You’re welcome!

I speed up his videos ; )

Damn why he speaking in fast forward?

0.75 actually worked :)

Thank you so much Ron, I really appreciate the feedback, positivity and - last but certainly not least - your subscription! Thanks again.

I found this useful. I have watched other videos prior to watching this.

I truly appreciate you saying that Wsochak! Thank you. I try to make vids that are beginner-friendly but still with enough content to interest more experienced growers. So much planned for the coming year! :)

Thank you SR. I appreciate EACH and EVERY subscriber. Welcome.

If the plants are pale green not enough ammonia and nitrates if the plants look too deep green run the water through some charcoal.

Awesome. One grower converted to EC. Just 300 million more to go. :)

***** Thanks for sharing! I learnt something new today :)

+jus4funtim it works soooo well, thanks. More my speed ;)

THANKS Curt! :) I do my best :)

1997wolverine Thanks Wolverine. I received quite a bit of criticism on the pace of this video-it was, as you say, too fast for someone who is (likely) unfamiliar with the subject territory. I guess I had a LOT to say but I didn't want to go onnnnn and onnnn! :) It's definitely a topic that I intend to return to though, so I'll take a chill pill next time for sure! Thanks for stopping by. Happy growing, Everest.

😂😂

So confused. Why do ppl waste time don't this?

Kenneth Elston Sorry Kenneth-you're certainly not the first to convey similar sentiments. I think I tried to pack in too much info into too short a time. The strength of a nutrient solution is physically based on the amount of minerals dissolved in it. However, I was trying to say that your TDS meter (what we use to measure nutrient solution strength) is really an electrical conductivity meter! It's just a bit of software inside that takes the nutrient solution's electrical conductivity and calculates (or rather estimates) your total dissolved solids (in PPMS or parts per million). Different TDS meters make the conversion between electrical conductivity (in milisiemens) to TDS (in PPMs) using different conversion factors-so it's important to know which conversion factor your meter (or calibration fluid) is using. You can forget all about this if you choose to stick with EC like the Europeans do-like the metric system, it makes far, far more sense! :) Still clear as mud? :)

+Milan chhatralia well, I usually go by x0.5 - it's not so much about what you're measuring, just to know which multiplier you are using especially when it comes to interpreting feedcharts or using calibration fluids stated in PPMs.

+Everest Fernandez (Just4Growers) Thanks a lot for your advice.

Noooooooo! I've switched up my meds since then! I hope you return.

He’ll be back.

I think your vids are awesome EF. Watching some of these other vids w ppl who are high and slow is very frustrating. I live in NYC, speed it up even further. It's a sin you only have 55 subs.

Everest Fernandez just cannabis... I can’t keep up either but your giving a novel in 4 minutes that’s why there’s a rewind button 🤟

@@Just4Growers Don't worry if slow people can't keep up.

Black maca? 😅

Thanks DJ Messy. Lol. My camera has two 64GB memory cards (now I'm showing off) but I just can't stand long waffley videos so I tune them to suit my own attention deficit disorder-sorry. I really should make a (slower) follow-up to this video as you're not the first to convey such sentiments :) Thanks again for the feedback. Peace and happy growing, Everest.

@@Just4Growers If you hadn't gone at that speed, you'd have been on my default 2x playback speed. Flipside is folks can slow you down if they want :) But yeah, I agree, fun to watch but a little slower would be better. But I still appreciate the video very much, thanks, I learned a lot (in a short time)

I sped it up so I appreciate the speed of data and his blood stream should that be the case.

Josh E Thanks Josh E. Please sub the channel for regular, educational videos! Thanks for the positive feedback. Much appreciated.

+Timmyboy Hiho Thanks so much Timmyboy! I hope you are subbed as you'll be automatically informed of all my uploads as and when they arrive. Thanks for sharing the smiles!

Mr Mister You just ruthlessly killed my buzz ... man.

Thanks Stallone. Zero is ideal. 0 ppms. Reverse osmosis is the way forward.

Everest Fernandez If you can't use a distiller....

+tv76g Hi tv76g-t's more about your growing media than your plant. When your growing media (presuming it is inert) is completely flushed it will read the same TDS as the water you use to flush it. This is easier with some media (e.g. rockwool) than others (coco) - look for a low CEC (cation exchange capacity). I'm going to make a video dedicated to flushing (been promising it for a while now!) so look out for that soon.

+NBAXXX Hi NBAXXX thank you for your question. To take your example, if you use a TDS meter to measure the PPMs of your nutrient solution and it says 1000 PPMs then stop right there. 1000 PPMs is your reading. You don't need to multiply it by anything. But here's the thing---your TDS meter isn't actually measuring the concentration of mineral solutes in your nutrient solution. (The only scientific way of doing that would be to evaporate away the water in your nutrient solution and measure what was left as a solid residue. Not very practical!) Your TDS meter is actually measuring electrical conductivity. The more electricity your nutrient solution conducts, the more minerals are dissolved in it. Electrical conductivity is measured in Siemens, not PPMs--so the "conversion factor" I talk about is a way of converting the "real" measurement of electrical conductivity into the reading you see on your TDS meter. The X 0.5 conversion factor works like this. Your 1000 PPM reading was the result of this sum: Electrical conductivity (in microsiemens) X 0.5 = 1000 We can rearrange this equation to determine the original electrical conductivity reading: Electrical conductivity = 1000 / 0.5 So our EC was 2000 microsiemens Or 2.0 milisiemens Growers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand think in these native terms of EC whereas most growers in North America think in terms of PPMs. My advice? Train yourself to think about your nutrient solution conductivity in milisiemens or microsiemens rather than an inferred concentration in PPMs as this is what your "TDS" meter is actually reading. Then no conversion factors are required. I hope this helps and clarifies! Thanks for watching.

+Everest Fernandez (Just4Growers) +Everest Fernandez (Just4Growers) Thanks for breaking that down. That was very helpful and makes more sense now. Just a couple of more questions. If you're using a TDS meter and received a reading of 975 ppm, is that considered to be 1.9 milisiemens or 2.0 milisiemens seeing as that reading falls between 1.9 and 2.0. Am I wrong to say that it doesn't matter which reading you choose because it's not a precise way of measuring to begin with. Also, I see some people using a TDS meter in the run off of their organic soil mediums. Is this pointless? It seems the ppms can drastically fluctuate depending on how much runoff you choose to test. A 100ml runoff could read 400ppm but a 500ml runoff of water could read at 800ppm. Which reading is the correct reflection of your soil's ppm? Is an EC meter more suited for an organic soil medium or does it make no difference?

+Everest Fernandez (Just4Growers) No one seems to know the answers to this. Do you have any idea?

+NBAXXX Hi NBAXXX, sorry I just saw your previous message. Organic potting mixes have an EC, just as a nutrient solution does. You can buy specialist soil EC meters or you can mix some potting mix with some distilled or RO water to create a slurry and test that. You should test your run off after 25 - 30 percent of the volume of your feed solution has come out of the bottom of the pot. At first the EC will be higher (especially if you let the potting mix dry out a bit) but it should gradually come down as more run-off passes through the media. Testing the EC of your run-off is always a good idea, no matter what growing media you are using.

That's okay, thank you for explaining that. I found it difficult to find a straight answer on forums. I guess the approach to EC readings and feeding different plant genera is somewhat a trial and error process unless there is a EC/PPM chart that i'm unaware of available for each vegetable.

Hi Jonathan. Thanks for your question. I'm not aware of any method using just a regular EC meter because it measures overall conductivity created by all the solutes. I am aware of meters that allow you to measure specific ions (e.g. CleanGrow dot com) so they may be worth checking out.

Bluelab's truncheon (great piece of kit!) actually shows EC, x0.5 and x0.7 scales.

+Dan Fox Yup I have one and they come pre-calibrated. I played with it last night checking the PPM on my tap water vs purified water. Tap water was 260-270 and purified was 0 PPM. Pretty cool stuff.

SPCkeith Hey SPCkeith. Thanks for your question. Start with a premium hydroponic nutrient (single part, grow A & B, bloom A &B, or three-part) and follow directions for vegetative, transition, and bloom that you'll see on the label. That way you don't have to concern yourself with the NPK as the nutrient blenders have largely done that work for you. Your responsibility, as you correctly determine, is the CONCENTRATION and pH of the nutrient solution you mix up. The more nutrient product you add, the higher the PPMs (Total dissolved solids (TDS)) or milisiemens (Electrical Conductivity (EC)). It's a bit like making a tropical fruit cordial drink. You can add a little for a light drink or a lot, for a sweet syrupy drink! Still the same tropical fruit cordial with the same blend of pineapple, peach and orange-just at different concentrations! :)

Everest Fernandez awesome thank you One more question if I may I know ph is number one but some of the charts I found listed differing ec for every plants but some plants had the same ppm needs but differant ec needs is ec just a bit more standard formulation? And ppm is really not as critical? If I'm following right? I'm looking to do one of them vertical hydro set up this year (like the rain tower or I think that's what it was) I'm wanting to do lettuce over the winter and then once the shipping opens for strawberries currently I have sea grow 16-16-16 and the 4-26-26 these are water soluble and from what I understand are ok for hydro use. I like to go as organic as I can but simple too With soil I use root riot cubes to start and then plant in black gold moving to dr earths pot of gold soil when the plants are slightly older and then I just water in half tsp per gallon of filtered water of the sea grow Can hydro be that simple and do you know any good products you can recommend? Thanks

SPCkeith Hey SPCKeith-PPMs, EC-these are two leaves on the same tree my friend. EC is a measure of electrical conductivity-typically measured in microsiemens per cm, sometimes written as µS/cm. TDS is a measure of the total dissolved solids, typically expressed as PPMs. To measure EC we use an EC meter-this passes a small amount of electricity between to electrodes and measures how much gets through. This is interesting to hydroponic growers because the more concentrated the nutrient solution, the better it conducts electricity. Now, to accurately measure PPMs you would need to evaporate all the water in your nutrient solution and weigh the solid residue. This, obviously is not practical for most folks-so we use a TDS meter. What is a TDS meter? It's an EC meter! Yes-the two are essentially the same thing! All your TDS meter is doing is measuring the EC (in microsiemens/cm) and using this to guess the PPMs. It does this using a conversion factor. Different minerals in solution confer different levels of conductivity so it can only guess. Normally I go by x 0.5-that is, 1000 microsiemens is equal to 500 PPMs. Hydroponics is simple. Begin with the purest water you can, invest in some good quality liquid hydroponic nutrients and monitor your growing environment (min max temperatures and relative humidity) and you're off to a great start!

Everest Fernandez gotcha between that and some other stuff I was reading makes sense now. Why do these things have to be so confusing haha soil growing has been my thing all my life but it'd time to learn new stuff Now when it come to nutes I'm looking at the maxi line from gh figure 3 parts how hard can it be or 2 parts minus the cool bloom are there any other good nutes like this? I currently use sea grow for my soil plants the 16-16-16 and the 4-26-26 any idea if those will work in hydro?

SPCkeith I recommend choosing a nutrient product that's designed specifically for hydroponic applications so that it has the right balance of nutrients (especially calcium and magnesium). The three part flora series by General Hydroponics is a mainstay of my hydroponic garden-works great, easy to use, versatile, pH stable. Go for it!

Pushkaraj Chaudhari Thanks Pushkaraj I am glad that you found this helpful.

Richondo Fabiano By adding or subtracting nutrients...

Everest Fernandez How much caffeine did it take to achieve that level of hyper?

YaMoonSun 600ppm.

+Adrian Rainbow i think 2,000ppm

Hey Michael. 2000 uS (or 2.0 mS) is your crop's limit. Don't go above it. You have very hard water. Invest in a water softener for your home (inexpensive) and a reverse osmosis water purifier for your grow. You're right 1.7 milisiemens (your EC meter's reading) is equivalent to 1700 microsiemens.

Everest Fernandez Thanks for your reply. I'm happy that i understand my readings correct. And i will stay below the EC limit. Yeah the water is VERY hard, but 100% chlorine free and super tasty. I will look into some RO and water softener (might be insanely expensive here though.)

+Michael Hansen whereabouts in the world are you?

Copenhagen, Denmark

Michael Hansen I am sure you can find a European-based supplier who can mail you a reverse osmosis filter for a reasonable price-but if you help then just send me a message as I know a few folks who'd be happy to help you.

EC (milisiemens) is the way to go amigo. Just like Celsius, Kilopascals and Kilometers. :)

JORDAN DAVIES Yes amigo, your EC meter is displaying its reading in microsiemens: 1486 microsiemens = 1.486 milisiemens.

Lisa Webster Hi Lisa. I have a video that shows me mixing up the nutrients, and another where I top up the reservoirs and change them out. But I definitely could do with making a video on nutrient solution maintenance and will hop right to it! :)

Thanks so much miggy! This positivity is exactly what I need when preparing and researching for the next season of vids! Thank you again. ✊

You're very welcome Ayla-thanks for your feedback! :)

+Middle Finger yes.

@JJ different conversion factor means you will have a different reading as stated in the video 3:20

@JJ the meters are all the same but the internal multiplying factor differs

Jordan Snyder hey Jordan, if you have any questions on TDS / PPM or EC (and conversion factors) that I didn’t cover in the video then please feel free to ask amigo. Peace.

iwannafarm .iwannafarm Thanks iwanna! :)

Sorry, too many espressos that morning :)

I think the simplicity warrants the speed. I meant it as a good thing. I appreciate the range of info in the time frame.

Lol.

NoFear4XJs Hey NoFear. Thanks for your question. A TDS meter does not measure chlorine levels. It will measure chlorides such as sodium chloride but that's a totally different thing. A TDS meter is just a conductivity meter with some onboard software to estimate / infer the total amount of dissolved salts. As such, your TDS meter will only change when you add solutes that impact the conductivity of the water, which most salts do. If that helped please consider subbing my channel! Thanks :)

The tds device says it’s up to usa epa !

***** EC meters measures electrical conductivity and express it in milisiemens. TDS meters measures electrical conductivity, but they have built in software that converts the milisiemens into ppm(parts per million). The "problem with TDS meters is that they don't all multiply with the same values and therefore different TDS meters will give different readings, while all EC meters will give the same readings.. In example: If an EC meter gave a reading of 3, and the software on one TDS meter would multiply by 4 to to give you the reading in ppm, it would read 12 ppm, but the software on another TDS meter multiplies by 5 and will therefore read 15 ppm. In conclusion a TDS meter is an EC meter with software, that makes people confused and misunderstand eachother.

William Hansen Thanks William. That's it in a nutshell! In Europe, growers go by EC and save themselves a whole lot of potential confusion!

dev bachu Yeah but you have to test the pH after the nutrients are in. If your PPM/EC is too high you'll have to add more nutrient free water and/or start over again if your pot/bucket is already to its limit with the amount of water it can hold...even if the pH is correct.

+Happy Life That's NOT what I wanted Happy Life! Please hit me up with any questions. Happy to help.

+west denver Thanks WD!

+ankit patil Thanks Ankit. I appreciate your time.

CHAB HENG Sorry Chab-so much to say, so little time! :)

Hi Zeroizeable. An EC test is a good indicator of the total dissolved solids in your source water and you can usually make some reliable inferences about your water's hardness (typically calcium and magnesium carbonate and bicarbonate content) for example. As you mention, it can also indicate the concentration of your nutrient solution but it does not give you any data on specific mineral ions or nutrient balance. There are some more sophisticated meters on the market that do this, usually for commercial growers making up their own stock solutions.

+Everest Fernandez (Just4Growers) Thanks. Is it normal or common to use an EC test to check your nutrient solution levels, or is the test more about checking your source water's suitability?

+zeroizeable Both-but growers commonly used an EC meter to test their nutrient solution's conductivity, infer the concentration, and verify that it's suitable to feed to their plants.

Keep reading, you'll answer yer own ?

+Jonathan Bermudez Hi Jonathan. Use the PPMx500 setting. goo.gl/ly1s71

There is no natural relationship between TDS (totally dissolved solids) and pH because the dissolved solids can affect pH in a variety of ways. Potassium silicate, for example, is highly alkaline whereas monoammonium phosphate, for example, is weakly acidic. Seeing as TDS is a broad brush measurement and does not tell us anything about the actual constituent salts that make up the PPMs, nothing can be inferred about pH from TDS.

adoptableplum Thanks AP! :)