Weird PPM readings...

shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
Hiya
Heres my HSO Blue Dream auto at 6 weeks. For about 10 days now ive been raising the ppm by 100 and it drops 200 in 24 hours. Every day. Eg yesterday i put it at 1350, today its 1160. It just seems a bit weird, i never had a plant suck up so much nutes. She's showing early signs of some kind of deficiency which also suggests she's hungry.
Ph also rising pretty quick, 5.7 to 6.5 over 24 hours.
Im reluctant to keep upping it and end up over feeding her but as long as it keeps dropping thats what i need to do i guess.
Should i just keep throwing nutes at her?
Any thoughts?
Cheers!
20220317_095935.jpg20220317_095953.jpg20220317_100005.jpg
 
Last edited:
S

sativuuh

Member
Have you done a full nute water replacement or are you adding nutes to what's in it? I'd let it feed down for a few days and replenish with fresh mixed clean nutes. Trying to add nutes to existing res, especially with a small bucket, is hard to keep even since you don't know what the plant is eating. Frequent res changeouts with mixed nutes ensures that you don't have locked out nutrients and maintain happy plants.
Less is often more with dwc on nute strength. Big ph swings Also is that your air pump on the floor? If you can try to elevate it over the level of the water to prevent any back-siphon if the power ever went off on the pump.
 
shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
Cheers guys, yeah i was topping up but did a rez change yesterday and it still dropped 200 in 24 hours. Just upped it to 1500 hopefully it levels out soon...thanks!
 
S

sativuuh

Member
the less water you have in there, the sooner the ppm's will drop too. If you have 3 gallons, to take 200ppm from 3 gallons happens a lot faster than if you had 20 gallons the plant was feeding off of. In a 5 gallon bucket in flower with a big root mass you are going to be sucking down nutes. Just fill with properly balanced replacements and flush it out frequently. If you had a 7 gallon bucket and 2 extra gallons of water, your ppm readings would probably fall slower with identical circumstances. You don't have to push too high on nutes in hydro if your plants are happy no need to overfeed.
 
shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
sativuuh said:
the less water you have in there, the sooner the ppm's will drop too. If you have 3 gallons, to take 200ppm from 3 gallons happens a lot faster than if you had 20 gallons the plant was feeding off of. In a 5 gallon bucket in flower with a big root mass you are going to be sucking down nutes. Just fill with properly balanced replacements and flush it out frequently. If you had a 7 gallon bucket and 2 extra gallons of water, your ppm readings would probably fall slower with identical circumstances. You don't have to push too high on nutes in hydro if your plants are happy no need to overfeed.
Click to expand...
Cheers! She only dropped 60 or so from the last top up to 1500, still seems crazy high but ill keep it around there and see how she does...
 
HydroKid239

HydroKid239

Well-Known Member
Auto's can seem like fatties when it comes to what a decently bred auto can take up. I grow in soil, and have noticed they can take some healthy feedings early in. It's really interesting to see how the numbers dip in just 24 hours in hydroponics.
It'd be nice if there was a way to monitor exactly what's in the water by ppm, so you knew what the plant was taking up so quickly. Then you'd be able to top off that void. I'm a heavy stoner, so of course this message was sent from a dream land.
 
shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
HydroKid239 said:
Auto's can seem like fatties when it comes to what a decently bred auto can take up. I grow in soil, and have noticed they can take some healthy feedings early in. It's really interesting to see how the numbers dip in just 24 hours in hydroponics.
It'd be nice if there was a way to monitor exactly what's in the water by ppm, so you knew what the plant was taking up so quickly. Then you'd be able to top off that void. I'm a heavy stoner, so of course this message was sent from a dream land.
Click to expand...
Yeah some gizmo that could break it down to what specific nutes are (not) being absorbed would be cool. Like an app that you take a pic of your sick plant and it tells you what deficiency you have, that would make millions!
 
blueberrymilkshake

blueberrymilkshake

Well-Known Member
Might cost millions :hump:

Edit: high performance liquid chromatography. From wiki: You can get a "bare bones" HPLC for about $20K, but $40-50K is more typical by the time you throw in automation features and data analysis software.
 
Last edited:
HydroKid239

HydroKid239

Well-Known Member
shiva71 said:
Yeah some gizmo that could break it down to what specific nutes are (not) being absorbed would be cool. Like an app that you take a pic of your sick plant and it tells you what deficiency you have, that would make millions!
Click to expand...
Nature ID is an app that makes those claims. Haven’t tried it tho.
 
McShnutz

McShnutz

Well-Known Member
I have a question about nutrient/water maintenance in dwc. What I'm confused about is how do you change out the nutrient in a 5 gallon bucket with a 1lb plant in it. Or even worse, it's under a scrog. Since it can't be moved nor can the basket lid be poped off and dropped onto another 5 gal of fresh nutrient solution.
 
shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
McShnutz said:
I have a question about nutrient/water maintenance in dwc. What I'm confused about is how do you change out the nutrient in a 5 gallon bucket with a 1lb plant in it. Or even worse, it's under a scrog. Since it can't be moved nor can the basket lid be poped off and dropped onto another 5 gal of fresh nutrient solution.
Click to expand...
I loosen the lid, push it to the backand support it with a ruler. Keeps super stable and gives me enough space to do my filling and testing. Thats how ive always done it!
20220321_143204.jpg
 
S

sativuuh

Member
I built individual scrogs on top of the bucket lid with pvc frame that square over the lid then go out wide and up so it's all one contained lid plant/scrog unit. Moving to the side is the typical way, or pull the whole bucket out, and you can swap the whole lid with everything into a new base bucket. Just going to the side and pumping out what's in there and pouring in more nute mix works pretty easily though. It does get really topheavy when it's a 1lb plant towards the end so you just have to be really careful.
 
B

Badjem

Well-Known Member
shiva71 said:
Hiya
Heres my HSO Blue Dream auto at 6 weeks. For about 10 days now ive been raising the ppm by 100 and it drops 200 in 24 hours. Every day. Eg yesterday i put it at 1350, today its 1160. It just seems a bit weird, i never had a plant suck up so much nutes. She's showing early signs of some kind of deficiency which also suggests she's hungry.
Ph also rising pretty quick, 5.7 to 6.5 over 24 hours.
Im reluctant to keep upping it and end up over feeding her but as long as it keeps dropping thats what i need to do i guess.
Should i just keep throwing nutes at her?
Any thoughts?
Cheers!
View attachment 5103179View attachment 5103180View attachment 5103181
Click to expand...
Yea needs a hair cut ‍♂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top