Vash1

I'm very, very new to this, so bare with me friends. I'm in the process of developing a grow room. I got tired of going out in the street to find bud - going thru a lot of uneccessary changes, and taking chances. Enough of that. My question is, what are the most important pieces of testing equipment that I could acquire to help me produce the finest bud that I've ever had. I have already gotten a PH meter, and considering the Truncheon EC/TDS meter as well. Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions that I can get.

MB grower

Get the TDS meter! You won't believe how much the PPM flucuates. Having a meter that can tell you your nute strength can save you alot of headaches down the road.

If you can afford one, buy one. Believe me, watching your babies suffer from nute shock really sucks. Accidents will happen, this way you can correct them before they affect your plants.

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MX2

You will not regret getting a TDS meter, I am a newbie and getting the Nute game down with a TDS meter takes a little time. I couldn't even imagine how difficult it would be without one.
I am using a Hanna TDS/EC WSP1 and a Hanna PH "Champ" Meter
- and you would have to pry them out of my cold, dead hands before I would give them up !

Good Luck
MX2

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Vash1

MB and MX2. Thanks guys so much for your help. I know i'll need help with that TDS meter, so stand by. I'll be asking questions "till the cows come home". Thanks again. Are there any other meters that would be crucial?

Phread O'Hinton

pH is by far the most important meter.

TDS (or EC- the two are closely linked) is secondary, followed by everything else: temp, O.R.P (which I've never used), flow rates, etc., etc.

You're already in good shape with the pH meter. A TDS meter is useful, but not required. You will, however, have a lot of fun with it.

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Vash1

Thanks lots for the info Phreaddy O. From the research that i've done (The Indoor Bible), it definitely seems to mirror your words. PH is crucial, if not the most important. My hope is that the TDS meter will help me when apllying nutriens correctly. I'm still trying to figure out that "ppm" thing when it has to be converted from %. Any help on this one?

Phread O'Hinton

I'm not following your last question exactly Vash1. So I'll explain how I would use a TDS meter, and hopefully that will help.


Start by preparing a fresh, carefully measured batch of nutrients. Balance the pH, etc. Follow your nutrient manufacturer's guidelines accurately. This gives you a balanced, exact batch of "correct" nutes. This can be done directly in the res, or in a separate container if you want to be even more exact- say a 2L bottle or something.

Dump your TDS meter into your new "reference" batch. It will spit out some number- mine usually reads about 102 (indicating 1020 ppm of conducting solids in the mix). The exact number isn't important- different meters from different manufacturers will give different readings even in the same batch of nutes!

Now plunk the meter into the main res (if it wasn't there already). As the plants grow they take up nutes (reducing the TDS reading) and water (increasing the TDS reading). When you come along to check on the plants, you will top the water back up to the starting level (or you may have a automatic system to do this- a float valve or whatever). When you add the water, you will negate the increase that the water uptake caused, causing the TDS reading to go down. This will give you a new reading that indicates how many nutes the plants used.

Now you can carefully add a small amount of new nutes to the res. If you keep notes, you'll soon know exactly how much the meter will rise for a given amount of nutes, or how many nutes to give to effect a given reading. You add the appropriate amount of nutes to bring the reading back to the appropriate meter reading.

That's about it for TDS- you just have to remember to still change your entire nute supply regularily- I wouldn't run them without an entire change for more than two weeks...

Hope this helps! If not, ask more questions!

__________________
"No, no, there really were black helicopters after me! Of course, I worked for a helicopter company at the time, but..."

Current Favorite HC Quote:
"If your growing with only 5500 total watts or less your really wasting your time. and will never get anything decent." - St0ney

Vash1

Phread, you've got the idea of the types of directions I need. Being that I'm so new to this, you''ll have to assume that I need the "Grow Methods for Dummies." My main concern is being able to nourish my baby girls with the proper amount of nutrients with out having to make a "visual" of nutrient deficiency/toxicity. I guess I'm striving for perfection here, but that's just my way. Once I learn this nutriton factor, i'll be well on my way. Your information has helped me a great deal, and i'm appreciative to all you guys to the "inth degree". Hopefully, i'll be like you when I grow up....... My main concern is being able to calculate the Percentages on the back of the bottle of nutrients into ppm. After that, knowing how not to exceed the ppms during fertilization. If this is still confusing to you( and it may be), i'll keep trying. We'll get on the same page sooner or later. Again, thanks tremendously for your help.

Roller420

Vash, Sorry to bust in on your thread but it seems to be the perfect place to get a question that has been running through my head answered.

If you take your water out of the tap like i do, and you plan on starting your rooted clones at 500ppm, do you include your tap waters ppm in that number?

If my water has a ppm of 250. Should i have my rez at 750 or 500?

Thanks again Vash and welcome to growing. Good luck..........Roller

Phread O'Hinton

Vash1: Hmm. What brand of nutes are you using? Or can you copy what the instructions are? The stuff I use is (say): 2 ml of each nute (3 parts) per liter of water in res.

Are you trying to convert the NPK ratios directly to ppm's? I'm not sure that's possible (well, it would be theoretically, but there would be so much other junk in there that would muck up the reading- like Roller420's initial reading of 250 for tap water!).


Roller420: Why do you want specifically to target 500ppm? Is that how your nutes are specified? Good question though.

I guess what my point with the procedure I described above is that it doesn't really matter what the ppm reading is- it will vary depending on what brand meter you've got, what brand nutes you're using, and what your water is like (and maybe the phase of the moon- I'm not entirely sure ). The trick is to prepare a known-good batch of nutes, see what the reading is, and aim for that from then on. If I'm preparing clones and I want to use a half strength version of that, I'd prepare it with half the nutes that I use to get the "known-good" batch I made.

Keep asking questions though- we will get on the same page here.

__________________
"No, no, there really were black helicopters after me! Of course, I worked for a helicopter company at the time, but..."

Current Favorite HC Quote:
"If your growing with only 5500 total watts or less your really wasting your time. and will never get anything decent." - St0ney