spl1
Well-Known Member
When an indoor gardeners decide to use hydroponics they believe they will no longer have to do the manual labor of daily checking of pants in soil. Sure there are automated drip irrigation systems, but not many beginners realize that trade offs. So they find themselves working just as much as before. Sure you freed your self from daily grind of checking plant to see if they need water and the labor of watering them. However, aside from the time saved performing those chores, did it really free up your daily work load in growing?.... no!
Now that you don't have to check daily to see if you need to water the plants, was just replaced with checking your nutrient daily. Many find soon enough that the fitness of their nutrient solution isn't a static unchanging entity, but rather a moving target that constantly changes positions throughout the entire day-to-day life cycle of the crop. The pH and EC maintenance of the nutrient solution often unnecessarily keeps indoor gardeners chained to their hydroponic systems.
Many indoor gardeners welcome opportunity learn information and play with new toys, however, in the end, the difference is only one of endurance. Sooner or later the joys of playing with meters and solutions wears off and we realize that this has become work. This thread is meant for those who want to put some direction behind their work so they can have a handle on reservoir maintenance.
One of the best ways to free up your time is track your nutrient solution, the way you do this is keeping a daily log of your pH/EC changes. This will help you over come those uncertain changes that keep you locked into your indoor garden.
By keeping a daily log that is accurate will help you predict your nutrient solution direction in the future.
pH is the one thing we need to test in hydroponic system, with EC being another. tracking pH/EC changes, one is able to effectively predict where the pH/EC will be at any point in the life of a nutrient solution. Not every indoor garden are the same, this is especially true of hydroponic gardens. Your environment, your choice of nutrients, and your source water all play a role in maintaining a an indoor garden.
This thread will show you how to use your environment, your nutrients, and especially your source water, to your advantage. Instead of allowing these to control you. You will learn how to control them by anticipating their next move and be better able to predict where those moving targets known as pH and EC will be at any given time.
This is called tracking, and it should be done daily this is the only way to truly free up your time.
Lets look at the few things that will control your life if you don't learn how to track it and predict it in the future.
Water: Water is a ever changing condition in indoor gardening, if you are getting your water from a tap or well water it will change with seasons. Even if you use reverse osmosis, water condition will change. Seasonal water changes will effect your nutrient solution. You can use this to your advantage just by testing the pH/EC of your source water before you add any nutrients or additives to it. This will keep you informed of any changes and you can adjust to them before they become a problem. Keeping a daily log helps you in this.
Nutrients: Nutrients are one factor that can really screw with your head. Some claim to be self buffering pH, but not all plants like the pH level that this auto buffering nutrients provide, even the ones that claim there made for your type of growing. It seems this is just another marketing ploy to get uneducated indoor gardeners to by there products.
All plants need this Macro-nutrients in some amount in all stages of growth:
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur.
They also need this Micro-nutrients in some form in all stages of there life cycle:
Boron, Chlorine, Cobalt, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Silica, Sodium, Nickel, Molybdenum
Every single thing that I listed above is needed to peak performance of your plants.
Not all Nutrient solutions are created equally, lets look at a couple of companies lines and compare the two and see what I am talking about.
You should also read this as well to get a full understanding of nutrients.
http://speedyseedz.com/forum/showthr...s-of-Nutrients
Advanced Nutrients: They claim there product is made for a certain type of plant and that every other nutrient manufacture just using fancy labels on run of the mill every day nutrients. Lets look a little closer at there line and see if this is true.
SeniBloom A and seniBloom B a two part nutrient system that uses urea as part of the make up and is not a complete nutrient for a growing plant. As you look at there labels from month to month you will see that is changes all the time, how can you keep your nutrient solution in your water stable if the nutrient lines changes monthly?
If we look at commercial hydroponic green house in the world, you will find many of them do not use AN, FoxFarm, Biobizz, Dutch Masters, Humboldt Nutrients, Earth Juice, Technaflora, Atami, American Hydroponics, Grotek. Why? cost vs effectiveness of crop.
Most will by powder form of fertilizers and mix there own, or the buy cost effective products that don't need a lot of additives to complete there line.
Dyna-Gro: This company line up has been solid for years and have been used by many professional hydroponic greenhouses, interior scape, and land scape companies world wide, why because it works well and is cost effective. I use dyna-gro for this reason.
If you take a look at there labels you will see a very complete macro and micro elements listed. Why because they know that all living plants need this to become strong and resistant to pathogens. I use Foliage-Pro and Mag-Pro in both the vegetative and bloom stage.
http://speedyseedz.com/forum/showthr...eeds-Dark-Star
Additives: Most companies base nutrient are incomplete so they have additives you need to supplement what is missing in there base nutrients, and help boost sales. Some companies claim that breaking this apart help trick the plant into changing cycles faster, or produce more than if not used. there is no real scientific proof that this is true, most companies claim it in sales literature but no Independent 3rd party proof.
There are some additives that are needed to help over come environmental conditions in hydroponics heat, water, and pathogens.
Pro-Tekt is great for helping fight all three listed environmental conditions.
http://speedyseedz.com/forum/showthr...ssium-Silicate
K-L-N is great for promoting root growth in vegetative stages with out the pH swing living biological can create. Never use chemical growth stimulants past the first few weeks of bloom.
Mag-Pro is an excellent bloom booster that uses no coloring or useless sugarcane byproducts that most plants can't use do to the fact the sugar molecule is to large to be absorbed with out first being broken down with biological help.
FloraShield I use this product as a preventive maintenance in my hydroponics systems. It does what it is intended to do. Some people on the internet have made claims that it kills there plants, but you don't see the whole picture that there plants were about the die any ways do to root damage. It does not kill bacteria as some claim it just keeps it suspended and won't let it expand or colonizes.
FloraKleen works well and is cost effective in final flush or monthly maintenance in hydroponics systems. This product works well for releasing salt build up and killing pathogens in hydroponic systems.
Environment: lighting, reservoir capacity, canopy size, or other environmental factors if keep the same will not change the nutrient solution very much, but if any one of this change, the effective predictability of the nutrient solution will be compromised. These factors can affect the pH/EC in profound ways.
Growing Media: Because there is always some salts remaining in the growing media during a reservoir solution changes. I try to match a solution to the pH & EC of what the new solution will be. I do this because the solution left in the media during a reservoir change, if it's much different from the newly mixed solution, this can affect the pH/EC outcome of the new solution once the first irrigation has mixed the two together then solution returning to my reservoir. The degree to which it would affect the outcome would depend on the amount of salt holding properties of your media, and the capacity of the reservoir. Examples of two extremes would be a system using a handful of hydroton or rockwool cube for each plant. Each will hold different amounts of nutrient solution or salt build up.
Strain: Different plant strains would affect predictability if all other factors where the same. In my experience I have seen this to be true. However, because different strains often have unique nutritional requirements, I wouldn't use a daily growth log for one strain with another without first investigating the possible differences.
Being able to predict what are nutrient solution is going to do is what we want. By keeping a daily log of the strains your are growing and keeping daily pH/EC notes will help you all threw your future grows. It lets you see how things change every week and when comparing strain to strain you can see how the differ from one another.
What we want to see is the growth stages and how it effects the nutrient solution, by under standing what is happening at each stage we can adjust the mixtures and increase are yields with each grow until we reach max yield per strain.
This method of using a daily logs is best suited for those who use the same system (lights, nutrients, canopy size, etc.) over an extended period of time, and find predictability of nutrient solution a definite advantage to have from crop to crop.
Experienced gardeners understand this and only change one thing at a time every forth crop grow to see if it had any positive changes in yield. By having three crops grown the same way they have a base to judge if the new changes worked or was a failure.
The only difference in keeping daily logs and what you are probably doing now is keeping a daily log of pH/EC. Once you have a recorded log of a strain for three grows you now have predictability of nutrient mixture that is priceless. Now you can relax and know what your reservoir is doing on a daily bases, this will give you time to take a weekend off or take a vacation with out worrying about your plants Since you know how much water is being used in any given stage, you can set up a water add back system you of set water lose and predict what your pH/EC will be.
Daily Logs can also provide other benefits. They allow you to actually see how the pH/EC is affected by the addition or deletion of certain nutrients, not just at the time they're mixed into the solution, but over the next few days. Another benefit is that the nutrients can be used to control or adjust pH as well as to add back depleted nutrients.
Starting your Daily Log: A daily log is simply a list of the pH/EC measurements taken from your reservoir each day for the life of a nutrient solution. For consistency, the measurements should be taken at the same time each day, and when you perform your reservoir maintenance. After the lights first come on, and before the first irrigation takes place(Ebb Flo), is a good time to take measurements, and it ensures that all solution has had ample time to drain from the media back into the reservoir.
There can be up to three pH/EC measurements taken from the reservoir depending on the maintenance performed that day.
Initial: The way you found the solution when you first start maintenance that day. This represents the day the solution was mixed, the first day of the nutrient solution used in bloom or vegetative stage, and for those using tap or well water it deals with the stronger pH rebound effect commonly found in freshly mixed solutions.
Water top off: The Initial solution after you've added back water to the reservoir's full line. This helps you determine how much nutrient solution is needed for adjustment to restore your nutrient solution a targeted pH/EC levels.
Add back adjustment: The solution after you've made any adjustments. This is the adjustment stage to restoring your nutrient level to an effective growth tool.
You should take notes in your daily log with details about the reservoir, the mix, your source water, and any comments of special interest to you. When daily information is kept as part of an ongoing record keeping system the add back adjustment data for the last day of the previous solution will be available. If doing only an occasional track, that data will need to be added so the first day of the new solution will have a basis for tracking the changes.
So with the information given in the thread lets all start gowning and have a more productive gardening experience to make are lives more livable.
Now that you don't have to check daily to see if you need to water the plants, was just replaced with checking your nutrient daily. Many find soon enough that the fitness of their nutrient solution isn't a static unchanging entity, but rather a moving target that constantly changes positions throughout the entire day-to-day life cycle of the crop. The pH and EC maintenance of the nutrient solution often unnecessarily keeps indoor gardeners chained to their hydroponic systems.
Many indoor gardeners welcome opportunity learn information and play with new toys, however, in the end, the difference is only one of endurance. Sooner or later the joys of playing with meters and solutions wears off and we realize that this has become work. This thread is meant for those who want to put some direction behind their work so they can have a handle on reservoir maintenance.
One of the best ways to free up your time is track your nutrient solution, the way you do this is keeping a daily log of your pH/EC changes. This will help you over come those uncertain changes that keep you locked into your indoor garden.
By keeping a daily log that is accurate will help you predict your nutrient solution direction in the future.
pH is the one thing we need to test in hydroponic system, with EC being another. tracking pH/EC changes, one is able to effectively predict where the pH/EC will be at any point in the life of a nutrient solution. Not every indoor garden are the same, this is especially true of hydroponic gardens. Your environment, your choice of nutrients, and your source water all play a role in maintaining a an indoor garden.
This thread will show you how to use your environment, your nutrients, and especially your source water, to your advantage. Instead of allowing these to control you. You will learn how to control them by anticipating their next move and be better able to predict where those moving targets known as pH and EC will be at any given time.
This is called tracking, and it should be done daily this is the only way to truly free up your time.
Lets look at the few things that will control your life if you don't learn how to track it and predict it in the future.
Water: Water is a ever changing condition in indoor gardening, if you are getting your water from a tap or well water it will change with seasons. Even if you use reverse osmosis, water condition will change. Seasonal water changes will effect your nutrient solution. You can use this to your advantage just by testing the pH/EC of your source water before you add any nutrients or additives to it. This will keep you informed of any changes and you can adjust to them before they become a problem. Keeping a daily log helps you in this.
Nutrients: Nutrients are one factor that can really screw with your head. Some claim to be self buffering pH, but not all plants like the pH level that this auto buffering nutrients provide, even the ones that claim there made for your type of growing. It seems this is just another marketing ploy to get uneducated indoor gardeners to by there products.
All plants need this Macro-nutrients in some amount in all stages of growth:
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur.
They also need this Micro-nutrients in some form in all stages of there life cycle:
Boron, Chlorine, Cobalt, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Silica, Sodium, Nickel, Molybdenum
Every single thing that I listed above is needed to peak performance of your plants.
Not all Nutrient solutions are created equally, lets look at a couple of companies lines and compare the two and see what I am talking about.
You should also read this as well to get a full understanding of nutrients.
http://speedyseedz.com/forum/showthr...s-of-Nutrients
Advanced Nutrients: They claim there product is made for a certain type of plant and that every other nutrient manufacture just using fancy labels on run of the mill every day nutrients. Lets look a little closer at there line and see if this is true.
SeniBloom A and seniBloom B a two part nutrient system that uses urea as part of the make up and is not a complete nutrient for a growing plant. As you look at there labels from month to month you will see that is changes all the time, how can you keep your nutrient solution in your water stable if the nutrient lines changes monthly?
If we look at commercial hydroponic green house in the world, you will find many of them do not use AN, FoxFarm, Biobizz, Dutch Masters, Humboldt Nutrients, Earth Juice, Technaflora, Atami, American Hydroponics, Grotek. Why? cost vs effectiveness of crop.
Most will by powder form of fertilizers and mix there own, or the buy cost effective products that don't need a lot of additives to complete there line.
Dyna-Gro: This company line up has been solid for years and have been used by many professional hydroponic greenhouses, interior scape, and land scape companies world wide, why because it works well and is cost effective. I use dyna-gro for this reason.
If you take a look at there labels you will see a very complete macro and micro elements listed. Why because they know that all living plants need this to become strong and resistant to pathogens. I use Foliage-Pro and Mag-Pro in both the vegetative and bloom stage.
http://speedyseedz.com/forum/showthr...eeds-Dark-Star
Additives: Most companies base nutrient are incomplete so they have additives you need to supplement what is missing in there base nutrients, and help boost sales. Some companies claim that breaking this apart help trick the plant into changing cycles faster, or produce more than if not used. there is no real scientific proof that this is true, most companies claim it in sales literature but no Independent 3rd party proof.
There are some additives that are needed to help over come environmental conditions in hydroponics heat, water, and pathogens.
Pro-Tekt is great for helping fight all three listed environmental conditions.
http://speedyseedz.com/forum/showthr...ssium-Silicate
K-L-N is great for promoting root growth in vegetative stages with out the pH swing living biological can create. Never use chemical growth stimulants past the first few weeks of bloom.
Mag-Pro is an excellent bloom booster that uses no coloring or useless sugarcane byproducts that most plants can't use do to the fact the sugar molecule is to large to be absorbed with out first being broken down with biological help.
FloraShield I use this product as a preventive maintenance in my hydroponics systems. It does what it is intended to do. Some people on the internet have made claims that it kills there plants, but you don't see the whole picture that there plants were about the die any ways do to root damage. It does not kill bacteria as some claim it just keeps it suspended and won't let it expand or colonizes.
FloraKleen works well and is cost effective in final flush or monthly maintenance in hydroponics systems. This product works well for releasing salt build up and killing pathogens in hydroponic systems.
Environment: lighting, reservoir capacity, canopy size, or other environmental factors if keep the same will not change the nutrient solution very much, but if any one of this change, the effective predictability of the nutrient solution will be compromised. These factors can affect the pH/EC in profound ways.
Growing Media: Because there is always some salts remaining in the growing media during a reservoir solution changes. I try to match a solution to the pH & EC of what the new solution will be. I do this because the solution left in the media during a reservoir change, if it's much different from the newly mixed solution, this can affect the pH/EC outcome of the new solution once the first irrigation has mixed the two together then solution returning to my reservoir. The degree to which it would affect the outcome would depend on the amount of salt holding properties of your media, and the capacity of the reservoir. Examples of two extremes would be a system using a handful of hydroton or rockwool cube for each plant. Each will hold different amounts of nutrient solution or salt build up.
Strain: Different plant strains would affect predictability if all other factors where the same. In my experience I have seen this to be true. However, because different strains often have unique nutritional requirements, I wouldn't use a daily growth log for one strain with another without first investigating the possible differences.
Being able to predict what are nutrient solution is going to do is what we want. By keeping a daily log of the strains your are growing and keeping daily pH/EC notes will help you all threw your future grows. It lets you see how things change every week and when comparing strain to strain you can see how the differ from one another.
What we want to see is the growth stages and how it effects the nutrient solution, by under standing what is happening at each stage we can adjust the mixtures and increase are yields with each grow until we reach max yield per strain.
This method of using a daily logs is best suited for those who use the same system (lights, nutrients, canopy size, etc.) over an extended period of time, and find predictability of nutrient solution a definite advantage to have from crop to crop.
Experienced gardeners understand this and only change one thing at a time every forth crop grow to see if it had any positive changes in yield. By having three crops grown the same way they have a base to judge if the new changes worked or was a failure.
The only difference in keeping daily logs and what you are probably doing now is keeping a daily log of pH/EC. Once you have a recorded log of a strain for three grows you now have predictability of nutrient mixture that is priceless. Now you can relax and know what your reservoir is doing on a daily bases, this will give you time to take a weekend off or take a vacation with out worrying about your plants Since you know how much water is being used in any given stage, you can set up a water add back system you of set water lose and predict what your pH/EC will be.
Daily Logs can also provide other benefits. They allow you to actually see how the pH/EC is affected by the addition or deletion of certain nutrients, not just at the time they're mixed into the solution, but over the next few days. Another benefit is that the nutrients can be used to control or adjust pH as well as to add back depleted nutrients.
Starting your Daily Log: A daily log is simply a list of the pH/EC measurements taken from your reservoir each day for the life of a nutrient solution. For consistency, the measurements should be taken at the same time each day, and when you perform your reservoir maintenance. After the lights first come on, and before the first irrigation takes place(Ebb Flo), is a good time to take measurements, and it ensures that all solution has had ample time to drain from the media back into the reservoir.
There can be up to three pH/EC measurements taken from the reservoir depending on the maintenance performed that day.
Initial: The way you found the solution when you first start maintenance that day. This represents the day the solution was mixed, the first day of the nutrient solution used in bloom or vegetative stage, and for those using tap or well water it deals with the stronger pH rebound effect commonly found in freshly mixed solutions.
Water top off: The Initial solution after you've added back water to the reservoir's full line. This helps you determine how much nutrient solution is needed for adjustment to restore your nutrient solution a targeted pH/EC levels.
Add back adjustment: The solution after you've made any adjustments. This is the adjustment stage to restoring your nutrient level to an effective growth tool.
You should take notes in your daily log with details about the reservoir, the mix, your source water, and any comments of special interest to you. When daily information is kept as part of an ongoing record keeping system the add back adjustment data for the last day of the previous solution will be available. If doing only an occasional track, that data will need to be added so the first day of the new solution will have a basis for tracking the changes.
So with the information given in the thread lets all start gowning and have a more productive gardening experience to make are lives more livable.
