I am just starting my hydroponic journey. I find your channel very informative and concise. I have been trying to look around everywhere and you seem to be the best channel for beginners. I truly appreciate you and cannot wait to dig in even more of your work!
Hoocho, your explanations are concise and articulate, never boring. Thanks for documenting this important component of hydroponics. Congrats on the tomatoes! They are magnificent.
Nice video. I understand everything about ec and its effects. I've been growing with aeroponics for 10 years. And I've never checked my ec. I always check my ppm and pH. And make my adjustments from there. One important thing people must understand is don't go by what the nute manufacturer states. I have found that all their suggestions are WAY to high. I tried one manufacturers product and they suggested a 2500 ppm. I through that stuff away. In my opinion it is best to start with half of what a manufacturer suggests. And then go from there. But what's better than that is to find out what the suggested ppm and pH is is suppose to be on what you are growing. Another important subject is ppm and pH drift. One should always check their ppm and pH daily. Because depending on how much nutes or water your plants are using. Your ppm and pH will drift one way or the other. And depending on which way these drift. It will tell you if you should add more nutes or water. It's very easy once you understand what the drifts are telling you.
Wow when I was growing 40 years ago it was all about PH and CF. We were growing 5500 rockmelons, 2000s of tomatoes and caps plus those. I have more to learn about this before I start again. Thank you for your video.
I can't get enough of your videos. They are so informative. Do you have a video addressing how to prevent algae growth? In addition to blocking the amount of light that reaches the nutrient solution, do you use grapefruit seed extract (GSE) or some other natural solution to prevent or combat algae?
Much appreciate your presentation! Myself just starting up and got a few tomato plants in roughly 45 L black, double walled (for temp control) pots outside. However, over the past five weeks I’ve been fighting the pH and EC values like crazy. They keep exploding on me. An addition to that not getting much hydration and the roots are not coming out of the cocos. I’d really appreciate any advice you might have!?
In my area, the EC result for our drinking water is nearing 1000 ( odd looking U)/S per CM which is high sodium and other minerals not necessary nutrients. If the water has a known and lower reading and control of what is added the EC can give hints of what is the working solution. As time progresses and the plant begin to utilize the solutions, the plants do so at different rates. Notably the water will be taken up more than the nutrients will and the EC reading will begin to climb. At this point it is a guessing game and then you watch closely for signs of your plants screaming for this, that or another. You can add R\O water to get the EC rating back to the correct numbers but who knows what the balance is at that point. We do our best to collect rain water, purchase R/O, or water from dehumidifiers, which by the way has the lowest EC reading next to rainwater. So my hat is off to those who are connected enough to their plants to know what to do. Also some plants, I find are not suitable for hydroponics or if compatible cannot be grown together in the same system. We have accepted the challenge and we get lots of pleasure from growing plants in this manner and the mental stimulation of just trying something different is fun also. We are learning. At the moment our system is outside. We have extend the growing season by moving the system inside and using grow lights. Yipes but this is adding yet another variable making the whole project more complex.
This item you are viewing is a 3 in 1 Nutrient Tester to determine the nutrient levels in a solution with 3 parameters (CF, EC and PPM).（YM-2005A） If you use hydroponics to grow fruits and plants, it is necessary to know the strength of nutrients.
Yes, very important mate,!! The plant, like us is carbon based life, they need, water, food, light, dark amongst other parameters, but over feeding, too high a cF will result in nutrient burn which will burn your leaves which will restrict the amount of food/ Nutes going to your plants fruit. The pH is also VERY important, to high or low can result in nutrient lockout etc,!! In hydro keep your pH around 5.8 and in soil around 6.2, as long as your pH in general is between 5.8 - 6.2, this is optimal, you can allow a bit drift, but not too much, no lower than 5.6 N no higher than 6.8, but correct as soon as possible. Your cF, PPM, TDS are the same thing, the strength of your nutrients, the ammt of salts in your feed, this all depends on which stage your at, how big are the plants, are they nearing the end of fruiting, remember, in the last 5-7 days, NOTHING but pH,d water to get rid of any excess salt build up, for a fresher taste or smoke,!!
I bought a bluelab truncheon and it is great, however I already had a Zero water filter that came with a ppm meter. I didn't think it would measure high enough but it will the bluelab measured 1820 ppm. And the Zero water measured 182 x 10 ppm. And the water filter with 2 filters and a meter only cost $40 US.
The bluelab ec pen is as good. I just like numbers more which is why I chose it. You measure, press hold and be able cycle through units if you like to.
I know old vid but just saw and ya when I found out about the difference in ppm and it based off ec I switched and got an update bluelab truncheon. 👍 nice info
hello hoocho, i need some info. I'm using the cheap tds meter you used. Are you sure it has a coefficient of 0.5? Is 100 ppm equivalent to 0.5 ec on the right device?
I didn’t mention specific numbers because each nutrient manufacturer will have their own EC. And your starting EC could be different. My best generalised advice would be: mix nutrient to guidelines. Then measure it. That is your goal. Then if it concentrates you may need to add water.
@@Hoocho I really appreciate your help! I now see there are charts that came with my nutrient! Excited for the pH one! Would also love a video on determining nutrient deficiencies.
So coming from a saltwater reef hobby we use RODI water with O TDS. That is measured in PPM. I understand tap water can have TDS from 70-400+ ppm. I am having trouble understanding how TDS measurement is accurate. Simply measuring particles in the water, not what specific particles those are. If i measure my starting water at 0 TDS and add X solution that will tell me concentration of mixture. I use tapwater it will be starting ppm + X. Is it suggested to know your starting TDS then your final TDS? Also can RODI water be used, or is it too stripped of minerals?
You can definitely use a low ppm water source. But you may have to use a cal-mag complex to raise the dissolved minerals in your solution. It is infact better to start with a low ppm water as you have more control over the nutrients. You cannot know the exact concentrations of various elements of the nutrient solution, which is why we have to do res changes to give ourselves a blank slate. EC and all other measurements are just to give a rough estimation of how much nutrient is dissolved in solution.
Yes add more fresh water. If your container is too full, you may have to drain some solution out and top up with fresh water then re-check your PH and EC Levels.
Bluelab will look after you, if you look after it,!! Cf truncheon, Ph pen, Guardian, Soil probes best quality you can buy,,;!! But if your a newbie and cant afford, Essentials ate bout half the price of the Bluelab truncheon and pens, and are very robust n reliable too. I started with a £2 ph test kit from homebase, which keeps you right, and always underfed my plants by 50% in order to avoid over fertilization, this kept me right till i could afford a truncheon and pen. But now i hardly need the truncheon, i know what my plants need and when, although i do like a quality pH pen as its an important part of bigger yields, healthy white roots means healthy sticky, stocky plant's,!!
Why not use say Coke to lower pH? Baking soda to raise it? Vinegar to lower. It's not the space program people. No need to buy pH up and down $$$$. Simple stuff you already have at home.
I have a feeling this is due to supply from China due to current importation conditions. The reason I linked it is because they were the store I bought mine from and they were also the cheapest. I didn’t want to link another product that was similar because I can’t vouch for it, but using the information in the link you may be able to find the same product from a different seller that is in stock. Hope this helped.
