Transporting electrical conductivity (ec) when watering plants

Whether you are a beginner to planting, rooting and flowering or an avid grower, it is important to understand the measure of nutrients in your growing substrate.

The electrical conductivity (EC) is a measure of potential transport of an electrical charge in the water you feed your plants. When gardening, potting plants or maintaining a large crop of vertical plants you will notice how quickly plants can grow, wilt or become stressed by the appearance of the stem, leaf or soil and you will need to know what to do to turn the growing problem around.

Depending upon where you live in the world, some tap water contains high levels of salt and over time this can build up in your substrate creating a negative knock-on-affect! Salts attract water through the process of hydrolysis, so adding too much nutrient to your plant can sometimes hinder the plant root growth as the root absorbs it, to avoid excess fertilisation run an (EC) test.

TEST THE WATER

Running a quick pH level test prior to committing will take you seconds. Simply collect a sample of water in a clean container, run your pH probe or take your litmus paper out of its packaging, then place the test (or probe) in the water. Litmus paper takes a few seconds and the pH probe should display a reading almost immediately.

Your ground alkalinity measure (pH level) should be 5,5 – 6,5 pH.

If your test has high acidity correct it with a correcting pH solution. It is important that you also test the EC level of your wáter. Its level should be as close to 0 for a better feeding control. If your EC level is above 0,6 mS/ cm, you can consider installing an eco water filter system, as this will manage your crop water effectively. Although, it is easy enough to maintain an optimal level of salt exchange between UGro COCO substrate and your crop or plant by adding a nutrient solution. Part of the nutrients absorbed by your plant will be transformed into amino acids and proteins and some of these proteins will join the sap which increases the internal EC levels, increasing the absorption of water to the plant. This is important during the early stages of planting.

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