WeedHound's Nute Schedule for Hydro/Botanicare

[Weedhound]

Actually I was incredibly flattered that MVP even ASKED me to write it down much less the movie rights, DVD's......

buuuuut....no its me...all me.......nobody but me.....mememememememeME

[rhizome]

...and dahrlink, you look fah-bulous...

Congrats on the sticky.

[8182KSKUSH]

I think this might be relevant here, so I will ask.
When you use the ph down, or if you are dilluting you dwc because of high ph, and are using ph'd water, how does that affect ppm? I know that when I add ph down for example, to get the ph from 6.4 down to 5.5, it ups the ppm, how does that affect the plant? Does this make sense? Thanks.

[Weedhound]

Hey Kush good to see you,

If you use too much of the up or down I know it can adversely affect your plants but the stuff used in hydro to adjust ph are things that the plants use anyway like potassium chloride and such (please don't ask me the exact ingredients because Id have to look them up.....) so a smaller amount of these things are actually beneficial for your plants. However, I have heard that in rathr high doses they can cause issues so if you find yourself having to use large amounts or reset your ph again and again it could cause an issue. Otherwise I would just add the ppm number on after you measure out your normal nutes.

To babble on.....this is one of the reasons that ph adjusters for fish or aquariums (not the testers...just the adjusters) are not recommended for using on plants.....they are made from different ingredients and can be too high in salts for our beloved ganja.

[8182KSKUSH]

Okay, as you know I am stupid, so just to clarify.
I don't understand what happens when, I add ph down, my water is at around 250ppm out of the tap and at 8.5ph, after ph'ing it down it is almost 300ppm! so if I want to be at 400 total, I can only add 100ppm with nutes, (doesn't seem like much?) or do I just add the 400ppm with the nutes in addition to what it starts at?

And then once it is adjusted, do I need to account for the ppm change from adding the ph down?
In a few days my ppm will be higher than where they started, but it's just the ph down, will it keep the plants from feeding on the nutes? I will go away after this and bother someone else for a while I promise! Thanks WH.

[Weedhound]

I would add the number onto your total. If you want 400 ppm....do your 400 and then add your other numbers on after that (400 plus your ph up, tap water, etc...) If you find that you are having to adjust your ph too much and it's making your number too high after awhile then you should consider using something like RO water which tends to stay more stable and not jump around as much or do more water changes to compensate. After adding things for awhile your number WILL get way up there and you can lose track of which part of your total niumber is nutes or additives or ph down etc..and that can REALLY mess you up.

Kush if I am misunderstanding your question I apologize and feel free to keep pounding away until you get it into my head.

[8182KSKUSH]

You nailed it there, I am losing track! But I was also phing the water first, then adding nutes, I have swapped out resovoirs with water that I added the nutes to first then ph'd, the ppm were slightly less than when I did it the other way, now just to wait and see how long it holds at my desired ph. I tested some water and it was stable so it must be something that I am doing to it, hopefully switching the way I ph it helps, thanks again, you did nail exactly what I was asking!

[Weedhound]

Are you using new hydroton by any chance? That's the exact issue I ran into with the hydroton so that's probably why I know what you mean. With that stuff my numbers would DOUBLE within a few days just from constantly having to add ph down to my res. I was ALWAYS having to do water changes to keep things in balance despite my RO water and you'd better believe THAT got old in a hurry. :wtf:

[8182KSKUSH]

Fucking Hydroton!
I thought that it was supposed to calm down after awhile, I also rinsed and soaked it forever, still, I get this!
Will it ever end? What would be a better choice for medium next time?
Now that you say that, I remember reading something about someone saying that exact same thing, it was probably you!

[Weedhound]

It took FOREVER until that stuff was stable imo. I also personally think it adds to fert build up problems myself but I'm known to grumble about hydroton in general so you have to take what I say with a grain of salt.

Higromite Here is what I use and I like it but it does have its own drawbacks. Among them....weighs ALOT (weighs about how it looks....) and has the same dust issues at the beginning as hydroton so you have to rinse it and for some reason algae LOVES this stuff and will grow like mad on it so its best to keep it covered. I will say that since I've started using it again my plants are much better, healthier and yield better so I'm sticking with it.