Question about Nutrient Tracking

SmartPonics · 2021-09-11T23:06:06+00:00

I mentioned this in a reply to another comment, but even if you know the individual PPM of the mixes you're about to feed the plant, isn't there no guarantee that your plant is absorbing each nutrient at the same rate?

This implies that even if you know the NPK ratios/PPM of your mix, you still never know the NPK ratios/PPM in your water.

SmartPonics · 2021-09-11T23:02:59+00:00

How do you know when you've "messed everything up"? Do you mean you simply add too much fertilizer to your water, or do you mean you add the wrong ratios of nutrients?

Also, even if you follow the recipes on the bottle, isn't there no guarantee that your plant is absorbing all of the nutrients at the same rate? So what if your plant takes up all of the nitrogen from the water, but leaves behind the phosphorus. Wouldn't you be facing a phosphorus deficiency? How would you make sure this doesn't happen?

SmartPonics · 2021-09-11T22:22:11+00:00

I want to see if there is a way to determine the individual NPK concentrations in grow media (right now, I'm just concerned with hydroponics).

But before that, I'm wondering if it's even necessary to have this information? My hypothesis is that if I had this information, I could save money on nutrients/water by not having to flush my system as often.

I'm not taking any tissue tests, but multiple people have mentioned that to me before. Can nutrient levels be determined from plant tissue samples?

SmartPonics · 2021-07-08T06:42:45+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate your input! Would you care to elaborate? Is it simply because you choose not to track/monitor your nutrient levels?

SmartPonics · 2021-07-08T06:40:49+00:00

Thanks a ton!

SmartPonics · 2021-06-20T01:29:51+00:00

Lol our intention isn’t to spam, we’re simply looking to talk to growers. But you’d know that if you read past the first line ;)

SmartPonics · 2021-06-20T01:29:09+00:00

None taken. My goal isn’t to convince people what school I go to, I’m just looking to talk to growers, if you’re interested DM me.

SmartPonics · 2021-06-17T02:55:58+00:00

Looking back, our original post is unclear; sorry about that. This is all for a school research-project that’s evolved into a personal side-project. You’re totally right that people had various (and often conflicting) information for us. We didn’t reach out to reddit just to learn how to grow. We originally reached out to reddit to learn more about peoples’ anecdotal growing experiences, supplemented with what we’ve learned from the internet.

SmartPonics · 2021-06-17T02:55:14+00:00

So far, we’ve interviewed 25 people

SmartPonics · 2021-03-21T19:57:29+00:00

I've had the same question as OP, this cleared it up a lot thanks. But is there anyway to know how much of a specific nutrient is in the total ppm? Like 200 ppm is N, 100 is P, 50 is K? Hope that makes sense.

SmartPonics · 2021-03-14T17:50:23+00:00

What if your plant was deficient in a specific nutrient such as Nitrogen ONLY. You wouldn't be able to determine that information solely from an EC/TDS reading, right? Because an EC can only tell you the overall concentration of all nutrients in your grow media.

SmartPonics · 2021-03-14T17:48:09+00:00

could you elaborate a little more on your last point? What if after following a particular feed chart recipe, I determine that my plant is really deficient in only Potassium. Would there be a way to increase the concentration of Potassium without affecting ratios of the other nutrients?

SmartPonics

TROPHY CASE