Help to raise ppm in soil

My ppm in my run off is only 290 I’m growing in regular raised bed garden soil no time released fertilizer in it. using fox farm trio and afraid to keep adding teaspoons of fert. to water. I’m use max dosage and put 790 ppm in and ppm out 390 how do you raise more I’m afraid of nute burn

How many ml per gallon of each fertilizer are you feeding? Are you adding any cal/mag supplement or other boosters? How old are the plants you’re feeding? What strain? Are you using tap water, rain water, filtered, reverse osmosis, distilled…?

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plants are super silver haze photo 17 weeks old just started flowering 2 tsp tiger bloom 3tsp big bloom and 4ml cal/mag when used I’m using tap water aged and ph 6.3 – 6.5

And… no reply from ANYONE??

As a new grower myself, I too have this very same question.

I’m using Foxfarm Ocean soil, Foxfarm 'Dirty Dozen, Cal-Mag, Superthrive, with R.O. water, ph at 6.5
My ppm’s after mixing these nutrients in a 1 gallon container are around 406.
The Foxfarm feeding schedule for week 3 says that my ppm’s should be at 1610-1960. REALLY?
So, how do you get it there? Just add more nutrients?? Run the risk of over feeding, lock out, etc?? This is rather confusing

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Wow, wtf happened there? I apologize, @dbld55. If you’re at what the manufacturer calls for as the “maximum” dosage, yet your runoff is only at 390 ppm, you’ve probably just got some really healthy eaters, assuming they look alright. I’d go up to about 900 ppm or so going in. Also, how often are you feeding? Most alternate between feeding and watering, or feed feed water, something to that effect. That can affect the way the nutrients build up, as well as how the plants eat. I hope that you got it figured out already and you’ve got some nice buds forming by now.

Welcome to ILGM, @RockClarke. This thread must’ve slipped through the cracks. I personally would ignore any numbers the manufacturer gives as to ppm, and go more by how the plants react after starting at maybe a 1/2 strength mix. 1960 is pretty high, even for a heavy feeder in the middle of flowering. Also, your TDS meter may use a different scale than the one they’re referring to. Keep a good journal of what you’re feeding and how much, so you know for next time. Then just watch the plants and if they seem hungry, bump it up. If they seem happy, stay where you’re at, keeping in mind that they’ll need a little more and more as they get bigger. The general consensus is that a little bit of nutrient burn is okay. It lets you know that you’re pushing the plants to their full potential. Better to be slightly overfed than underfed, especially during flowering.

Thank you for that info. I have been following the Foxfarms feeding schedule, but after mixing the nutrients in a 1 gallon jug, checking the PH to make sure it’s at 6.5, and then the ppm of my mix, I am nowhere close to what Foxfarms says it should be. So, I guess by what you’re telling me is to, bump up the amount of what I’m mixing in my jug.

welcome aboard @RockClarke the pic’s are yellowing in 2 days after I took all yellow leaves off so I bumped up nute amounts up and now I wait The plant without yellow leaves is another plant that I’m a proud parent to

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Dangit, I ran out of likes just now. They look good! You’re on top of the minor issues that are visible. Those will be some big colas! You might need to support them, I’d plan ahead for that in case…don’t want any branches breaking off! :+1:

What meter are you using to measure TDS? Does the chart you’re referring to or your meter also have EC as a setting? That’s what TDS meters actually measure, and the meter does some math to give you an estimate of TDS. Depending on which meter, who made it, and where, it may use one of a few different conversion methods, which gives you a few possibilities as to the actual reading. EC is EC. Maybe you’re near where it should be, and your meter is giving you a different conversion than the scale Fox Farm uses.

I bought one of those cheap-o kind on Amazon. I don’t even know what the scale is, that it is set for. Foxfarm says they use a 700 scale. It shows EC & ppm, c & f. I’m not sure if it has a way to change the scale. Maybe I should invest in a better meter. The cheap PH meter I bought, screwed up my plant with faulty readings. It now resides at the county dump site.

Set it to EC, then multiply by 700, and go by their chart. Perhaps your meter may also be reading milliseimens vs. microseimens, making 1400 look like 140. There is a little more room for error on ppm, not like pH, as much anyway. Also, the ppm of the water before you add anything to it should be taken into account. For instance, tap water with a ppm of 400 with nutrients totalling 1000 ppm, vs. 0 ppm reverse osmosis or distilled water with nutrients totalling 1000 ppm is a drastically different dosage.

I’ve been using bottled drinking water. I add all the nutrients per the FF soil feeding schedule, then check the PH with my new APERA meter, always shoot for 6.5, and I stopped using the TDS meter, cuz I couldn’t figure out why the reading was so far off, even after following the FF schedule to a T. Thanks for letting me know about the multiply by 700 factor too. That’s a game changer.

Double check me on that. There’s a chart with the different scales floating around…I want to say one of them is Hanna? Anyway, yeah. It’s a shame they can’t all get on the same page. I feel the same way about C/F and the metric system.

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I agree I’ve been thinking about ways to support the branches especially since the plants were topped and I don’t want them to split down the middle. Last year one split but I was able to repair it but this year I’m going to try the oz of prevention approach. I’m thinking about putting a string net ( like for a scrog) near the top to stop swaying to much in the wind but I’m still thinking about how to support from bottom of branch to support the weight

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