While on the topic of feeding, I don't recall much advice at all about feed temperature.Well, Yes and No...... You have no way to know what was in that 500PPM coming out. Run-off is a poor indicator of what is actually happening in the pot although in hydro the information can be useful to determine trends. Roots of the plant will exude chemicals that change the PH of the root biome. It does this to tell the microbes to make more or less P-K available to the plant. Yes there is a microbe biome even in DWC. The microbes work overnight to make these ions so the plant can uptake them as soon as transpiration begins in the morning. This is why you do not want to start fertigation until after transpiration has started one or two hours after lights on. If you start fertigating too soon you wash these ions out of the root zone. In a well managed coco grow this is not as critical as in soil because theoretically our nutrient blend has these ions available anyhow, that said GroDan (Rock Wool) preaches never to fertigate prior to transpiration!
What comes out of the pot is not as critical as what goes in. If you PH properly going in the nutrients will be available to the plant.
I am always happy to add myto a grower asking questions. I don't have all of the answers and new science comes out every day. So read what others say, research, question everything and take it all into consideration then decide on a path forward After all you are the farmer!
Wiith regular drain-to-waste top feeding in coco/perlite (or other non-soil medium), what is the optimal temperature, both for the feed water and the coco/medium? For example, is it better for feed to be at room or in-tent (warmer) ambient temp. or cooler (water carries more gasses/O2)? What should be coco/media core temperature? When, if ever, should we try to adjust the medium's temperature using feed water?
Temperature was a driving factor in my move to rock wool from DWC. My tent can reach the mid 90s in the summer daytime here. I had DWC res temps as high as 85°F. If it were not for HydroGuard that crop would have been a 100% failure. I got a fair harvest but the quality was shit compared to what I grow now. Another important aspect was a huge saving in nutrient costs. Rock wool fertigation is much more economical.
