Status update, let this be a lesson to those that read through this.
I've lived in many countries and in those countries - in many cities. I've never used an EC meter because I never saw signs I'd be needing one.
in my current city, this is my first grow. at first I thought the clumsiness was just me coming from Photoperiod and either over-nuting or not yet understanding the autos very well.
Well, since I still wasn't happy with the way they're recovering, I decided to go out and buy an EC meter.
well folks, turns out my tap water comes in at a staggering EC = 1 (997uS/cm, actual reading from the meter).
This was, for me, a scary experience obviously because I was probably locking up something in the root zone (more about that later) but more importantly: let's forget the plants for a minute, WHAT THE HECK AM I DRINKING EACH DAY?!?!
Obviously, I'm now waiting for my RO filters to arrive fortunately I can easily install them under my sink.
So, I went to a friendly growshop owner I'm acquainted with here and asked him if I'm nuts or smth and he stared me straight in the eyes and told me:
"kid, ain't nobody in this city that grows without RO water" - well... duh!
he also added that the community here tested the water at different times and
"each time it comes different, so you can't even know what you dropped in the soil the last few weeks anyway" - awesome news!
So, started to apply some healing to the girls with bottled water.
I have some still water with 24mg / L calcium and 29mg / L magnesium. since I'm growing under spiderfarmer LEDs with BiobizzAllMix soil, the first watering applied (today):
I skipped the Biobizz CalMag (probably soil is already heavy on these in one way or another) and let the plant sort it out herself.
Based on what I start seeing the next few waterings, I'll add CalMag if she really needs it.
Right now I'm concerned I'm actually blocking a basic ingredient being absorbed by being either to Cal heavy, Mag heavy or not having the correct ratio of these two.
I've lived in many countries and in those countries - in many cities. I've never used an EC meter because I never saw signs I'd be needing one.
in my current city, this is my first grow. at first I thought the clumsiness was just me coming from Photoperiod and either over-nuting or not yet understanding the autos very well.
Well, since I still wasn't happy with the way they're recovering, I decided to go out and buy an EC meter.
well folks, turns out my tap water comes in at a staggering EC = 1 (997uS/cm, actual reading from the meter).
This was, for me, a scary experience obviously because I was probably locking up something in the root zone (more about that later) but more importantly: let's forget the plants for a minute, WHAT THE HECK AM I DRINKING EACH DAY?!?!
Obviously, I'm now waiting for my RO filters to arrive fortunately I can easily install them under my sink.
So, I went to a friendly growshop owner I'm acquainted with here and asked him if I'm nuts or smth and he stared me straight in the eyes and told me:
"kid, ain't nobody in this city that grows without RO water" - well... duh!
he also added that the community here tested the water at different times and
"each time it comes different, so you can't even know what you dropped in the soil the last few weeks anyway" - awesome news!
So, started to apply some healing to the girls with bottled water.
I have some still water with 24mg / L calcium and 29mg / L magnesium. since I'm growing under spiderfarmer LEDs with BiobizzAllMix soil, the first watering applied (today):
I skipped the Biobizz CalMag (probably soil is already heavy on these in one way or another) and let the plant sort it out herself.
Based on what I start seeing the next few waterings, I'll add CalMag if she really needs it.
Right now I'm concerned I'm actually blocking a basic ingredient being absorbed by being either to Cal heavy, Mag heavy or not having the correct ratio of these two.
don't even think about the runoff currently sitting at EC 12 :smoking: )
), buds swelling constantly.
