using TDS meter... first time.

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dantheStonerMan

Active Member
i bean wanting one for a while now and i happend across this so i bought it. its a HM digital brand TDS-3 model.

i am using fox farm big bloom grow big and tiger bloom trio and was looking for someone to teach me what i need to know about measuring my plants. i have a ph meter and a moisture meter as well if these play a role.... i have grown outside for years and never measured anything. now im and indoor grower and i need some help doing it right.

i have 7 plants in flower i have 14 seedlings and clones in veg... and i just started 2 autoflower plants last night. i seem to be having small problems with either over ferts or under ferts and i have yet to determine.... it will go away and come back on dif leaves.... they are just spots... like browning spots... then it eventually kills that one leaf but doesnt seem to spread much...(only one flowering plant, and 2 seedlings that are about a month old.) i topped and LST'd the small ones and started to see it so maybe its stress..?:wall: idk

anyhow back on topic... so i need one of you pros to school me on how to check my plants with my available meters and keep things within tolerance... please and thanks for any help:leaf:
 
dantheStonerMan said:
i bean wanting one for a while now and i happend across this so i bought it. its a HM digital brand TDS-3 model.

i am using fox farm big bloom grow big and tiger bloom trio and was looking for someone to teach me what i need to know about measuring my plants. i have a ph meter and a moisture meter as well if these play a role.... i have grown outside for years and never measured anything. now im and indoor grower and i need some help doing it right.

i have 7 plants in flower i have 14 seedlings and clones in veg... and i just started 2 autoflower plants last night. i seem to be having small problems with either over ferts or under ferts and i have yet to determine.... it will go away and come back on dif leaves.... they are just spots... like browning spots... then it eventually kills that one leaf but doesnt seem to spread much...(only one flowering plant, and 2 seedlings that are about a month old.) i topped and LST'd the small ones and started to see it so maybe its stress..?:wall: idk

anyhow back on topic... so i need one of you pros to school me on how to check my plants with my available meters and keep things within tolerance... please and thanks for any help:leaf:
Click to expand...
Welcome to RIU my friend! We should be able to get you on the right track. Ok, what exactly were you wanting to know? I'm a little confused by your post. Are you in soil? If so, what kind? I see what kind of nutes you're using so I'm assuming you are using soil. What kind of lights? What kind of water are you using? Growing indoors is a completely different ball game than outdoors. You can literally throw some seeds out your window and if the critters and bugs don't get it, you stand a pretty good chance of ending up with some bud off of it. Indoors, you've got to be on top of everything in order to get decent results, otherwise you are just wasting your time. Some people seem to do make it look effortless and others, no matter what they do, can't seem to get a plant to live, let alone produce any decent bud. Just give us all the info you can about your grow and I'm sure we can help you out.

As for the pH meter, some will say you don't really need it if growing in soil, but I think it's a good practice to make sure your water and nute solutions are kept in the correct range, thus virtually eliminating a potential problem. The TDS meter is mainly for hydro but it can be a helpful tool in soil if you understand what it's telling you. The moisture meter, some swear by them and others swear at them. Personally, I like using them occasionally so I can get an idea how moist the bottom of the pot is.

For watering, you want to make sure you do it slowly and thoroughly, making sure you get a good bit of runoff. This will help prevent salt buildup and helps the roots take full advantage of the entire medium. Cannabis is a really fast growing, high demand plant. Healthy plants go through water and nutes fast! Be careful and make sure all your water isn't draining down the sides of the pot (this happens especially if the soil is really dry). Also, I like to let the pots sit in the runoff for an hour or 2 to make sure there are no dry pockets in the soil. There are a lot of different techniques but this is how I do things and it has served me well for a lot of years.
 
WOW THANK YOU. i am using soil its a comercial blend potting soil. i have a 400w hps and a 400w mh on the ladies for bud. i use tap water from the country. we have awesome water too. what i want to know is what my meters are telling me. lol i can see that it reads ppm but were should it read? and this is done on the runoff correct? im not concerned with ph and moisture i got that... just how do i acuratly measure the tds and how do i change it to be in my plants favor if it is off?
 
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dantheStonerMan said:
WOW THANK YOU. i am using soil its a comercial blend potting soil. i have a 400w hps and a 400w mh on the ladies for bud. i use tap water from the country. we have awesome water too. what i want to know is what my meters are telling me. lol i can see that it reads ppm but were should it read? and this is done on the runoff correct? im not concerned with ph and moisture i got that... just how do i acuratly measure the tds and how do i change it to be in my plants favor if it is off?
Click to expand...
You can use that TDS meter to check your water. It will give you an idea of the hardness of your water. You say it's awesome water, and it may well be very good stuff, but it may have a lot of dissolved solids (hardness) which can be a growers worst nightmare. Anything over 200ppm is pretty hard water, but still manageable. Anything over 500 ppm I wouldn't even consider using it for growing. Not that it can't be done, it's just a pain in the ass. I don't believe in checking runoff in soil. I know people do it but if you want guidance on checking runoff in soil, I'm the wrong guy to ask. lol! Checking runoff pH IMO is a waste of time. I don't ever do it and I have healthy, potent plants. If you start with a quality potting mix that is pH balanced to begin with and you make sure your water/nute solutions are at the correct pH when watering/feeding you shouldn't ever have to worry about the pH of your medium. Soil is different than hydro. With hydro, the nute solution is the medium, so pH of the nute solution is VERY important. With soil, the medium's pH is what's important, not so much with the water/nute solution. If you put water in that is, say, 6.0 pH, the soil will buffer it quickly and it will have little effect on the soil's pH. Over time if you are adding nute solution with too low a pH it will drop the soil's pH slowly, over time. That's why I usually make sure my pH of water/nutes is in range. As for checking the ppm of runoff in soil? This, IMO is another excercise that doesn't work all that well. Again, I know people who do this, but I honestly don't think it's that useful in soil. Some people do it in order to see if a flush is working and for that it can be useful, but not very accurate. I would only use this trick in extreme cases where I suspect I've overfed. Then do a flush and see what the resulting runoff's ppm's are. If you check it going in and coming out you can get an idea of how well your flush is working. Ideally you want to see the ppm's of your runoff drop while flushing. If you want to learn more about TDS or PPM's or pH, click on the link in my sig. That should keep you busy reading for a while. lol!:-P

Your plants look really healthy BTW. :weed:
 
dantheStonerMan said:
i seem to be having small problems with either over farts or under farts and i have yet to determine.... it will go away and come back on dif leaves.... they are just spots... like browning spots
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

What's up Dan? Got a question for ya. Are you using Jiffy Peat Pellets? Or does your soil have alot of peat in it? I had the same problem for 4 grows in a row and did everythink I could think of to get rid of the brown spots. In my case, it was the peat moss Jiffy Pellets. Once I started feeding them FF Grow Big in there early stages (first week) it stopped. Give them a dose of GB at 330 ppm at the beginning. Best thing to do is get rid of peat pellets in the beginning, and use these instead. http://www.greners.com/seed-starting-and-cloning/cloning-mediums/sure-to-grow-starter-cubes.html
They are free of pathogenic organisms and require no pretreatment or further sterilization
Hope this helps. Plus what seems to be happening is the fact that the peat is breaking down. When this happens it can cause the soil to be acidic as all hell. At a seedling stage the swings can be rough to the new plant. Thus showing the spotted leaves
 
dantheStonerMan said:
i use tap water from the country. we have awesome water too.
Click to expand...
what i want to know is what my meters are telling me. lol i can see that it reads ppm but were should it read?
Click to expand...
/QUOTE]

Your water isn't softened is it? If so, don't use that.
When you mix up your fert. solution, that's when you check the ppm's
One week old: 300-350 ppm
SEEDLINGS: 500-600 ppm
Veg.: 800-1000 ppm
flowering :1000-1500 ppm
Click to expand...
 
im not using no peat pellets or anything like that i just have plastic 12" plant pots. the seedlings are all started in the same soil they have bean transplanted into just fresh and in bigger pots. its a comercial indoor potting soil. they have bean in these pots for about 3 weeks... my tap water is not softened it reads 180ppm give or take on the meter.... well i did happen to check the runoff and it was reading about 1500 ppm and higher for most all my plants... so i flushed em down into the 800 range... we will see what happens... i was told recently to use the ff nutes way lighter than there recommendations like 1/3 strength and i was using them at full strength every other watering so i may have done it like that to get the browning spots.
 
Yeah, that might do it, 1500 is a bit high :o
Now that u have the meter, take a visual at this. For me now, .137 oz in 1 gallon of water,(already ph'ed at 6.5 to 6.7) gave me a ppm of 450/460. I was in germination at that point, but .137 oz isn't shit. :shock:
Is yous like mine, you have to set it to the temp. of the ppm solution every time u use it? Probably not, mines only a ppm checking devise. I was going to get the 3 in one but at the time, I couldn't afford it. Congrats on yours. I'll get one some day :mrgreen:
Good luck dude. If ya need anything just ask.
 
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