I'm overwhelmed. Questions about Reservoir-/Nutrient-Management and how Plants take up Nutrients.

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
Hi hopefully someone can help and explain me some of my problems. I have some questions about how plants take up nutrients and how to manage the nutrient reservoir in different situations. I make a lot of research but sometimes it's to much different informations and it's hard to choose which one to trust. Maybe I think too complicated idk.

First of all... How do plants take up nutrients?

For example: If you have a res with EC 1.0 and the EC falls (plants eating more nutes than drinking water) or the EC rises (plants drinking more water than eating nutes) how to know which nutrients were eaten and which were not? Do they eat them in the same ratio they are present in the EC 1.0 water or do they take the ratio of nutrients them up how they need them?

Why I want to know this is because if they eat the ratio that is provided it's easier to manage the reservoir and not run into deficiencies. But if they it them at different ratios how they want it than it's a lot harder in my eyes because how do I know that there is not tooo much or too less of a specific nutrient if they eat their own ratio... that means one single nutrient could build up over time since they eat less of that nutrient compared to the others... What do you know about that problem? I don't want to get deficient plants just because one nutrient builds up overtime and I think the EC is right but the nutrient ratio was wrong because of the build up overtime... I also don't want to toss the whole res everytime and make a new one (because of cost of water and nutrients and so on).

Think about how commercial grows would do that? They don't toss their million gallon tanks always when something changes... they probably only add nutrients or water to get the desired EC.



Now the question about reservoir-/nutrient-management.

How would you manage your res taking into acount my question about nutrient ratios. Take into account that I use distilled water. I add Cal/Mag first to get water that comes close to tap water (but without all the other chemicals) and then I add my base nutrients to feed the plant.

Example 1 (Rising EC): Start res 10 gallon with EC 1.0

24 hours later the res is only 9 gallon and the EC has risen to for example 1.2

This means the plants drink more than they eat... So refilling the tank and lowering the EC is needed.

How would you do it in this Example 1? 1) fill it with distilled water back to 10 gal or 2) fill it with distilled water and Cal/Mag added to it to get back to 10 gallons

I don't want to add too much Cal/Mag over time maybe it builds up and one day I have maybe 90% cal/Mag and rest base nutrients and the plants start to become deficient. Do you see the problem I have with res management?



Example 2 (Lower EC): Start res 10 gallon with EC 1.0

24 hours later the res is only 9 gallon and the EC has lowered to for example 0.8

This means the plants eat more than they drink... So refilling the tank and raising the EC is needed.

How would you fill this? I would use 1) distilled water with cal/mag and a higher EC. or 2) fill with dist. Water with cal/Mag added and then later add the nutrients to the whole res to reach EC 1.0 again...

I think you get the problem I have... I don't really know how to manage my reservoir and I'm scared of nutrients that might build up over time. And I don't want to toss the whole reservoir everytime something is raising/falling... I'm a little overwhelmed with all the options I have. People who use only tap water and just one single nutrients it sounds easier because if EC rising fill with normal tap water (calmag already in) and if ec lowers will with tap and add nutes... I don't know how I should do it.

When I refill the res with only distilled water without cal/mag added then I might risk that one day I get a cal/mag deficiency... And if I refill with distilled water WITH Cal/Mag added to it I maybe rist that one day too much Cal/Mag is in the water if they don't take it up in the ratios it's already presend in the water...

Too much questions and too many variables for a beginner who don't want to make thinks wrong and loose their first grow. It is expensive and time consuming so loosing is not a good thing.

Maybe someone can help me out and shed some light on this topic or refer me to a lot of sources I can read which explains my problems further.
 

bk78

Well-Known Member
Not exactly the answer I was looking for but thanks for the link to grow weed easy. I know this site alread but will dig more into it over time.

Anyway I won't ditch hydro now.
You literally picked the hardest growing method for a new grower to start in


I did the exact same on my first ever grow and failed miserably and switch to promix HP with fantastic results.

Sorry but I’m about as blunt as they come and not intended to be a dick and wish you the best
 

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
It's not really my first grow ever. But I still would consider me a newbie. I already grew hydro and was happy with what I got but I still have a lot of questions in my mind. Maybe I'm overthinking idk. I just want to make things perfect... and maybe you are right that I over love and over think shit. LOL

Thank you I did not see it as an insult! I think you are right that it's the hardest. But I'm in the middle of a grow I won't ditch anything now.
 

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
when you are overwhelmed its good to take sometime off from all of it. smoke some weed, have sex with your gf, pet your dog or do whatever cures you. then look at it with fresh eyes.
That's a good idea for now thanks! But in the long run I might come again to these questions and I don't want to harm my plants lol.
 

Tolerance Break

Well-Known Member
i would see if the same pattern continues on day 2, day 3, etc.

then use 10 gallons with EC of 1.2 and see if it does the same drop
Would this be proportional to plant count/size?

Hypothetically, if I run 3 short plants with a 17 gallon res in the appropriate EC range, would the plants drink more than they would eat, causing the EC to remain the same or rise and the amount of water diminish?
 

plumsmooth

Well-Known Member
Hi hopefully someone can help a

First of all... How do plants take up nutrients?

For example: If you have a res with EC 1.0 and the EC falls (plants eating more nutes than drinking water) or the EC rises (plants drinking more water than eating nutes) how to know which nutrients were eaten and which were not? Do they eat them in the same ratio they are present in the EC 1.0 water or do they take the ratio of nutrients them up how they need them?



I think this 'is' 'the' question of questions. I have some kind of Potassium issue for example showing up between 2-3 week flowering cycle. One of these days I am going to send a leaf in as long as it is at or around $100!

Leaf Analysis is how we tell other then highly developed horticulture intuition.

I also like to lazily top off a lot on my small reszervoirs. This is when issues can pop up as certain elements/nutrients build up and get out of proper ratio... This is why I envy those who can do Drain to Waste... I am a RDWC dude
 

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
I think this 'is' 'the' question of questions. I have some kind of Potassium issue for example showing up between 2-3 week flowering cycle. One of these days I am going to send a leaf in as long as it is at or around $100!

Leaf Analysis is how we tell other then highly developed horticulture intuition.

I also like to lazily top off a lot on my small reszervoirs. This is when issues can pop up as certain elements/nutrients build up and get out of proper ratio... This is why I envy those who can do Drain to Waste... I am a RDWC dude
I'm a DWC guy and it can get kinda expensive if I change the res a lot... plus the cost for nutrients. Thats why I came up with this question.
 

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
you can't
unless you have a laboratory nearby to analyse your nute solution

change your res out once a week or 10 days
Do commercial grows do that to? They must have a very high bill when it comes to water and nutes if they change their million gallon reservoirs every week...?
 

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
And if we think about soil... you have the same problem there and no one is changing the soil mid grow... If Plants can use up the nutes at different ratios which then over time leads to nutrient build up in soil but on the other hand people just water with another nute solution all the time and they still don't have problems and they don't have to flush or use new soil every 7 to 10 days... It's all a bit wierd...
 

Nope_49595933949

Well-Known Member
And if we think about soil... you have the same problem there and no one is changing the soil mid grow... If Plants can use up the nutes at different ratios which then over time leads to nutrient build up in soil but on the other hand people just water with another nute solution all the time and they still don't have problems and they don't have to flush or use new soil every 7 to 10 days... It's all a bit wierd...
People absolutely change soil mid grow when they up pot.
 

RookieMuffin

Well-Known Member
I suspect commercial ops with recirculating reservoirs treat their nutrient res more like a reef aquarium, and constantly keep track of the macro/micro nutrients and adjust.
Ok so they would analyze the water constantlty and add only the nutrients that needs to be added since they mix their own nutrients with single elemnts?
 
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