1st time setting up seriously. My setup :
Medium - FFOF
3.5ft x 3.5ft x 5.5ft grow tent
Mars 600 FS LED
Will be germinating WW.
Ive been reading and with regards to ppm
When articles are referring to ppm it has been in general terms. Am i assuming correctly that ppm is total nutrients in/out? Help with clarifications would be so welcome.
First of all, welcome to ILGM forum @Newvetdude 
…
ppm mean parts per million and usaly is related with TDS (total dissolved solids). So, a TDS meter will give you a reading in ppm.
And yes, it’s the total of nutrients present in the solution you’re giving to your plants (in) and the total of nutrients present in the runoff solution when you grow in soil (out).
One other thing, it’s really important that you do not use FFOF until your plant are old enough, not before the plant has the 2-3 set of “true leaves”. “True leaves” are the leaves with 5-7fan leaves (five to seven fingers leaves), like this
You have, must use seedling / sprouting friendly soil before that. Because FFOF is a “hot soil” that contain too much nutrients in it (ppm) for the seedling / sprouting plant.
Hoping that I respond to your question and that I have help you a little Newvetdude, do not hesitate to ask more questions, just put @ before anyone names (tag) and you’ll have plenty of willing poeple, including me, who are going to do their possible to help you.
~Al 
These really helped me understand what the guy’s on here were talking about when I was reading the posts at first good luck and welcome to the group
Thanks for the info… I’ll will get seedling starting medium.
Hope all the future questions do not get to many or annoying…lol…
You’re welcome , Ask as many questions as you need @Newvetdude and there’s not such thing as annoying questions 
Questions lead to answers that lead to knowledge Knowledge is always fun to give and receive.
~Al
I see your in good hand with @Niala and @Oldstoner
So I’ll just say welcome to the play ground
You’ll receive all the help you need
Happy growing @Newvetdude
@Newvetdude never to many questions there is so many good folks on here willing to give you a hand . I had a barrage of questions of first . I was like a new dad in the waiting room wringing my hands waiting for a answer to the questions. I used to do a search on things and just read whole thread’s . Welcome and good luck
@Niala Started the germination today. While starting the seedling and during seedling phase. Ive read in the threads to put under a cfl and not my led. Is this until first or second set of leaves, so right before or at start of veg, is when she goes under the led. Or can she be under the led and the cfl at same time?
Personnaly, I go all the way with my LED, and I have a 1000 watts one… Just remember to keep it at safe distance, for a 600 watts, the safe distance is no more closer than 2.5 foot, 3.0 foot is safer. It’s very important, otherwise you’ll risk to fry your little one, however, if you strickly follow the safe distance, there will be no problem.
Be sure that your CFL are more than 5000 Kelvin (cool white) or your sprouting are gone a stretch. However, you do not need them, in my opinion, keep them for side coverage and with idealy between 2700 and 3000 Kelvin (soft white, warm white) bulbs for flowering stage.
Kelvin scale for light mean the “colour” of the light wavelenght, from reddish to bluish, in sprouting and vegetative stage, cannabis plant react better to the blue spectrum creating more tighter inter-nodes (distance between set of branch) and in flowering stage cannabis plant react better to the more red spectrum , here’s a more details chart, if you want to know more about how light color affect the growth of cannabis plant.
Hoping that’s helping you @Newvetdude
~Al
P.s. It’s very important that you keep a RH (relative humidity) level around 60% in sprouting stage , around 80 % in seedling phase.
Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking of led only.
So the seedling wont become long and spindley with led being so far away?
For me it did’nt, however, I have a 1000 watts in a 2×2 closet with reflective mylar on the 4 walls … if you see sign of too much stretching , you can put CFL bulbs 5000 Kelvin minimum, 6500 will be best, however, I doubt that you’ll need them
@Niala thanks, i have started 2 WW germinating, i now have seedling starter mix…and I’m off to the races.
Welcome! I’m new to the forum, second grow in progress. WW feminized and OG Kush feminized. Two clones, 4 from seed. Just started 12/12 yesterday on one of each. I am using a mix of indoor and outdoor. My experience with lights have been quite favorable using the new LED grow lights. I started with 300 watt equivalent and for starts and seedlings, one set two feet away is about perfect. No stretching. In fact you can end up with the opposite effect. They will be dense and tight. I’m running with one 1,000 watt and two 300 watt in my main grow box and I could easily use more, even though the box, measures 3’ X 4’ X 6’ high. Even with the amount of light I have, sunlight beats it hands down.
For what it’s worth I started my white widows under a 23 watt 6500k 1600 lum cfl. One for each plant. 2-3 inches above each.
After about 12 days I put them under a 450 watt LED on veg switch. I don’t know what difference it would have made had I started them under LED so I cannot comment on that. I can only show you what the CFLs did for the first two weeks.
Under CFL-
First day under LED-
Welcome to our world of growing here at ILGM
you have found the best forum around. We are a close nite community here where everyone helps each other.
Feel free to ask anything anytime ok
ok with that said here ya go you asked for it…lol
PPM
Worlds Best Growing Marijuana Web Site!
Fertilizers PPM
To discover the ppm of your fertilizer mix, you will require being able to gauge grams and liters. Come across at the nutrient 3 numbers written on the side of a fertilizer package, these are the percentage substances of the nutrients in the fertilizer. Each one gram of that fertilizer in to one liter of water, this will give 10 ppm per percentage point of the given nutrient.
Example a 20-20-20 nutrient gives (10 ppm x 20) or 200 ppm of every nutrient for each gram in a one liter of water.
FORMULA:
Grams of fertilizer per liter = A/B
A = your desired ppm
B = 10 ppm x the % of nutrient in mix or your ppm = C x B
B = 10 ppm x the % of nutrient in mix
C = gram of fertilizer per litter.
So to make create a 200 ppm to 100 ppm to 200 ppm NPK mix utilizing a 13-0-44 ratio of potassium nitrate, a 12-62-0 ratio of monoamonium phosphate, and a 33-0-0 ratio of ammonium nitrate you would work in reverse from your single P and K basis (it makes it the simplest in this case), and create up the N at the finish. I have rounded values to the nearest 0.1 g for the following. You would utilize 0.5 g of potassium nitrate about 200 ppm/910ppm x 44k and 0.2 g of mono-ammonium phosphate at about 100ppm/(10ppm x 62P) in one liter.
Fertilizers PPM
This would provide you 89 ppm N (10ppm x 13N x 0.5g + 10 ppm x 12 N X0.3g), 124 ppm P (10ppm x 62 P x 0.2), and 220 ppm k (10ppm x 44k 0.5g). 111 ppm is necessary to elevate the N to 200 ppm level, so we can utilize 0.3g of the ammonium nitrate (111 ppm/ (10 ppm x33N) to take us up to complete. The concrete mixture would give away a 188 ppm N, 124 ppm P, 220 ppm K mixture in one liter of water.
To obtain more accuracy, you require combining big batch or getting an improved range. You would require to make 10 liter set of the over with a range that is only precise to the gram. If you blend your own fertilizer, you can regulate your N basis to meet up your ph requirements, rather than relying on adding acid or base, which is good. This works for formulating hydro mixes, as well as for us soil farmers.
Hope this helps you to understand it better
Will
Thanks @garrigan62 and @Niala and everyone else for the information and recommendations.
I am now at day 4 germination. after 24 hours I planted into jiffy pots with seedling starting soil. They have been under the cfl and as of this morning I have one trying to break the surface as I anxiously await #2. My grow tent should be in tomorrow, ready for the babies to move into their room.
@Niala @Oldstoner @garrigan62 Question about feminized or auto-fem…my seeds came from AMS and are feminized my question is … feminized just mean I should end up with female plants. The AUTOfem the difference being they auto flower without the need to have the light change to induce the flowering process, or am I incorrect in my interpretation, thanks for any clarification.
Also, just a quick update. As of this evening my 2nd ww has broke the surface. the second one is showing two small green leaves and the first one is just a stem with the 2 shell halves on it. My adventure is really underway now!
I will try and post my first pics tomorrow.
Yes it’s true, you’re in the right track @Newvetdude, auto flowering seed /plant do not need to go in a 12/12 light regime , however, it can benefit in shorter light regime in the last 2-3 week of flowering stage
Hoping that’s helping you my friend
~Al
