Nutrient burn? 3 days to light flip running a bit higher ppm/ EC

Does this look to be early stages of nutrient burn? Ive been on the look out over the past 3 days as during my last reservoir change 4 days ago i added FF open sesame to the feeding schedule as recommended by the FF feeding chart (feeding chart uses 700 scale and my TDS meter uses 500 scale), this shot my TDS levels up high, i am currently coming up on week 8 of veg, 50 gallon tote (35 gallons of water) hydroponic skywalker OG photo female, ppm is currently reading 1627 and EC 3461 (500 scale), PH is 5.78, i am currently using the FOXFARM hydroponic nutrient line and feeding schedule including
1 tablespoon/ g FF big bloom
1 tablespoon/ g FF grow big
1 teaspoon/ g FF kangaroots
1 teaspoon/ g FF microbe brew
1/4 teaspoon/g FF open sesame
As well as
1 ML/ g TPS nutrients cal-mag complete
2 ML/ G TPS nutrients silica gold
Should i add a couple gallons of fresh PHd RO water?


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Yeah that EC is considerably high, I would get that down around 1.8-2.0. What’s the res temps :love_you_gesture:

I figured it was quite high, she was seeming really happy with it until yesterday, i started noticing little signs, then today there was more so i figured it was something that needed attention, current res temps are 65.1, nice thing is, even though im still freezing dozens of water bottles to keep res temps down, ever since i upgraded my reservoir, the temps rarely reach 70 with 6 bottles of ice at a time i go go to work from 10am to 8 pm and when i get home the temps are just starting to creep up to 70, but ive never seen temps below 62 either so it seems to keep a pretty decent range

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Good to hear on the temps Growmie. I run an aeroponic set up and my res temps hover around 68-70 :love_you_gesture:

Ditch the 500 scale and get an ec meter. I did the same shit for a year with FF trio with a cheap 500 scale meter. Theyll have you chasing numbers. Your EC is entirely too high and your ppm is roughly 2380ppm on a 700 scale.

That is a deficiency not an over feeding issue though. Your tips look burnt because the plant is stealing magnesium from the tips of the plants because it is not recieving enough from the roots. This is most likely caused from poor oxygenation in the root zone and a lockout caused from not flushing in between nutrient changes. Fox Farms designs their shit to be way too high in EC so salt buildup occures and flushing in beween each new growth stage is neccesary to allow the new nutrients be effective. Its a racket and FF is the king of buy more, btw you need this too.

I would suggest removing about 1/4 of your res and adding back pHd water until your target range is met if you have been flushing in between res changes. If you havent been flushing in between stages then drain her completely. And run about 2 to 3x the amount of water youd normally fill her with and then adjust your mix to where you want it and add it back. If youre using FF Sledgehammer with flushes in between. IMPORTANT!!! Only use 1 to 2 DROPS per Gallon of fresh water. Run it through the system or pour in the rez and let sit for about 30 minutes then drain it and run 2x more fresh water then drain to ensure you got all that yucca out. Then fill as normal. Anything more that a couple drops per gallon can kill your plant and it will never finish.



I’m with @Ebb I use EC when mixing nutes. Here’s a chart that might be helpful for you now.

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:point_up_2: doesn’t a TDS pen measure both 700/500. It’s just a matter of using the 500 scale option on the meter that’ll give you EC/PPm readings :love_you_gesture:

A 500 scale tds and 700 scale ppm wont give the same readings because they measure different element’s.

You need one or the other or a combo

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Or enjoy factoring mathmatics into every reading.

@Ebb i do use sledgehammer every 2 weeks, let it sit for 1 hour and completely flush and add new water, youre saying im having a magnesium deficiency? That was my other thought, as i have been battling cal-mag issues though the whole grow, i just hadnt seen the tips get like that previously, so what im getting is i should change about 10 gallons from my 35 gallons of water and readd new fresh RO water to about 2000 EC on the 700 scale so roughly 1000 ppm on the 500 scale if im reading the chart above correctly, and add more calmag?

I will be looking into getting a 700 scale meter asap, because i SUCK at math :sweat_smile:

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Correct…and then to battle the mag issue, only top off with water, silica and calmag on your top off days with the pH adjusted.

Those Truncheon sticks are like 100 bucks and the absolute best and easiest meter ive ever used. Never needs a calibrated, charged, or anything. It just works and can be used to stir nutrients into your res

Ugh, i absolutely love this site and the community within it. Id have killed my plant if i hadnt found this place, ill probably still look into that truncheon, but with 35 gallons of water i use a drill and a paint mixer to mix my reservoir :sweat_smile:

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:point_up_2: that’s confusing but think we’re saying the same thing. My Blue lab has the ability to measure both and FF is the only nutrient line I’ve seen using the 700 scale. Here we use the 500 scale and EC and PPMs are one of the same basically. Approximately 1/2 of the EC would be your PPMs. 2.0 EC would have an approximate value of 1000 PPMs. Soi/coco for PPMs and EC for Hydro :love_you_gesture:

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Botanicare uses 700 too

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No need for a drill anymore. Also in case it hasnt been mentioned before.
Mixing Order: Always goes Silica, Calmag, base nutrients, bios, salts then pH. Getting them in the wrong mixing order can cause serious issues as well and make an entire reservoir of fresh nutrients worthless

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Another thing is make sure your using liquid scale and not dry scale measuring spoons and devices for your bottled nutrients. Dry scale spoons are only good for salts and dry amendments. Another mistake made by myself early on.


Highly recommend

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I use 1ML, 5ML, and 10ML syringes, i also have measuring spoons from fox farm that came with my dirty dozen bundle, i like that shot glass style cup though, i will have to look for those and get a few as well!

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Picked mine up at an Ace Hardware

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