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EC and PH


the punter

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13 hours ago, stu914 said:

There's your problem, I bet you tried to adjust PH as well?

 

And that is a bet you would lose. Didnt try to adjust anything, just wanted to test it to know what ph it came out at because I like to track things and keep records. And like tens of thousands of others on pretty much every forum on the internet, I had nothing but problems with it. Even on these forums you will find plenty of threads of Ph perfect shit killing everything it touches. Fair play on you if you can get it to work, but you are pretty much the only person I have ever heard say anything good about it. Personally, I think Advanced Nutrients are 95% marketing, 5% bullshit. I use Canna and have never had a single issue ever.

Edited by Lemons&Diesel
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  • 2 weeks later...

@Lemons&Diesel If you have softish water, It seems to work fine. It's when it's hard I have doubts about its buffering ability being superior to other established makes..

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45 minutes ago, catweazle1 said:

@Lemons&Diesel If you have softish water, It seems to work fine. It's when it's hard I have doubts about its buffering ability being superior to other established makes..

 

That seems to be the general consensus that ive seen. Seems that it basically only works with RO water.

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Hi, I've grown in coco now for a good few years. I use Vita Link coco nutrients for soft water (I have soft water) I've never checked ph or ec. I grow healthy plants and get very good yields. Hope this helps...

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I have found lots of nutrients (tried loads of brands) in the past  it tends  to get the PH to buffer around 6.2-6.4 if it falls in that range don't bother adjusting it.  I found PH swings are in recirculating hydro systems or if you have  an air pump in a reservoir. I still have a bottle of PH down from 20+ years ago and it as not been touched since, TBH you will probably grow better not messing with PH  I was having problems when I was trying to get the PH to stay at 5.8 every day  and my plants looked like crap.

as for the E.C you could as suggested follow the bottles instructions less fussing about very time you go in to the room dipping hit in the water and worrying is everything perfect. If you see any signs of problems just dump the res  and make a new batch but you will be using hand watering? so that should not matter. The problems most people have with nutrient's is because of the other supper must have additive added once added to  the tank problems start to appear.

 

p.s my water is 7.2 get litmus paper or take a sample of water  to the pet shop and ask them to take a reading for you with a sample of full strength nutrient keep mixing the same every batch  tell them you are thinking of buying a fish tank and fish they will be more than happy to test it 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for your advice Lennyd79 and 9inchbigbud, sorry for the late reply. I too have soft water ph7, I like the sound of vita Link ,  I think I would prefer hand watering because recirculating hydro sounds beyond my knowledge. I think i will get Vita Link and forget ph , I'm going to grow 2 in soil and 2 in coco to practice on, that way at least I  should have something to harvest if it turns to shite. Following the instructions on the bottle is the way I'll be going I think and see what happens. Thanks again for everyone's advice, I'll be back again if I run in to any problems. cheers.

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@the punter  I use coco and use green haze a + b grow / bloom..I put a + b in and ec to 0.8 for seeds, 1.0 + for veg up to 1.2 - 1.4 max for flower (depending what plant looks like, less has been more for me) 

 

ph for seedlings and veg is roughly 5.7 -5.9 ish  and around 6 for flower with no wild swings in ph ..  going from 6.5 down to 5.7 might be a bit much but I do let it drift up gradually from 6 ish then return it every couple of days..that seems to help loads for me ( probably all wrong but working  hehe) .

 

these are almost the basic standard settings I use and so far so good..the healthiest plants I have grown has been the least I’ve done to them .  Good luck with the grow and keep they roots warm. Cheers g :skin_up:ps. Thanks to all on here for their help on getting my groom under control.. great forum

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Thanks for your  help gonge, I'm still finding it hard to get my head around all the numbers no matter how much reading up on it I do, I'm ok with normal hand watering in soil but its EC pens and the PH that are baffling. I was wondering about the coco itself, do you buy it in a block or is the stuff in a bag better. Also i have a heat mat under the pots with the probe halfway down inside one of them and set at 24c so hoping iv set it up right so thanks for that as well, any more advice would be welcome.

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@the punter if you get the right feed for your water you shouldn't need to pH.  Also, when you've used the feed for a grow you will know how many mils = the ec you want anyway.

I don't pH in coco and rarely use the ec stick, mainly just for checking run off if there's an issue. 

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Thanks fatboy77 , not using the ec stick and ph makes me think I'd be ok, would I get away with having no ec pen at all  then do you think or would i still need one in case I need to check it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

You can defo get away without checking EC but be sure to keep the feed light (half strength as an absolute maximum) and make sure you have plenty of run off. 

 

That said, checking the run off can be a lifesaver and I'd defo try to get your head around it in future

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  • 6 months later...

Quick question about ec if yous don’t mind. If you’re looking for an ec of say 1.5 and your background waters 0.5. Are you aiming for a combined ec of 2 of would It be 1.5 including your .5 tap water 

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