EC and Coco - How to measure runoff

Hi everyone,

Fairly new to this hobby and learning more and more. I have a question regarding how to test the runoff using Coco.

Basically, my question is, I EC my water, then test my water with nutrients, and I water my plants. Should I be using the runoff from that feeding even though it has nutrients in it from the feed? Or should I be waiting a bit, then using 0.0 water to test the runoff?

I am thinking that if I test the runoff from the water with nutrients, it is going to not be accurate because it is testing the water with nutrients that literally just poured in.

And then if you do measure it from the runoff with what I just fed it, and I see that the EC is too high, I just watered with nutrients adding to the problem? A bit confused on this as you can see. Maybe im overthinking things...

Hope that makes sense. Just want to be sure I am getting an accurate test result.

Interesting therory. My intake is that the the soil is already holding nutes from the last feeding. So when you add the new feeding (nutes) there is a chance you may over feed.
By reading what is coming out of the soil, it is exactely what the roots are intaking. If too heavy of a runoff, then next time be a little on the lean side when adding nutes to the water.
Happy growing and I wish you success.

Use nutrients with every feeding. I only test runoff if my plants look off for some reason. If you do decide to test runoff, then test the ph and ec of your normal runoff. Don't change your normal nutrient inputs. If the ph and ec of your inputs are not in the same ballpark as your runoff, you might be able to use that info to identify whatever might be the problem. If your plants look to be developing normally, there probably is no reason to test runoff. I used to check runoff regularly when I first started with coco. Now almost never.

Highway61 said:

Use nutrients with every feeding. I only test runoff if my plants look off for some reason. If you do decide to test runoff, then test the ph and ec of your normal runoff. Don't change your normal nutrient inputs. If the ph and ec of your inputs are not in the same ballpark as your runoff, you might be able to use that info to identify whatever might be the problem. If your plants look to be developing normally, there probably is no reason to test runoff. I used to check runoff regularly when I first started with coco. Now almost never.

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Yes i also used to check run off nearly every watering when first change to coco, no i have plumbed my trays straight to a drain my run off just pumps away like yous guys say, "doesnt need checked tilll see a problem with plants...