EC vs PPM

Just came from a different post but is seemed like a good idea to make it in its own post.

Why the hell is the USA so stuck on using ppm's? EC so much easier as a standard. When talking with ppm's, location is a huge life changer.

Imagine youre a new grower still figuring out his feel schedule. You go on the same sites you used for advice that made you choose DWC, and now your asking about ppm's. So you're talking to a guy, he's telling you that you're a bit low on ppm's. Come to find out after you've nutrient burnt the hell out of her, that the "well known" guy you've been talking to is in Australia and you're in the USA.

Then, when you've been talking to this guy on what went wrong, another guy from Europe puts his two cents in.
Just doesn't make sense to me. Why use ppm's? Every country has its own version of what the ppm scale is.

The same reason we don't use the metric system like all the rest of the world. Seems to me that EC and the metric system make everything a lot simpler.

MickFoster said:

The same reason we don't use the metric system like all the rest of the world. Seems to me that EC and the metric system make everything a lot simpler.

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Yeah, but that's like every country not using the metric scale and using their own standard. It's insane! The veteran growers should set an example to the new growers.

I was speaking to another grower, in a different post about my EC being too high. He asked me what the ppm's were. That's how this started.

I'm like, "gees, what country are you in?"

Dumme said:

Just came from a different post but is seemed like a good idea to make it in its own post.

Why the hell is the USA so stuck on using ppm's? EC so much easier as a standard. When talking with ppm's, location is a huge life changer.

Imagine youre a new grower still figuring out his feel schedule. You go on the same sites you used for advice that made you choose DWC, and now your asking about ppm's. So you're talking to a guy, he's telling you that you're a bit low on ppm's. Come to find out after you've nutrient burnt the hell out of her, that the "well known" guy you've been talking to is in Australia and you're in the USA.

Then, when you've been talking to this guy on what went wrong, another guy from Europe puts his two cents in.
Just doesn't make sense to me. Why use ppm's? Every country has its own version of what the ppm scale is.

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It is this way in America because of the illegal collusion of 'hydro store' suppliers. The more confusion that can be sown in the discussion about nutrients, the more uneducated people can be fooled into paying fifty or a hundred times more for fertilizers than they're actually worth.

There's a whole pseudo science of nonsense jargon built up around plant nutrition, to the point where the uneducated hobbyist might even defend his outlandishly expensive water bottles as being somehow better than the base fertilizer chemicals they too were mixed from, just like every other nutrient.

So they found little used ppm scales corresponding only to specific minerals in the water and used those 'standards'.

Worse, different nutrient companies actually deliberately use different ppm scales, just to promote confusion and sucker the ill informed into thinking their brand is the 'only' good brand.

EC is already the standard; all other scales are conversions FROM this basic measurement.

While we're on the subject, don't fall into the trap of using cheap water quality testing instruments. Your EC, temperature and pH meters are your eyes and ears to the world of your roots, so don't settle for cheap sunglasses.

Dumme said:

Yeah, but that's like every country not using the metric scale and using their own standard. It's insane! The veteran growers should set an example to the new growers.

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Believe me, we do! We don't have millions of dollars of slick marketing campaigns backing our message, however.

I'm in Maine, USA, btw. Just so you guys know I'm talking shit about myself and not the other guy...

Dumme said:

I'm in Maine, USA, btw. Just so you guys know I'm talking shit about myself and not the other guy...

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I'm in Colorado, one of the hydro store scam capitals of the planet!

ttystikk said:

I'm in Colorado, one of the hydro store scam capitals of the planet!

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Lol, funny you say that. I don't really make money. My margins are like 14%. To put it in perspective I sell FF ocean forest 1.5 cf for $12.50 right now.

ttystikk said:

I'm in Colorado, one of the hydro store scam capitals of the planet!

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hey tty, you ever heard the # of hydro/grow stores in CO? think they are about equal to dispensaries?

Dumme said:

Lol, funny you say that. I don't really make money. My margins are like 14%. To put it in perspective I sell FF ocean forest 1.5 cf for $12.50 right now.

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Oh, I know- I was talking about Sunlight Supply and their warehouse in Denver, among others.

Lol, they are one of my suppliers! Hydrofarm too. I had to sign a contract saying I wouldn't advertise any less than 10% of MSRP.
A little TO'ed about it. I said screw it, advertising their MSRP as mt retail and hung a sign up that says "We match online retailers prices".
It's a little more work looking up prices on every sale, but my customers don't mind with the money they save.

to dumme to answer your question:

i remember when i was first starting out. i printed out a ppm/EC chart. it had 3 columns for ppm and 1 for EC. wtf? EC all the way