So how to tell what to feed is somewhat baffling. Is there anyway to tell with any certainity how much of the nutrients given to your plants have been used? PPM after feeding is on target, you then water the next dry pot spell and ppm is lower, how do you tell what to feed in order to get back to target when its time to feed? Is the difference in what you feed based on the water only ppm and the amount to get back to target a negligible enough amount that you ignore the uptake amount until the next feeding? And does the plants uptake number become somewhat consistent with growth that you can estimate the ppm? Hell, the Blue Planet Calmag, Growth, and Micro all have Nitrogen and I get a mild case of toxicity in the plants thats nitrogen, is this due to overfeed or mixture, ppm is ppm? Am i thinking too much on this? Do I need to stay out of the jar? As the plants grow and the uptake increases I see me missing this target number more frequently. And I feel would cause grave issues in the flower stage of its life. I'm using soil, and would like to get this right as I progress through this growing thing. Thanks to all you guys and gals in this community. There is a wealth of knowledge here and I believe in utilizing knowledge wherever it's found. So tell me if I'm off here, and where, so that I can get better at this growing.
.png)
Sounds like you have a lot of questions in regards to feeding. Answers may vary depending on the nutrients you're using. So first, can you provide us with information about what you're currently doing? It'll be easier to answer instead of giving you a bunch of "if" answers. What nutrients are you feeding the plant?
What dosage? How often do you feed? What is the pH of the soil runoff? What is the PPM of the soil runoff?
@Mr. Grow It I'm using Blue Planet Micro/Grow/Bloom/Calmag, i used 1/4 dose for 1st week flower from each except Calmag i used 1/2 dose. It was my first feed and up until this one, water weekly. My last water day 48 ppm runoff were 762@ 6.47, 500@ 6.57, and 526 6.43, attempting to reach target numbers i fed the plants ppm 500@6.71 thinking a little high i'd be fine and runoff was 680@6.71,520@6.69, and 542@6.71. I thought the meters were off, i washed them in distilled water, tested that water, it was .004@6.98 so meters off a little and tried again with pretty much the same results.(Now that i'm reading this i didn't test the feed again). They were not the target on cheat sheet . I figured i'd wait that was Day 52 on day 54 i noticed the tips clawing down. someone suggested flushing, not wanting to remove all the nutrients i ran 1 gal water through each @6.97 and runoff was 708@6.18, 542@6.36, and 670@6.32. guess i need to double check the feed in the future. DUH!!! However the question was and still is, if I measure one at 500 during water and i want 750 i feed 250 how do i know what the plants consuming or is the difference from feed to feed not so much that its going to have any lasting effect(unless you're overfeeding) such as in above case? And does the fact that the first two nutrients plus the Calmag all have nitrogen weigh in on the ppm? Thinking so, and if so how to measure your way out of that? Sorry for the long post and i really want to know. I think i'm overthinking this.
"the question was and still is, if I measure one at 500 during water and i want 750 i feed 250 how do i know what the plants consuming or is the difference from feed to feed not so much that its going to have any lasting effect(unless you're overfeeding) such as in above case"
If the runoff PPM is 500 and you feed in 250, your runoff should then be roughly 750 PPM. If you wait until the container dries out and then runoff is 300 then that means the plant consumed approximately 450PPM. Now this is approximate because if you are in a soil that has organic nutrients in it, as they break down it will increase PPM. Unfortunately it's never perfect. "And does the fact that the first two nutrients plus the Calmag all have nitrogen weigh in on the ppm? Thinking so, and if so how to measure your way out of that?"
If you're using bottled nutrients then most likely they are synthetic and in a plant-available form. That does increase PPM. Not sure what you mean by "measure you way out of it"
@mrgrowit okay, I'm going to feed ppm difference from the last watering to get as close as possible to the target ppm. And I meant, do I attempt to cut back on one of the nutrients suggested feeding amount(measure my way out) in an attempt to balance one nutrient in the ppm, but i understand after going back and reading again, use less than suggested feeding amount of all nutrients due to plant not needing as recommended by the manufacturer will equal out the ppm. I thought I was overthinking it and I was. I'm confident I'll bring these babies to harvest and Thanks for All You Do.