Indoor EC levels. Advice required.
- Thread starter sey420
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Jimmy McGill
Into the light.
Hey, ec is the electrical conductivity of a solution. It is the total amount of dissolved salts in your water. Pure water being non conductive, you can determine the amount of salts dissolved in water by measuring it's conductivity with an ec/ppm meter, therefor you can determine how much "food" you give your plants when watering.
If you are growing using organic medium and nutes, ec is basically non relevant but if you use "synthetic" nutes in an inert media it is always a good idea to check the ec to know if you are feeding you plants properly. If you give too little "food" to your plants, they will develop deficiencies and grow slowly and malformed. If you give too much, you will burn your plants as the high concentration of salt will literally pull the water out of your plants through the roots and shock them.
About levels, it depends on the medium and the requirements of your plants but, overall I'd say:
seedlings ~ 0.4ec
young plants (2 to 5 sets of leaves) ~ 0.6 to 0.8ec
vegetative plants (5 sets+) ~ 0.8 to 1.2ec
flowering plants ~ 1.0 to 1.6ec
Off course, you should watch your plants and adapt these levels to their specific needs. Some plants will require ec levels higher than 1.6 in flowering but I would personally avoid getting much higher. It is always best to start low and increase the ec level when needed.
There are loads of excellent guides about ec and feeding in general on these forums and on other websites, I'd invite you to read them thoroughly in order to get a good knowledge of the nutrients/watering requirements of these plants as it is all so easy to mess it up in the beginning. Good luck.
If you are growing using organic medium and nutes, ec is basically non relevant but if you use "synthetic" nutes in an inert media it is always a good idea to check the ec to know if you are feeding you plants properly. If you give too little "food" to your plants, they will develop deficiencies and grow slowly and malformed. If you give too much, you will burn your plants as the high concentration of salt will literally pull the water out of your plants through the roots and shock them.
About levels, it depends on the medium and the requirements of your plants but, overall I'd say:
seedlings ~ 0.4ec
young plants (2 to 5 sets of leaves) ~ 0.6 to 0.8ec
vegetative plants (5 sets+) ~ 0.8 to 1.2ec
flowering plants ~ 1.0 to 1.6ec
Off course, you should watch your plants and adapt these levels to their specific needs. Some plants will require ec levels higher than 1.6 in flowering but I would personally avoid getting much higher. It is always best to start low and increase the ec level when needed.
There are loads of excellent guides about ec and feeding in general on these forums and on other websites, I'd invite you to read them thoroughly in order to get a good knowledge of the nutrients/watering requirements of these plants as it is all so easy to mess it up in the beginning. Good luck.
I've grown in soil before now. This time round using coco. I have noticed one of my 3 plants has what looks like a nitrogen deficiency other two are doing fine. Not much vertical growth. But budding out nicely. Been feeding them the same so unsure as to why one is not doing so well. I have an EC reader but never known how to use it.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge
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Thank you for sharing your knowledge
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Jimmy McGill
Into the light.
Since you are growing in coco you should check your water for pH and ec as your are growing in a passive hydro setup. Many deficiencies in coco are in fact lockups caused by salt buildup in the coco or overwatering or pH value of your feedings. Take time to know your water and your nutes as it is a must in coco. It is worth your time, coco can yield wonderfully when done properly.
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