"Joe Camel, post: 3322910, member: 88747"
But here is a breakdown since you're interested about it.
Fertilizing belongs to one of the most important gardening duties. Yet many cannabis cultivators do not know when the right time is to fertilize, how much to use, or how often. This is in part also caused by the lack of information supplied by the companies selling the fertilizer. To further complicate matters the recommended dosages are often quite confusing and tempt customers to use large amounts of fertilizer! If cultivators lack experience or, despite a good amount of gardening knowledge, they cannot find the cause of certain plant symptoms, it is very likely that they are constantly overfertilizing the plants.
To put an end to this negative trend, and because our strains grow perfectly well with only small amounts of fertilizer, we would like to share important tips from our many years of cultivation experience. By following these guidelines fertilizing your plants can become a secure routine and not a matter of life and death for your plants.
Lets start with the small print on the bottles. What many do not know: the recommended EC value is based on osmosis water with an EC of 0,0!
Example: Ionic recommends an EC of 2,0 for flowering in hydroponics. From this value the cultivators must deduct the EC of their tapwater in order to calculate the actual recommended dosage. Let's say your water has an EC of 0,6. Then we calculate 2,0 – 0,6 = 1,4 EC. The recommended maximum dosage is therefore 1,4 EC.
Canna and other Dutch companies generally recommend even higher values. So the necessity of being aware of this formula is quite apparent. Although one really must ask how the plants should survive long term on values of 2,0 – 2,2 EC, most customers actually use such strong dosages in their grow because they are unaware of this essential information. The result is not only a waste of fertilizer in hydroponic set-ups. Plant care also becomes much more complicated and problematic. Regular flushings with water are necessary at such high EC levels. On the one hand the plants grow very fast (they stretch, get leafy, etc.), and on the other hand they develop complex symptoms of over- and underfertilization from the high salt content in the substrate. In the end massive overdoses of nutrients lead to a high risk of mold in the flowering phase, reduced levels of resistance against pests, lower yields, and possibly pose a health risk from radioactive traces in the cannabis (from phosphate).
Soil
For the cultivation on soil there is a common rule among cultivators to use 50% of the recommended dosages. Growers follow this rule without actually knowing what salt concentration they are feeding their plants with. For soil cultivation an EC meter is the most important tool to find out what the proper dosage is. This is why everyone who values their plants should not save on this rather moderate investment of 50,- Euros!
To demonstrate how important the EC value is we have tested 5 popular types of fertilizer. Only the fertilizer for flowering was selected because during this phase growers fertilize the most (after the motto: more fertilizer = more yield) and during this part of the life cycle plants become increasingly sensitive to excess salts.
Before we look at the results it is important to understand one thing: generally one should never fertilizer more than 0,8 EC on soil. That's why the first important step is to find out what the EC of your tapwater is. In this example we are using a 50-50 mix of osmosis water and normal tapwater to get 0,43 EC. Obviously, if you have a value over 0,8 in your tapwater you have to lower the EC value through filtration. For small gardens it´s sufficient to use a Britt Filter if you do not have the money to buy a household osmosis filter (approx. 150,- Euros). The Britt filter can reduce the EC value by 0,15-0,20. Another alternative would be to buy 5L bottles of mineral water when you fertilize. Good mineral water has approx. 0,25 EC.
But here is a breakdown since you're interested about it.
Fertilizing belongs to one of the most important gardening duties. Yet many cannabis cultivators do not know when the right time is to fertilize, how much to use, or how often. This is in part also caused by the lack of information supplied by the companies selling the fertilizer. To further complicate matters the recommended dosages are often quite confusing and tempt customers to use large amounts of fertilizer! If cultivators lack experience or, despite a good amount of gardening knowledge, they cannot find the cause of certain plant symptoms, it is very likely that they are constantly overfertilizing the plants.
To put an end to this negative trend, and because our strains grow perfectly well with only small amounts of fertilizer, we would like to share important tips from our many years of cultivation experience. By following these guidelines fertilizing your plants can become a secure routine and not a matter of life and death for your plants.
Lets start with the small print on the bottles. What many do not know: the recommended EC value is based on osmosis water with an EC of 0,0!
Example: Ionic recommends an EC of 2,0 for flowering in hydroponics. From this value the cultivators must deduct the EC of their tapwater in order to calculate the actual recommended dosage. Let's say your water has an EC of 0,6. Then we calculate 2,0 – 0,6 = 1,4 EC. The recommended maximum dosage is therefore 1,4 EC.
Canna and other Dutch companies generally recommend even higher values. So the necessity of being aware of this formula is quite apparent. Although one really must ask how the plants should survive long term on values of 2,0 – 2,2 EC, most customers actually use such strong dosages in their grow because they are unaware of this essential information. The result is not only a waste of fertilizer in hydroponic set-ups. Plant care also becomes much more complicated and problematic. Regular flushings with water are necessary at such high EC levels. On the one hand the plants grow very fast (they stretch, get leafy, etc.), and on the other hand they develop complex symptoms of over- and underfertilization from the high salt content in the substrate. In the end massive overdoses of nutrients lead to a high risk of mold in the flowering phase, reduced levels of resistance against pests, lower yields, and possibly pose a health risk from radioactive traces in the cannabis (from phosphate).
Soil
For the cultivation on soil there is a common rule among cultivators to use 50% of the recommended dosages. Growers follow this rule without actually knowing what salt concentration they are feeding their plants with. For soil cultivation an EC meter is the most important tool to find out what the proper dosage is. This is why everyone who values their plants should not save on this rather moderate investment of 50,- Euros!
To demonstrate how important the EC value is we have tested 5 popular types of fertilizer. Only the fertilizer for flowering was selected because during this phase growers fertilize the most (after the motto: more fertilizer = more yield) and during this part of the life cycle plants become increasingly sensitive to excess salts.
Before we look at the results it is important to understand one thing: generally one should never fertilizer more than 0,8 EC on soil. That's why the first important step is to find out what the EC of your tapwater is. In this example we are using a 50-50 mix of osmosis water and normal tapwater to get 0,43 EC. Obviously, if you have a value over 0,8 in your tapwater you have to lower the EC value through filtration. For small gardens it´s sufficient to use a Britt Filter if you do not have the money to buy a household osmosis filter (approx. 150,- Euros). The Britt filter can reduce the EC value by 0,15-0,20. Another alternative would be to buy 5L bottles of mineral water when you fertilize. Good mineral water has approx. 0,25 EC.