MY PPM's ARE THROUGH THE ROOF!!

Hey Everyone.. I am having an interesting issue after moving into a new grow room.. It seems that if I dont run my PPM's incredibly high, my plants just begin to yellow from the bottom and start throwing out all sorts of deficiencies, so I increase my EC and they green back up and begin to grow again. At this point I would say, GREAT, no big deal, but at this point I am at an EC of 6.0!!! Which is OFF THE CHARTS, Cant be, and is not good for the plants.. I cant understand why they aren't Burning to a crisp over night.

I am running a Sealed Room
Hempy Buckets (All Perlite & Perlite Coco Mix)
CO2 Set to 500ppm (mother room)
1200 BTU Mini Split
(4) 600 Watt Cool Tubes (closed loop)
Daytime Temp = 83
Nighttime Temp = 75
Humidity = 50% - 70%
PH = 5.8-6.0

These Newly sprouted Seedlings we sprouted on the 15th and transplanted into cups on the 17th, so they are only 12 days old and feeding on an EC of 1.2, and still looking a bit Limey Green.


The clones are are getting an EC of 2.5. They have been requiring a 50ppm Bump every day (we water once daily)



These girls are getting an EC of 2.7. They took a little while to green up. They were very yellow after transplant, and require major Bumps in EC in order to get them to green. They just finally turned a nice healthy green, but if I dont continue to raise the EC daily, they will begin to yellow again, then show other deficiencies, and eventually tank.


I have no Idea why this is happening or how to solve the issue. I have tried to unseal the room for Passive Ventilation, but this did not help in any way.. My Environment is good as far as I can see.. I am keeping the Feed as simple as possible using Maxi Bloom/Grow, as well as a local companies blend, but nothing seems to matter, the plants are just screaming for more PPM's.

I do believe the High EC is causing some issues (lower leaf necrosis), but if I dont ride them high, the issues get worse.

Has anyone else come across this issue? I could sure use so helpful advice on this one.

This is the lower section of the plant. you can see the yellowing and deficiencies before bumping up the EC.



This one shows new growth after bumping up the EC, yet you can see the necrosis on the fan fan leaf next to it.

A lot of that looks like light deficiency, The stuff on the bottom especially.

Yea, that's what I thought too, but its happening to smaller plants as well, where it just should not be happening, and its not an issue I usually have.

Take the bottom pic for example, perfectly healthy growth right next to what might look like light deficiency.

Have you calibrated your meter recently? I rarely have to go beyond 1.2-1-4 EC..

Even my chilis don't like anything above 2.8 EC.

pajautus said:

Have you calibrated your meter recently? I rarely have to go beyond 1.2-1-4 EC..

Even my chilis don't like anything above 2.8 EC.

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Yep, meters were the first thing I check, I figured with the EC so High, I should test other meters.. It is what it is, the plants continue to require more and more PPM's,, It just doesn't make sense.

Wow, never seen/heard anything like that before.. Well, as long as the plants are happy?

Do you water to runoff? How much?

Nutrients costs must be quite high @ that rate.. I'll tag along, just to see what's going on in here..

What's the strain BTW?

ttystikk said:

Do you water to runoff? How much?

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Yes, Drain to waste, and usually let a good amount dump out in order to help flush the internal res.

pajautus said:

Nutrients costs must be quite high @ that rate.. I'll tag along, just to see what's going on in here..

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Yes, that is a big problem, is that the nutes are costing a fortune now.. The strains all all over the place, we are running everything from Purple Trainwreck to Pineapple Kush, Pineapple Express, Chronic Thunder, Cotton Candy, SFV OG, etc, etc... They are Moms.

You've used several meters and they all agree?

ttystikk said:

You've used several meters and they all agree?

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Yes, unfortunately...

Not to mention, I am going up 50 to 100 ppms daily. Whether the meters are off or dont work, or whatever, they certainly aren't coming down, they are consistently going up daily, and we dont necessarily need a meter to tell us once it becomes a daily event, but luckily I do have a meter to back up my statements

This one is Very Frustrating!!

Hey Rusty this is most bizarre. The only thing I can think of is that you got a batch of bad nutes where they forgot to include the N portion of the formula and you're feeding mostly P & or K. Maybe try another fert, something like Jacks 20/20/20 where you know the mix is good.

WattSaver said:

Hey Rusty this is most bizarre. The only thing I can think of is that you got a batch of bad nutes where they forgot to include the N portion of the formula and you're feeding mostly P & or K. Maybe try another fert, something like Jacks 20/20/20 where you know the mix is good.

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Yeah its a head scratcher!! I have tried other nutes to see if it may have been the problem. Everything from MaxiBloom, Foliage Pro, CSN17, etc,, and nothing seems to help the issue. The EC is at 6.0 which is absolutely UNHEARD OF.. I cant believe they aren't just clawed over and burnt to a crisp. Its like I am in the Bermuda Triangle!!!

So at this point, I have opened up the ventilation in order to take the CO2 out of the Equation, and I am adding CalMag to increase the Nitrogen value, and I have gone back to watering each one individually, instead of using my nifty 4 bucket Watering Manifold.

Hoping something breaks soon!!!

Its the plant some love high nutes whereas some wont its all acording to the plant type or strain

hellmutt bones said:

Its the plant some love high nutes whereas some wont its all acording to the plant type or strain

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We run multiple strains. For example, at this time in that room, we are running White Widow x Big Bud, Northern Lights, Pineapple Express, Purple Trainwreck, LSD, Pineapple Kush, Cookies Kush, Girl Scout Cookies, SFV OG, Blue Dream, Sour Diesel, Etc..

You can see by the Pics Above, and their Corresponding EC, its everything in the room, no matter what the strain, or the age.. It has to be something environmental, but I can find it.

Rusty Shakelford said:

Yeah its a head scratcher!! I have tried other nutes to see if it may have been the problem. Everything from MaxiBloom, Foliage Pro, CSN17, etc,, and nothing seems to help the issue. The EC is at 6.0 which is absolutely UNHEARD OF.. I cant believe they aren't just clawed over and burnt to a crisp. Its like I am in the Bermuda Triangle!!!

So at this point, I have opened up the ventilation in order to take the CO2 out of the Equation, and I am adding CalMag to increase the Nitrogen value, and I have gone back to watering each one individually, instead of using my nifty 4 bucket Watering Manifold.

Hoping something breaks soon!!!

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I figured you would have tried different nutes. The only other thing I can think of would be the water. Does your water supply have a water softener on it? I know they will screw everything up, not even a RO filter can correct what a water softener does. Maybe go to the store and get some distilled water and see if that helps.

WattSaver said:

I figured you would have tried different nutes. The only other thing I can think of would be the water. Does your water supply have a water softener on it? I know they will screw everything up, not even a RO filter can correct what a water softener does. Maybe go to the store and get some distilled water and see if that helps.

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Water was one of the first things I looked at. I usually use nothing but RO, so I switched it up to a 50/50 mix of RO and TAP. Our Tap is high in EC, but not Horribly, and it doesn't have anything out of the ordinary in it. None the less, same problem with 100% RO as well as a Mix of 50/50.. Which leads me to the question, why would the water cause the plants to require excessively high EC??

Now that I have passive ventilation, my CO2 is hovering between 300 and 350, which is pretty normal outdoor quality, so the only thing I have running at this point is the Lights, Mini Split Air Conditioner, a Couple of Exhaust fans and Oscillating Fans. I hoping this stabilizes the room, but its all still not making much sense.

Okay so no water softener. And I know that you know what the hell you're doing, so there has to be something that is blocking the uptake of nutrients. I'm sure you've got the ph dialed in, and more than likely have checked the meter several times.

Are you adding any cal/mag? If there's no cal then N uptake is hindered. Your yellowing is in the new growth which is a micro nute def,,,, could be mag.

This is really weird and I'm grasping at straws cause I know you've done all the proper steps. I'll keep guessing. But I know you'll figure it out, when you do please enlighten us all.

OH OH another guess because it happened to me (got the same ugly necrosis and eventual death). Did you use a bug bomb in the room prior to starting this run?