Is low ppm bad?

I bought distilled water for my resevoir change and the ppms are 000.0!!! I haven't added my nutes yet, but i guarantee they should be around 200 ppm when im done. The foxfarm chart says that my ppms should be more then 1000!!!

If my ppms are 200 and not 1000, is this bad?

I'm still new to growing but I have been growing a mother on low nutes for about 2 months and when I want clones, I increase nutrient level and she threw off some serious sprouts. The leafs look malnourished when the nutes are low, but they came back the greenest, green when i bumped nutes from approximately 150 to 600PPM.

To answer you I don't think it will harm them if not done for too lang. If I were growing a plant to reap the fruit, I wouldn't ever lower the nutes unless it needed it. Keep in mind that seedlings and new spouts need low nutes, so 200 might be too much for a youngun. I am new so I start the nutes low and increase to the recomended level if there are no issues with burn. WHen I began growing I read that it's good to lower recomended nutes levels to HALF of what they were recomended until I get the hang of it.


What are you giving nutes to?

It is bad. You should buy more nutes.

You are going to slow their growth, not kill them right away, but definitely slow their growth. Imagine the gas line of your vehicle being pinched together - the car will only go so fast with limited gas - same with your plants. I suspect your plants will also eventually start showing signs of nute deficiency.

If FF says you should be at 1000 ppm, your plants must be in flower?

I checked my ppms and they are around 275... i didnt skimp out on adding nutes.. its just plain and simple that the ppms didnt increase as much as the foxfarm site said they should

EDIT: http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/hydrofeed.pdf

No, my plants are 24 days old and int he veg cycle

Also, my syringe measures in MM but the foxfarm chart showes tsp and Tbl. So i think i might have converted things wrongly and added a full dose of grow big and a half dose of big bloom in my res.... problem is that im trying to do everything only half strenth because im not familiar with adding nutes

greenearth5 said:

I checked my ppms and they are around 275... i didnt skimp out on adding nutes.. its just plain and simple that the ppms didnt increase as much as the foxfarm site said they should

EDIT: http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/hydrofeed.pdf

No, my plants are 24 days old and int he veg cycle

Also, my syringe measures in MM but the foxfarm chart showes tsp and Tbl. So i think i might have converted things wrongly and added a full dose of grow big and a half dose of big bloom in my res.... problem is that im trying to do everything only half strenth because im not familiar with adding nutes

Click to expand...

Forget all about mm, ml, tsp, and tbsp and converting. The only number you need to worry about is ppms. Just keep adding nutes until to get to the desired ppm - it doesn't matter how many tsps it takes to get there.

but wouldnt this give me nute burn? I had around 600 ppms last week and burned the shit outta my plant... then again i was using the foxfarm grow big "DIRT" formula... (i switched that out with the hydro formula the other day)....

I would like to add more nutes but im not familiar with it... what should i add and how much?

Picasso345 said:

Forget all about mm, ml, tsp, and tbsp and converting. The only number you need to worry about is ppms. Just keep adding nutes until to get to the desired ppm - it doesn't matter how many tsps it takes to get there.

Click to expand...

at that stage around 300 - 500 ppm should be good then add more every week little by little

I added a few tsp of nutes and brought my PPM up to 410 and ph to 6.0

Ill leave it be for the night... thanks you all

I would still like to get some more feedback on this subject

Distilled water has very little to no mineral content, it's been boiled, or evaporated out. I'm new to growing, I'm using distilled for this reason, that way I'm starting "fresh".

Ive heard that low ppm is bad, that i should use distilled water, and that i need to bump up my nutes week by week. Well I can see where low ppm might stunt the growth of the plant, how good it is to start fresh with distilled water, and why i should use the recommended doseage of nutes. But i am also informed that i should do a resevoir change every week or two...

hmmmm..... im going to sit back and soak all this information in and read my history book