Is EC critical?

[Should Know Betterer]

Hi all, next grow I'm intending to use CANNA coco professional+ as my medium, 1st time pure coco, long story short current grow ended up in a soil/coco mix and WOW I'm impressed with the growth, mates got a couple of plants in soil in my space at the mo and the difference is day and night, which has started my coco journey, I've read alot of diaries etc and it seems to me that EC readings play a major part in what you do, I've got what I call a 'brain fart' thing and as hard as I'm trying I just can't get my head around the EC thing, so after waffling on my actual question is can I grow in coco without having to do the EC stuff or would it be pointless to even attempt doing it without EC factored in,   maybe there's specific nutes etc that help, I don't know, thank you for any help

[highgrower]

I did a coco grow with hesi nutes and no ec pen/meter with ok results - you need to read the plants a bit but it is possible to do with no EC meter.

 

I was also a bit wtf about EC but it really is pretty simple.

 

Just say you need 5 litres of water - fill bucket, watering can or jug - whatever your holding the water in with 5 litres - then add the nutes according to the bottle(s) - stick in EC pen/meter and take reading - if its more than say your target EC which most ppl have as around 1.4-1.6 - you just add more water until it reaches the EC level you want.

 

Thats it - after a while you get a better sense of how much nutes to add to the amount of water and not have to dilute.  I very much doubt you will need to add more nutes rather than dilute unless your using distilled or ro water.

 

You then do the pH reading and add a tiny bit of pH up or down and take pH reading again until you are happy its where you want and water the plants - again you soon learn how much pH up/down to add and you dont have to keep adding a drop and take a reading.

 

Then pour on plants and your done watering.

 

 

 

 

[monkeypig]

I wouldn't start using coco without and ec meter and ph pen. It's really not hard and you'll get used to it on no time. After all, you've got enough people on here to help if you need it!

[Should Know Betterer]

Just now, highgrower said:

 

 

Just say you need 5 litres of water - fill bucket, watering can or jug - whatever your holding the water in with 5 litres - then add the nutes according to the bottle(s) - stick in EC pen/meter and take reading - if its more than say your target EC which most ppl have as around 1.4-1.6 - you just add more water until it reaches the EC level you want.

@highgrower that right there is the simplest explanation I've seen, thank you man my brain farts get it now, I didn't understand the dilution thing at all and it kinda makes sense to me now

@monkeypig thanks for the encouragement man appreciated. 

Hmm, best get me some new batteries for that EC pen that's been in the draw for the past 8years and get to practicing,  thanks all

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Darknight420710]

EC is important because you want to know the strength of your nutrients going into the plant at different grow phases.

 

Some check EC of the run off from the plants and I sometimes do that as ut helps knownwhats going on in tge roots but you would notice things wrong with the plant if there was a lock out. 

 

Ph is really important in coco so as other has said I wouldn't start a coco grow without a ec and ph pen... I found I went through more with cheaper pens and now have bluelab which a few coco growers use

Edited May 11, 2022 by Darknight420710

[Gaijin]

@Should Know Betterer apologies for jumping into your thread with a question, but I'll forget it if I don't ask it now  

 

I've seen a few folks on here very happy using a mixture of coco and soil - there seem to be benefits to adding coco. At what point would you lose the benefit of the soil doing the buffering for you? 

[ukbudz]

I'd best pack my coco grow away then since I don't use a ec or pH pen . 

 

If you can read a plant then there's no reason you can't grow without a ec pen. 

[Owderb]

This is only my experience with ph meters. I used to work in a shop and haven't seen one decent ph meter in all my 15 years there so started using a simple liquid tester. I think they are as good as any meter, far cheaper and no pissing about but heres the thing. Like I said this is what I do. Folk say you have to be at 6.0 ph in coco and keep it at 6.0. I used to think the same but haven't ph'd in years after a conversation with a chap who knew far more about horticulture than I could ever know. I use off the shelf Growers Ark nutrient with my .3ec and 7.3 background water and I know my ph after adding my nutrient is around 6.7-6.8. I never alter it and my plants are fine. Go figure

 

Owd

[SmokeTester]

Not surprising the guy is confused, he asks a question about ec and gets answers about ph.

[greengal]

A note to anyone who is looking to buy an EC meter… Make sure to get one that definitely measures EC, not just PPM (parts per million) as some do. There are at least three different measurements for PPM, which can be very confusing (I know this from experience!), whereas EC is EC and all meters read it the same. Also check that your meter is giving an accurate reading by calibrating it occasionally.   Sal

[rolio]

I used an EC pen because I'm completely new to growing and was advised it's important in Coco. 

 

It certainly helped me understand if I was doing things right or not! I have no idea how to read plants so i was reliant on it to get it right (or somewhere close ) 

 

Without the use of the EC pen I wouldn't have any bloody idea how much nutes to use so there's that too. I found it pretty easy to understand after searching the Googles for Coco EC uk420. Plenty of info on here that's easily understandable. 

 

Once I worked out how much nutes to put in I stopped using the pen but occasionally check run off to make sure it isn't getting really high. That's another thing I suppose, you can work out if there's any build up etc if you do use one. 

 

I can see why experienced growers don't need one but for me I found it pretty essential and definitely would have fucked shit riiiight up without it 

 

 

 

 

[Should Know Betterer]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I feel a bit more confident about the whole EC thing now, still don't understand it but that'll come with use I'm sure, and thanks to highgrowers excellent explanation I'll be EC'ing from the start of next grow in a few weeks, until like owd says I'll be able to read the plants , after 10+years in soil I'm very excited about coco ways, was lazy this grow and local shop only had Allmix, not a fan, so I got a bag of coco to mix in with some old part bags of Litemix from my cupboards,  and the results are chalk and cheese to my soil grows, which made me realise there must definitely be something to this coco ways, exciting times 

[catweazle1]

1 hour ago, rolio said:

I can see why experienced growers don't need one but for me I found it pretty essential and definitely would have fucked shit riiiight up without it 

Some people like to learn the hard way. I don't measure runoff as a routine now, but  practice and knowing the numbers means  I don't have to now. Meters tell you what's happening before shit happens. 

Edited May 11, 2022 by catweazle1

[mysticriver]

15 hours ago, Should Know Betterer said:

I'll be EC'ing from the start of next grow

I use a £5 pen off t'bay instead of my bluelab truncheon

they read in us/cm - for each 0.1 ec that the bluelab reads, the ec pen breaks it down into 100 units

 

 

mystic

[catweazle1]

@mysticriver The BL is for mixing. You only need the fractional accuracy for testing the base purity of your water... which you can find out  for free on your water authority website. 0.1ec accuracy is more than sufficient for measuring runoff, mixing and the like. 

Edited May 12, 2022 by catweazle1