Grow Mediums A-Train needs info on the coco for future run... help a brother out.

[Ilynnboy]

Thanks Meef Chief.
I appreciate it.

 

[AWhitnam]

...sounds solid my friend-... as long as the coco's thirst for Ca, and to a lesser degree, Mg are slaked, adding a little Ca-Mg should be fine to see that through!... I'd still get a basic TDS meter though, a very handy tool... In the Autopots, this isn't applicable, but from what I'm reading about soilless media, occasional looks at your input ppm and run-off ppm can help keep an eye on potential salt build-ups or other feed conc. issues,...

When you messure tds, you are checking what exactly?? The amount of nutrients the plant takes?

 

[AWhitnam]

Im quite confused regarding the nutrient/water reserve tank on the autopots ,when do i refill?do i empty the remaining water/nutrient solution?

 

[Fantasy Island]

When you measure tds, you are checking what exactly?? The amount of nutrients the plant takes?

TDS= total dissolved solids. For you, that would mean how much nutrients you have in your water.


This is how it works out for me using the AN full line up. Your results may vary.


So you would start at around 100-140 ppm (Seedling) and get up to 800-900 ppm(flower) if they can handle it. How this should work out for you is when you get to 800 ppm you should be sitting around 1/2 the recommended dose. To even better understand test it out. Test your water plain. then add your nutes at 1/4 strength and that will be your 300-400 ppm. If it's more than that you are going to want to cut back on your nutes until you get in the range you need. Your waters starting PPM will determine how much you need to add in the end. I use RO water so my ppm is less than 1 so all of my PPM is what I add.

So let's say you are starting to burn your ladies and you are feeding at 900 ppm you would start backing it off let's say 800 is the sweet spot. Now you know you need to add your nutrients till you get to 800ppm. In another example lets say you mix up some nutes while you are completely baked, you finish up your mix and take a measurement and it is 1200ppm and you know your lady can only handle 800ppm so what do you do? Just add more water until it hits 800....Done. Let's say you mix up at 1/2 strength and it only comes up to 600ppm.What do you do? well this one is different you can decide what to add whether it be more bloom or any of your boosters.

Hope this helpssome dude. I know I had issues understanding all of this but once you do it several times its real simple.

 

[Fantasy Island]

Im quite confused regarding the nutrient/water reserve tank on the autopots ,when do i refill?do i empty the remaining water/nutrient solution?

Some start over fresh and others add to it. Both ways work adding to it will save some money but starting fresh means you know what you are feeding every time. If you decide to add to it. You will need to keep an eye on your PPM.

 

[MeefChief]

I always associated PPM with hydro. Interesting.. Food for thought.

 

[Waira]

I just use tap water it's soft to very soft it doesn't show up on my blue lab truncheon I measured it with an old tds metre and it was 50 my problem was it took my ph to low it was ok when I adjusted it back to 5.8 oh and I used coco specific nutes even big bud coco still needed calmag

-- Ooh man, to have tap that naturally nice,... seriously Wile'E, that's like snow melt! ... Roger that on the additional Ca-Mg use ....some questions if you don't mind: used start to finish? How low did the nutes take your pH? Was that before, after, or if, you added Ca-Mg, or anything else? ...Did you develop Ca defc. at some point? ... I wonder what the nutes (alone) are supposed to pH buffer to,...seems I saw something about that somewhere -- Thanks Wile'E!

So you have now made me check my ph for my AN coco nutes lol.so after mixing my nutes and cal/mag my ph is 7.0.but my runoff is ph 6.0 i checked this 4 times and the ph of the runoff is exaclty the same everytime.does this mean it buffers it after entering the medium.now i am going to get the misses to hide my ph pen and go back to not worrying about it hahahahahaha

Hey 2Stoned, did that Ca defc. get fixed? ... Ah, see what I'm driving at here-- stuff I need to know myself to better help other coco nuts! You mix in your CaMg in and get a pretty high pH @ 7.0,... what's your water source? ....we'll see what WileE says about his mixing - hey, does it say on the bottle anywhere what the nute solution is supposed to pH buffer to? .... Well, straight run-off pH isn't an accurate measure of actual in-media pH,... a common error made when folks use the run-off pH test method, which when done wrong is full of measurement errors; that said, all I can say for sure is it's acidic in there- ...the best thing is always direct measurement, with a quality in-media pH probe like the Accurate 8,... Otherwise, here's a link to an improved method for run-off testing.. run it if you like and see what about it is--- https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...-for-run-off-testing-and-ph-estimation.41733/

FWIW I use tap water. pH is 8.2 or higher, ppm from 150 to 170. My large tote dwc holds 20 gallons, I replenish in 5 gal increments. The last res change was two weeks ago when I changed to a bloom diet. It is a bit of an experiment but I don't plan on changing the res again until after harvest when I clean up. If AN buffering runs out, or expires, I'm sure I'll notice before the rest of you. Keep an eye out for me sitting in the corner crying if I fail.

:smoking:Rifleman, how's it growin' mate? ... I'm curious too, about how well the nute's hold the pH, even in a static environment,... are you mixing 5gal nutes at a time, or dosing the whole 20gal tote, I first should ask..?... do take pH after mixing, or later on?

>>> AWhit'm-- like FI says, total dissolve solid= ionic solids, that is, charged +/- ions,... Ca++, Mg++, CO3--, NO3+, etc.... so, ppm= parts per million of theses ions... TDS and EC are almost the same thing; TDS is an extrapolation of EC (Electroconductivity) in fact... EC tells you how well electrical current is passed through the water (pure is poor at it); the more ions, the better the conductivity... more ions=more ppm! That's basically what the TDS meter is measuring,... Now, that said, there is a catch: not all dissolved solids are ionic... take sugar for example: it doesn't form an ion in water, it's a neutrally charged molecule, so in a way, the EC and TDS meters are blind to them, they are "swept under the rug" in a sense, but because they aren't charged, they aren't interacting with the buffering chemistry, and can be for all practical purposes, ignored!

>> FI buddy-- I like it! Thanks for further fog clearing....

 

[MeefChief]

@Waira

 

[Rifleman]

@Waira , I mix 5 gallons when she needs it and then pump that into the reservoir. When she is down five gallons again I repeat the process. I do the same thing in my buckets, but in one gallon increments. I never check pH. I keep an eye on ppm, and plant condition only. My last harvest was three plants for 34.1 ounces. I have a little confidence in AN. :smoking:

 

[BII]

I recently asked an AN "help line" rep about using tap water and whether to pH feed water if using a pH Perfect base. The company line/hype seems to be that everything will be "ph Perfect" as long as the source water is less than about 150 ppm and you only put in pH Perfect-compatible additives (the one's shown in the feed charts as used with the pH Perfect line), These friendly additives do not include additives that are salts, e.g., Ca/Mg. I told him of my concern about Ca/Mg due to growing autoflowers in coco under LEDs. He said obviously add any needed additives, but try to keep the amounts low, that there is usually not a problem, and that it's still the best nutes around even if not starting out 'perfect.'

The company rep also noted that trying to correct pH, either before or after mixing, is very much the wrong thing to do -- You are just adding more salts/ionic content, more stuff for ph Perfect to have to work against. He said don't be concerned at all about the pH after mixing (if starting with low ppm/EC water), that pH Perfect works, provides readily bioavailable nutrients, through a wide range of pH after mixing.

So I have just been using distilled or RO/DI water; mixing up pH Perfect Connoisseur A&B at 2.5 mL/L with other friendly additives (without high salt/ionic content); and feeding that without even checking pH. So far, all pre-bloom, a month after starting from seeds in a standard 4-pot Autopots with AirDomes setup, no problems (doing better than in Airpots). I have been doing 2x weekly foliar feeding including a good dose of Ca/Mg. With the plants going into bloom soon, I plan to continue to simply mix feed, including routine and needed additives, without checking pH.

But previously, I had no problems when using pH Perfect Connoisseur A&B with my tap water that is generally about 250 ppm, e.g., had 4 of 7 plants yield ≥1/4 lb. I presume it likely that pH Perfect nutes are just better than other nutrient bases (at the same pH in coco).