One of the downsides of these self-feeding planters is the salt buildup at the root zone from my synthetic nutrients. It has always resulted in damaged leaves during flower as that salt builds up. I discovered that by flushing the fiber pots at least once to reduce the EC at the root zone, I can finish my grow successfully without damaged leaves. So I incorporate a flush into every grow now.
Today I decided to do a mid-grow flush to remove the salt buildup in the root zone. Flushed with 16 gallons of water treated with Florakleen to dissolve the salts. Flushing solution was probably around 200-300ppm. The first runoff water out of the root zone had a ppm on 1800ppm, so there’s definitely a salt buildup as expected but not as bad as I expected either. I ended the flush by running nutrient solution through the roots with a ppm of 750. Runoff ppm from the three reservoirs before the flush was 1500, 1795 and 1800. After the flush the runoff for the three reservoirs was 845, 1200 and 1100. I’m hoping this will be the only flush I need since this is a short veg and fast flowering strain.
Refilled reservoirs with nutrient water at 6.0ph and 800ppm.
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