Air/PPM questions

I am waiting for my light and a few other things to come in and i will start my first grow...I have 2-18 gallon rubbermaids set up holding 4 plants a peice... My plan is to do a grow journal and wait too see the sex before desiding how to split the females between the rubbermaids....

I have some concerns on my grow... I have everything for growing other than a ec meter.. how needed is this? would i be able to survive if i was let my tap water sit out about 24 hours before adding nutriants to release the chlorene. and changing my water every 7-10 days.. also my area is about a 5x7 closet.. I have 2 fans for circulation now but thats about it.. would i be alright to leave the door open to my room for a good amount of hours a day, or all the light hours for that? other than that im about ready to start my first grow...

And i am doing W.W. from nirvana
Cnhaz

1 ec meter tell you the ppm of solution
you need a base point to start
you need to keep track of it
It would be like driving a car with out a steering wheel. The whole idea of hydro is speed.
Now your going to need a new door for the closet , they way you can cut out a vents top and bottom and add fans to push air. You will also need light traps so inside light does ot show off you lights. You will need
The reason you want a new door as your going to paint it flat white and black on the edges, along with insulation strips to prevent light from getting in or out, the same with bugs
Also you will need some way of killing the great smell of THE BUDS.
The buds will smell up the house in a few hours.
The PH meter is important, the more it cost the usualy the better.
You will also need a tempature vent with a controler. Plants usualy like about 90 d.f.
I suggest you do a lot more reading ,try sharprubberduck.net,, not net not com.
I only have been growing a few decades + and still learning.
A man with one seed knows it all a man with a 1000 plants want to know more.

PS
Remember to clone once you figured out the females

That guy was soooo high when he replied to your question. Whats the connection between a steering wheel and driving fast?

Anyway, I'll try and answer your question about the TDS meter. There are two schools of thought of ppm about whether it should rise every day or fall every day. Until that is resolved what is the importance of the meter? Just follow the directions on the bottles for mixing and watch how your plants react. If your burning them, then back off a bit.

You should change every 7 days. The plants drink well and you want to give them more nutes.

ok thanks for the advice from both of you, so herbie with your info are you saying its ok not to have a ppm meter? just go with how the plants react? also im planning on doing a grow log for my first grow so hopfully ill get help with the problems i am having....

And oldsanclem thanks for the site, i have been their reading ever sence you posted it... On what u said about needing a new door, well on that site it says u only need fresh air while the lights are on, so would it be ok to leave the door open and have fans putting air in the room, and a few blowing on the plants, while at night i can close the door and just have a fan or 2 going to keep air circulating in the room


cnhaz

I'll throw in that's its just fine not to have a meter.....right up until you run into your first problem. Then the amount of time wasted (and money spent) to try and fix it will have you buying stuff in a hurry as you watch you plants march downhill and then having to play constant defense to nurse them back. In the meantime you've wasted time, money, and the health of your plants. And why? To save a few bucks? Doesn't make sense to me I'm afraid.

yeah I guess thats a good point... Ima go with one of the hm digitals that herbie recomended...

do you want your plant do drink as much as it eats and for the ppm to stay about the same? i know this is based on the environment, but is that the goal?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cnhazty

I have 2-18 gallon rubbermaids set up holding 4 plants a peice...
Cnhaz

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Bro, I use 18 Gal Rubbermaids and I am telling you that 4 plants is too much per tote. There will not be sufficient room for your roots. You can do it but you will not maximize each plants potential. I grew one plant in an 18 gal tote and the root mass upon harvest literally filled almost 1/2 the tote but off that one plant I harvested 133 grams well over a 1/4 lb.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment!

Peace and good luck!

Yeah from seeing some other people roots i though it would be a tight fit... so my plan was to grow 8 seedlings, not cloning.. and hope that 4 are females. after i found the sex i was gonna do 2 a peice.. and if i get 5 i might try taking that one and letting mother nature do its work out in the woods somewhere.. SO you do think 18 gallons could support 2?

Yeah you could get away with 2 per tote Still would be cramped but 2 would be max!

Good luck

I have a few questions if anyone can awnser them about this thread..I am fairly new at growing and i want ot get better. What and how do you measure nutrients by PPM and what determins this? its a pretty blunt question, but hopefully you get what I mean, i just wanna learn more about how to measure nutes i guess?

You use a ec or tds meter...ppm is parts per million.. you use it too tell how much of your nuriants are in the water after the plant has been drinking the water and eating the nutriants... ppm will go down if your plant eats more nutriants than it drinks water, and it will go up if it drinks more water than it eats...this helps you see if you are feeding your plants the right amount of nutriants..

the site oldsanclem listed will answer all your questions... the whole site is helpful..but this section on FAQ will give you a good answer on everything you want to know and it is nicely arranged in catagories and will most likely give you a better understanding than me

Sharp Rubber Duck (.NET) - Cannabis cultivation: Overgrow's GrowFAQ

before I go into the FAQ because I like one on one awnsers :)...where can I buy an ec meter? secondly how do you know how much to exactly feed your plant, does it vary?

ebay... i just picked up one..most are exspensive but the one i got on ebay is cheep and from what is said above these are just as nice for reading ppm..

HM Digital TDS-3 Meter w/Case, TDS3/Temp/Salt /Tester - eBay (item 370018437880 end time Feb-08-08 18:20:54 PST)

it changes according to how ur growing it, and what stage it is in... go to that site and it will tell you everything you could want to ask about them and more