PPM of water in resevoir

disposition84

Well-Known Member
Ideal reservoir temperature is ~68*f, it helps keep the most amount of DO in the nutes, without slowing their growth.

The PPM of your reservoir depends on what stage of the plants life it's at, the younger the lower the ppm then it raises with the plants life, then lowers towards then end then flush with plain water.

I usually run my cloner with plain ro water no nutes, then once they have roots and are transplanted I run them at 250ppm, then I continue to bump it up according to how the plant is consuming the nutes.

If your PPMs are dropping then your plant is drinking more nutes than you're providing and you need to up the PPM. If your PPMs are getting higher it means they're too high and you're plant is consuming more water.

Finding the sweet spot where your ppms don't change at all is where you want to be, it means you're really dialing it in.
 

chusett

Well-Known Member
Whats the perfect PPM range for the water in my resevoir....What should my res temp be?
thats too broad a question. What stage plants?
generally res temps 65-78 or so is fine.. not end of the world if u out of range... just dont hit 50's or mid/upper 80's.
honestly thers general feed guidelines but im a believer of observing ur plants instead of a chart.
 

HydroDruid

Member
Whats the perfect PPM range for the water in my resevoir....What should my res temp be?
Hi CubanRaftRider,

This is just a quick guide to get you going. You will find as you develop a deeper relationship with your plants you will discover their individual sweet spots for feeding. Just stick with it.

clones - 0-150 ppm (start low and build up slowly)
Vegging plant 150-450 ppm (some go higher, I prefer less is more strategy)
Flowering plant 500-1800 ppm (i rarely ever exceed 1200 ppm in peak flower (last 2-3 weeks of feeding before flush) and always pull above average yield.
mothers - 500-700 ppm

Learn the symptoms of over feeding, over watering and dehydration.
Some quick tips.
Plant roots have an osmotic pressure range that determines their max feeding need . Go over the range (over feeding) and water will be pulled from plant through roots (dehydration) as issue progresses burning of root hairs and leaf edges will begin. Yield will be negatively effected as well has resin production due to recovery time needed by plant (hydro recovery time usually 3-4 days before normal growth will resume unless over feeding was abnormally high). Under feeding is always better then overfeeding. Some evidence shows the stress of underfeeding and an optical drought if done correctly can boost flower size resin production but that's another topic.

Water temp and oxygen levels are related. Colder water hold excess oxygen and wards off water related pathogens. 68-71 ideal range. Too low temps can also activate pathogens and cause shock wilt. I Once knew an old mountain grower whom had extreme wilting several times a day. He consulted with me and we made a trip up. Found the water temp in res was below 50. Every watering shocked plants into wilt. Added fish tank heater and he never saw another shock wilt again. Warm reservoirs are a breading ground for issues like root rot and pathogens too. Stay in range.

Happy growing and medicating.

~HD
 

StinkBud

Well-Known Member
Water temps need to stay under 68 degrees or you'll get the funk. Your room needs to be at 78 degrees.

PPM varies depending on plant strain and what kind of nutes you're running. The more lights you run the faster the plants grow and the more nutes you can feed them. Add C02 and you can run it even hotter. So I recommend dialing in your strains. What do you look for?

Low PPM - Plants will be light green. You may start to see dead spots on the leaves or slow growth rates.
Just right PPM - Plants will be a normal green and healthy
Over PPM - Plants will turn dark green. You may start to see tip burn at first then the leaves curl down like a bird's claw.

Start at 500-800 PPM and go up from there.
 
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