DWC beginner

No worries, the more questions the better. Each brand of nutes has a certain amount of ppm per week chart. heres a link to the chart i use, since its the nutes i use.

http://generalhydroponics.com/site/g...REC-Charts.pdf

its just a guide then i tweak it to my needs.i am also a new grower.

i rarely go above 500ppm in dwc, and 1000ppm in aero. with the roots being submerged in solution in dwc they need much less. i run botanicare pro blend line with great success and very happy plants.

I too am on my first grow and have been using the technaflora line of nutrients. If you follow their grow chart they will have you at about 1100 PPM during Veg and 1400 during flower. This is a bit high and when I first put Nutes in my DWC res, I started at 1/4 strength and worked up to full strength. When I noticed some burnt leaf tips I dialed the nutes back a little bit. I am about 30 days in and have found that 900 PPM for my plants seems to work well.

I have 4 buckets, running 3 strains in a closet grow under a 250w HPS. One of my strains is an autoflower. Her PPM during flower has done well at about 1200 PPM.

I think the best advice anyone can give you is to start out lower than what your grow chart says and expirament with the levels until your PPM holds steady. The key, I think is observing your plants and adjusting to how they react to what you do. No two grows or grow conditions are identical and you have to do what fits your situation best. A few wiser members than I have posted that very same advice and I have taken it to heart. Do what works for you!

Guys, don't forget PPM as a nominal value without knowing the scale isn't too useful.

If you meant 900 PPM @ 0.7 (KCl) [1.3 EC] and he has a pen which uses the 0.5 scale (NaCl), he could end up burning them if he just followed that suggestion. He'd end up giving them 900PM @ 0.5 which is 1.8 EC. Similarly, if you meant 900 PPM on the 0.5 scale (NaCl) and his pen works on the 0.7 scale, he could end up underfeeding them by about 300 PPM.

If you want to stick with PPMs, that's fine but be sure to indicate the scale your pen works on or the model of your pen so others can look up the scale themselves. If you want to make the world a better place, just give the value in units of EC.

To the op, I'm currently doing my first dwc/bucket grow as well. I knew I didn't want to pay a bunch for nutes, especially since I know I'm unfamiliar with them. I also don't need really granular/advanced nutes because I'm just a beginner and don't have the experience around the plants to say "oh they need exactly this". Then I stumbled upon the following thread over on ICMag titled *The K.I.S.S. Method*. It's basically the lucas forumla in the cheapest way possible. We can argue if the lucas formula is best or not, but I can't argue with the results posted there. If I could get those results for my first grow, for $15 for a bag of nutes, I'm sold. Even better, nothing simpler than 7g/gallon for a feeding regimen. I'm not sure if you already bought all your nutes or not but, if you haven't, you might want to give this a try. In that thread, many people claim the benefit of just running 7g/gallon throw all their grow. Some do say they like to start at a 1/4 strength and work up to full strength by a 1/4 each week there after.

The appropriate answer to your question is give them what they need. No one can tell you a 100% guaranteed way to give your plants what they need, not even that KISS method. It all takes some adjusting.

With that outta the way, I can only tell you what I did. I started with 0.6 EC 2 weeks after sprouting then worked up to that 7g/gallonof nutes which gives around 1.6 EC (in my water). After calmag and protekt (silica), I end up around 2-2.2 EC (1100 PPM 500/1540 PPM 700). Not sure how others have faired with that but I've not burned my plants (at least not yet!). I feed once every week and refill the res 2-3 times a week with 2.5 gal or so.

Originally Posted by quisqueyano

Guys, don't forget PPM as a nominal value without knowing the scale isn't too useful.

If you meant 900 PPM @ 0.7 (KCl) [1.3 EC] and he has a pen which uses the 0.5 scale (NaCl), he could end up burning them if he just followed that suggestion. He'd end up giving them 900PM @ 0.5 which is 1.8 EC. Similarly, if you meant 900 PPM on the 0.5 scale (NaCl) and his pen works on the 0.7 scale, he could end up underfeeding them by about 300 PPM.

If you want to stick with PPMs, that's fine but be sure to indicate the scale your pen works on or the model of your pen so others can look up the scale themselves. If you want to make the world a better place, just give the value in units of EC.

To the op, I'm currently doing my first dwc/bucket grow as well. I knew I didn't want to pay a bunch for nutes, especially since I know I'm unfamiliar with them. I also don't need really granular/advanced nutes because I'm just a beginner and don't have the experience around the plants to say "oh they need exactly this". Then I stumbled upon the following thread over on ICMag titled *The K.I.S.S. Method*. It's basically the lucas forumla in the cheapest way possible. We can argue if the lucas formula is best or not, but I can't argue with the results posted there. If I could get those results for my first grow, for $15 for a bag of nutes, I'm sold. Even better, nothing simpler than 7g/gallon for a feeding regimen. I'm not sure if you already bought all your nutes or not but, if you haven't, you might want to give this a try. In that thread, many people claim the benefit of just running 7g/gallon throw all their grow. Some do say they like to start at a 1/4 strength and work up to full strength by a 1/4 each week there after.

The appropriate answer to your question is give them what they need. No one can tell you a 100% guaranteed way to give your plants what they need, not even that KISS method. It all takes some adjusting.

With that outta the way, I can only tell you what I did. I started with 0.6 EC 2 weeks after sprouting then worked up to that 7g/gallonof nutes which gives around 1.6 EC (in my water). After calmag and protekt (silica), I end up around 2-2.2 EC (1100 PPM 500/1540 PPM 700). Not sure how others have faired with that but I've not burned my plants (at least not yet!). I feed once every week and refill the res 2-3 times a week with 2.5 gal or so.

That is a very educational post. I didn't even think to look at the scale/calibration. As a point of clarification, my meter uses the NaCI scale. I use the TDZ EZ Meter made by HM Digital. So my 900 PPM would be = to roughly 1.8 EC.

Everyday I learn more about this hobby!

i use the sensi a/b and its a complete formula, and they say on the website you shouldn't need the cal/mag, which AN also sells.

first grow plants were pushing 1500 ppms with only slight burn.
new plants like it around 600 - 800 max. so keep it low unless your plants are yellowing, i dont think the extra nutrients were helping me.

in general i just do 1 cap per gallon of water when i fill up the res and top it off with water.

Also you should definitely make the DWC root slime cure tea thats like a famous page on this site. VERY good formula to keep roots clean without using h2o2 and is also super easy if you already have an air pump. i use 2 caps of nirvana (AN organic bloom booster) instead of worm castings, which is the same stuff.

I never use a meter for anything, and i grow my plants 12/12 from seed, and the 2 i have now are huge, i also only use a simple home depot nute, nd never change my rez water

Heres a pic to prove you dont need a meter, my 2 plants in the bucket are .2 months and 1 weeks old from seed and the smaller 3 are 2 weeks old