New Grower My first grow

[PeaceLove&Buds]

I hear and feel all of that. pH meters can be expensive, and are worth the coin once you get growing but EC meters are inexpensive and invaluable. It can really feel like there is so much extra stuff to buy when you are first starting out but I highly highly recommend the EC/ppm pen. Coco is a bit more technical than soil growing but I think it's quite easy to handle. Just check that pH and watch the volume in / volume out.

The HM Digital COM-80 is around $20-30 off amazon. I would pick up their 342ppm calibration fluid as well. It says calibrated out of the box but mine was a bit off, very easy to use and calibrate. No storage fluid needed either.


Amazon product

So what exactly does it measure? I’m not at all against spending money, its more the routine I’m trying to keep simple.

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Journal Day 2

All 4 new seeds sprouted yesterday with the last one being my 3rd helmet head. Note to self to plant a little deeper from now on. I forced their 2 older sisters (7 days old) to deal with 24hr light and the higher temp and humidity til they sprouted but now they’ll coexist comfortably (hopefully) in 75 degrees with low-mid 60s rh and on a 16/8 light schedule. This is a good example of the many guesses I will make along the way, but thats exactly the fun in this for me. Older girls start full nutes today.

 

[DCLXVI]

So what exactly does it measure? I’m not at all against spending money, its more the routine I’m trying to keep simple.

There is a lot to it but the short version: EC or PPM is the amount of "stuff" in your water. The strength of your nutrient concentration. Testing your tap water to get an idea of how much is in it will help you dial in your feeding regimen. It will also help you not overdo it on strength. As far as routine goes, simply mix up your nutrients and test the pH and ppm at the same time. Dip one in, dip the other. I hang mine on the side of my mixing vessel.

If a nutrient line says add 1ml A and 1ml B to 1 litre of water, that's nice and easy but how strong is that? Autoflowers typically don't need the strength that photoperiod plants do. 50-80% is usually enough and sometimes too much. Being able to test and see the #'s is very helpful. Adjust as needed.

With coco I like to test the runoff and compare to the input #s. It helps me know if there is getting to be a salt build up or if the plant needs more/less strength or volume. If your input fertigation is 500ppm and your runoff is 300ppm, you could push nutrient strength up a bit. If your input is 500ppm and the runoff is 800ppm, then you know to either decrease strength or flush more volume through until the runoff #s drop. The plant will tell you how strong is good or too much.

There is a lot of reading you can do on EC, electrical conductivity, which can be converted to ppm. I like ppm as it gives me a 3 digit number as opposed to the EC scale which is in 0.1 increments. EC is more accurate but ah, that's a whole 'nother discussion.

There are some far more knowledgeable growers on here than I. @arty zan has a nice write up on EC, I'll try and find the link for you.

 

[DCLXVI]

AH! Here it is, interesting to note that different manufacturers use different scales when making their feed charts. Hence, knowing your numbers is important.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/ec-ppm-cf-tds-conversion-chart.54834/

 

[Dr Fluff]

@DCLXVI Here's the info i gave to @Waira https://www.autoflower.org/threads/ec-ppm-cf-tds-conversion-chart.54834/#post-1686006

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Thank you so much for your time. Looks like I‘ll be reading at work this morning!

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Journal Day 3

Hopefully fellow newbies will see this grow one day to learn from my mistakes and your experience fixing them because I’ll be asking questions along the way so I have a nice cheat sheet here to refer back to. (Us old stoners tend to forget a thing or two). Anyways what was I saying….oh yeah questions!

Quick one on ppfd…I live in great weather for growing outdoors (would if I could) and I measured stuff where they would be located if these babies were outside. They’d be at 72 degrees 62 RH and 1290 ppfd. I’m trying to start lower and work up as I’ve read many veterans here do. But knowing this, maybe I can not be TOO concerned with being a bit high? While the seeds were soaking I kind of mapped my tent and it’s going to be more efficient for me to be at 430ish ppfd right now whereas I see many are at 2-300. This trend will continue so I’d like to confirm that a little extra isn’t harmful?

As for the girls everyone seems happy, not much to look at for a while I suppose but I’m going to take a pic each day. Ive brought my ph number down to 5.9-6.0 thanks to my growmie here and decided to do a 1/4 dose of nutes for day 3 & 4 with the 3 day olds. Temp/RH is 75/63, 1 tent fan oscillating low setting but not direct on plants, and humidifier is turned off. Exhaust fan set to 4 and 77/65 max, runs about 30% of the time. That’s about it! Peace

 

[PeaceLove&Buds]

Journal Day 5

Everyone on full nutes now. 75/65 in tent. 16/8 lights. My lights are off from 10a-6p simply because it’s the hottest part of the day. No sense fighting higher outside temps to keep my tent steady and comfy. Pots are on elevators & saucers with air circulating and bottoms are always wet. Instinct tells a newbie to not water in fear of overwatering but i picked coco just SO I could water every day. My understanding going in is that coco demands feeding every day to runoff so that’s what I’m doing. Didnt want to hassle much with water issues in soil as a rookie. And it seems logical that as roots develop the bottom will get drier and drier in between feedings.

The older girls are 12 days old and while they’re twins (Strawberry Nuggets x Skywalker) I love how one is a little chubbier than the other! Everyone seems happy so I’ll keep on keeping on. Peace

 

[hope2grow]

Journal Day 5

Everyone on full nutes now. 75/65 in tent. 16/8 lights. My lights are off from 10a-6p simply because it’s the hottest part of the day. No sense fighting higher outside temps to keep my tent steady and comfy. Pots are on elevators & saucers with air circulating and bottoms are always wet. Instinct tells a newbie to not water in fear of overwatering but i picked coco just SO I could water every day. My understanding going in is that coco demands feeding every day to runoff so that’s what I’m doing. Didnt want to hassle much with water issues in soil as a rookie. And it seems logical that as roots develop the bottom will get drier and drier in between feedings.

The older girls are 12 days old and while they’re twins (Strawberry Nuggets x Skywalker) I love how one is a little chubbier than the other! Everyone seems happy so I’ll keep on keeping on. PeaceView attachment 1469470View attachment 1469471View attachment 1469472

Off to a great start m8

 

[DCLXVI]

Looking very well in there! If you're following a feed chart, be careful ramping up to full dose. Those charts are typically for photoperiods and an auto can take from 50-80% and do very well. It's easier to add than subtract.