect nute's.

 

That way if your tap water changes your not fucked. 

what you are doing is risky as fuck imo

 

We are all taking risks, it's about what level of risk you are comfortable with... I just had my biggest harvest, so I am happy with my level of risk. Curiosity and science will drive me to buy an EC and pH meter at some point soon though. I am in the process of switching over to Plant Magic Coco, so not planning on buying any more nutes this year but I'll bear that in mind.

"It's risky though" and "get an EC pen " are the takeaways from my comment :)

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