# Quick question



## Marlo95 (Jul 29, 2014)

Hello everyone, I'm on my first ever DWC grow and I absolutely love it! I use general hydroponics nutrients and it works pretty well. My main question is basically. How do I know where my ppm should be? I recently have an incident with one of my plants that made the lower leaves turn yellow and a couple died because I wasn't feeding them enough. Since I use general hydroponics I use a chart that tells me when and how much to feed but the chart tells me to use more than I should because they want buyers to use more product even if the plant doesn't need it. I know all about ppm and ph but I don't know about EC. what is EC? What's the purpose? And how do I know how many ppm to add? 

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## The Hemp Goddess (Jul 30, 2014)

PPMs is basically the same thing as EC--it measures the amount of dissolved solids in your water or nutrient solution.  

I do have to say that I do not agree with this statement:  "Since I use general hydroponics I use a chart that tells me when and how much to feed but the chart tells me to use more than I should because they want buyers to use more product even if the plant doesn't need it."  It would be foolhardy for the companies to recommend more than the plant can use.  The plant does not just sluff off excess nutrients--it burns the plant and in fact, too many nutrients can kill a plant.  I like to keep increasing my ppms until I see a little nute burn and then back off.  I find it interesting that the labels on the nutrients have different nutrient amounts than the schedule you posted--recommended amounts for established vegging plants is 15 ml grow, 10 ml micro, and 5 ml bloom per gal of water.  During flowering the amounts of grow and bloom are changed and the micro stays the same.  I also find that I need to add Cal-Mag during flowering with GH 3 part.    This gives me about a 1200-1500 ppm level in flowering and around 800-1000 in veg.  I use only the 3 part and Cal-Mag and not all those other additives.


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## Marlo95 (Jul 30, 2014)

The Hemp Goddess said:


> PPMs is basically the same thing as EC--it measures the amount of dissolved solids in your water or nutrient solution.
> 
> I do have to say that I do not agree with this statement:  "Since I use general hydroponics I use a chart that tells me when and how much to feed but the chart tells me to use more than I should because they want buyers to use more product even if the plant doesn't need it."  It would be foolhardy for the companies to recommend more than the plant can use.  The plant does not just sluff off excess nutrients--it burns the plant and in fact, too many nutrients can kill a plant.  I like to keep increasing my ppms until I see a little nute burn and then back off.  I find it interesting that the labels on the nutrients have different nutrient amounts than the schedule you posted--recommended amounts for established vegging plants is 15 ml grow, 10 ml micro, and 5 ml bloom per gal of water.  During flowering the amounts of grow and bloom are changed and the micro stays the same.  I also find that I need to add Cal-Mag during flowering with GH 3 part.    This gives me about a 1200-1500 ppm level in flowering and around 800-1000 in veg.  I use only the 3 part and Cal-Mag and not all those other additives.


Why don't you use other additives?


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## Locked (Jul 30, 2014)

Marlo95 said:


> Why don't you use other additives?



Other additives are simply not needed.  I use GH  3 part and that is it.  Maybe a little cal/mag+ if needed in flower.   Jmo


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## The Hemp Goddess (Jul 30, 2014)

Yup, not needed.  If you want to talk about companies selling people things they do not need, IMO, all these additives fit that description to a tee.  I have grown for a long time and have experimented with a number of different additives that are supposed to do super things.  In reality, I could see no difference between the plants that did get all the additives and those that didn't.  So, IME, it is simply a waste of time, money, and energy to use a bunch of different additives.  I always wondered why the companies don't put these goodies in their nutes in the first place if they are so great.


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## akhockey (Jul 31, 2014)

Not only are additives not needed, using floro grow really isn't either. I have had way better results using Lucas formula with just 1 part micro to 2 parts bloom from start to finish with clones. I run my ppm around 1000 +/- 100 during veg and 1400 +/- during flower. pH around 5.7-5.9


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## The Hemp Goddess (Jul 31, 2014)

I have found the opposite ak and have gone back to using all 3 parts.  I found that I just didn't have enough N to keep my plants happy when I used the Lucas formula all the way through.


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## Locked (Jul 31, 2014)

I tried both as well and went back to using grow in flower. 5 ml per gallon.


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## akhockey (Aug 1, 2014)

Ive never noticed any N deficiencies. That may be due to my large reservoir volume. I am lucky to have great tap water and don't have to do anything with it, or add Cal Mag


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