:smoking:
A-T' -- your well water, is it pre-filtered before it goes to the house? Likely, it's fine, at least fairly soft,... I missed where I saw what your tap water pH is, unadjusted? Get that TDS meter, brudda, it will be needed! You might not have to do a thing with your water... Did you bring water samples to work and test yet?
I've read up lots of stuff from Canna, the coco coir and nutrient company, and found this article that particularly relevant (
http://www.cannagardening.com/growing_on_coco_busting_the_myth ); there are others, but you have to poke around the site a bit to sift them out... About the best water to use, RO/Di vs tap (mild hardness), combined with their coco nute line, they say don't use straight RO-- (found this at a hydro store site->
CANNA USA | COCO
Canna Feed Chart
- From the first day onwards, apply RHIZOTONIC for an even better root development and a stronger vigorous plant; also apply RHIZOTONIC-solution on the leaves
- After about 1 week start using CANNAZYM. This enzyme and vitamin product facilitates the breakdown of dead plant material preventing the rotting of this organic material.It stimulates important soil microbes while increasing the intake of nutrients which insures that CANNA COCO can be re-used extremely well.
- Application: at least once a week
- Do not place too many plants per square foot (m2) plants will generally become larger on CANNA COCO and dependent, on the variety, will need more room compared to cultivating on rockwool or soil. Because of this, a bloom or harvest period could be started days earlier Measuring the drain water from the coconut substrate provides irrelevant information; steering with the use of such information can thus cause damage to the plant. So, no need for measurements when using CANNA fertilizer together with CANNA COCO in a normal setting.
- Always use fresh nutrient solution and feed as regularly as the plants can tolerate.
- Avoid using pure RO filtered water due to the formation of bicarbonates and reduced availability of nutrients. *( I'm not sure what's behind the chemistry of this, but I'll take it on faith- LOL!)
- If the tap water is hard then use a mixture of both tap and filtered water to reach a 0.2 to 0.5ec reading before mixing nutrients
- Always use equal volumes of A&B.
- Collect between 10% and 20% of the solution used at each feeding as runoff. ---> *( I think they mean allow, not collect)
.... By USA standards, 1.0EC = 500ppm (640pm EU), so from what BII got from the AN rep' and this, it seems a little hardness in the water is a good/required thing, depending on whose nute's you use, and if they're coco-specific.. this is what concerns me most, because the specific nute's are formulated to deal with the whole K balancing act with Ca and Mg and all that CEC confucksion!
-- the linked article helps make some sense of this, though it's worded oddly at times-- translation snafu's... Oh, also, multiple sources warn about using just water alone in coco, there must always be at least some mild nute dosage in there,... Of course, with the Autopots, this is moot!
-- but still important to know,...
>>
Rifleman--
thanks for pH the readings,... from what you said about their state, and the wacky readings they gave out of the calibration solution, they need multi-point 4-7-10 pH calibrating-- just in case you need them down the road-
-- as they stand, they aren't talkin' straight!
