I see, yes that’s normal. I actually have a really cool time lapse from one of our rooms of the plants “breathing”. Also funny cause you can literally watch them grow
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I’ve found that not running co2 in the led rooms had me chasing my tail unnecessarily, the low humidity is helping either. I find even at avg 500 ppm level they struggle until I bring co2 level above 1000ppm then the purple stems, slow growth and small fan leaves disappear.
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Not sure if I can run that high. I raised Ec to 1.5, and runoff was coming back at 1.9. I figured they weren’t eating what I was giving them in the first place so I dropped it back down to 1.3.
The elemental ppm numbers you posted above should be higher ec than 1.3. Are you diluting that mix down to your desired ec? When @SidViscous and I talk ppm we are talking about the elemental ppm in solution, not just a concentration we calculate at, then dilute. A lot of the mass flow ions have absolute minimums that you don’t want to drop below, be mindful of actual ppm in solution.
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Yes. I dilute down to 1.3. The Ec before dilution is 2.01. The pH is 6.0.
Should I not be diluting? I figured run off was a little high. I was of the mind that run off ec being close to feed ec was optimal. 1.3 seemed close to the sweet spot.
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That 2.0 is when your ppm is correct, when you dilute it the ppm drops
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I was thinking this, but I’m so used to diluting to target ec. Old habits die hard lol!
I’m not sure what you consider an ideal runoff and we could debate that until the end of time. I like to keep it under 3.0, but in commercial operations I’m at the lower end of the spectrum.
We shouldn’t even be discussing ppm if you’re just going to dilute it. When you dilute the mix listed above that far the plants are going to really struggle to get sufficient Ca and Mg, they are taken up at the same rate the plant absorbs water, their concentration and ratios in solution directly dictate how much can be absorbed.
In your led environment, radiant heat is low, that is working against you absorbing mass flow ions. Your medium favors monovalent cations, that is working against you absorbing divalent mass flow cations. Running Ca below 140-150ppm in solution using an “inert” medium isn’t the best idea.
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Point taken. I will stop diluting.
That’s probably been my issue all along you think? Everyone one I’ve learned from has had me mix full strength, then dilute to target ec. Mind you this has usually been in a peat based mix with ready made fertilizer. Mixing my own has definitely come with a learning curve. Very thankful for your knowledge.
Just take away that you do not want Ca to be the limiting factor in growth. Ideally you want it to be light, but we will settle for N.
If you want to run a really low mix for some reason you’re going to have to run something like 80N 30P 130K 140Ca 45Mg.
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I was running Ca at 150, until you said you like running at 180+, and that made perfect sense to me, so I’ve been running it at 182 ever since.
I also do have this blueberry, mostly Sativa hybrid that just doesn’t seem to like any ratio I give it anymore. It did ok with the Dyna Grow line, but would get extremely leafy and lanky. I’ve been giving it the following elemental ratio,
N- 112
P- 51
K- 158
Ca- 138
Mg- 65
S- 120
Si- 18.2
Fe- 3.7
B- 0.68
Mn- 1.05
Mo- 0.03
Zn- 0.2
Cu- 0.05
Ec comes out to 1.45. Ph 6.4. Ph is a little high so my next batch I will only add 1 ml of armor Si instead of 1.5. Micros might also be a little high for the mix. I have also been diluting this mix to about 1.1, - 1.2 . Probably another thing I shouldn’t be doing that’s causing most of my issues?
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If you’re starting from there and diluting, Ca is likely a problem. Dyna grow is N heavy, no surprise that they would be leafy and lanky. Increasing the ratio of K to N will help with lankyness and too many leaves.
You really shouldn’t need to run different veg mixes per cultivar. I don’t have the exact count, but I have roughly 40 cultivars on the same mix in veg. The same mix from plugging clones until they go to bloom.
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I really would like to come up with a ratio that I can run throughout the whole cycle, start to finish. I will try the new mix on the hybrid, and not dilute. Hopefully that’s been the issue.
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The issue with this is nitrogen. You just can’t run hardly any N in flower without making shit weed. It’s unfortunate but anything you run straight through is going to be a pretty severe compromise. This is different from most other commercial horticulture applications because we’re not just trying to grow mass as quickly as possible, we need the flower grow a pretty specific way
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Are you saying N should be dropped completely by a certain point in flower, which makes running a single mix all the way through difficult? I was always of the mind that N should be cut out completely by week 6. Am I wrong to think this?
You don’t need to drop it 100%, and you’ll have a bitch of a time getting enough Ca without some CalNit, but it should be below like 80 ppm which is a solid 60% reduction. IME if you leave it above 120ppm or so, it can cause symptoms of reveg and other issues (bulky, nonpotent bud). I find dropping it about halfway through stretch is ideal (fyi, this is DWC advise). But if you only run 80-100ppm in veg, you’ll have problems with rate of growth and morphology. So basically, yes your understanding is correct
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Should Ca stay the same throughout the plants lifecycle or, should that be decreased in flowering as well? I’m currently running 181 ppm of Ca. All from Calcium Nitrate.
We actually increase Ca in flower because the increased K antagonizes it. Because of the decreased CalNit we use CaAOc to hit our levels
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