Office Hours Episode 106
Managing EC levels, low stress training, balancing pH and nutrients, & much more!
Data-driven discussions every Thursday!
From Seth dropping knowledge as the solo host to Jason popping in to say “high” from the Mary Jane show in Berlin – and everything in between – this week’s episode was popping! The growmies came through with some epic questions and Seth was in his element, exploring a range of topics including low stress training techniques, the importance of root zone monitoring, the balancing act required to maintain optimal EC levels, and so much more!
Check out these choice quotes from the episode:
Runoff Rule of Thumb
“If we can look at the EC in the actual root zone, we can make better decisions about whether or not we want to push runoff that day or not. My general rule of thumb is, I don't like to go more than three days without runoff because typically on that third day, I'll start to see a ph drift downward. If I push it out to a week, that might be when we're hitting that 5.2 or so runoff, and at that point we're probably going to see some plant health symptoms. Not 100% of the time, but there's a good chance that that's what we're going to see. So you need runoff.”– Seth
Hydrostatic vs Osmotic Pressure
“When we're looking at osmotic pressure, we look at the ionic concentration difference inside the root versus outside. Inside the root we've got sugar molecules. Outside we've got salt molecules both are charged ions dissolved in water in this application. In a healthy plant, that osmotic balance between the salinity outside and the sugar it's built up inside. So if our salinity gets too high outside and we don't have enough sugar inside the root…We can't pull in water and nutrients very well and then vice versa…When we talk about hydrostatic stress. That's when we're getting so low in moisture content or so high that we're not able to facilitate that exchange either.” – Seth
P2 Pro Tip
“In a well-steered and proportional, and by that I mean great plant size to pot ratio, in that first three to four weeks, we shouldn't have to put on any P2s if we don't want to."
– Seth