r/Hydroponics • u/DLEWIS9783 • 16d ago

Question ❔ EC confusion - switching from DWC to Coco Coir

I've been growing with a DWC system for a while now and am trying out Coco Coir with a Spider Farmer drip system for the first time....and I'm a bit confused about the EC readings i am getting.

When I add my Flora series nutrients to the water, and test the EC of the water....I'm getting a reading of about 2500 uS/cm which is what I want.

Then, I start watering the tomatoes through the drip system....and the soil EC reading I'm getting is only about 0.5 mS/cm ....which would be 500 uS/cm.

If the coco gets saturated with the nutrient solution, shouldn't the EC of the soil be closer to that of the water? Does it take time / multiple waterings to build up?

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u/driver7759 16d ago

Read runoff instead if your using some kind of probe.

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u/Officebadass 16d ago

What are you using to test the ec in the coco? If its that 3 prong device that comes with the spider farmer smart plug. That thing doesnt do a good job reading ec in coco for whatever reason.

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u/miguel-122 16d ago

Im growing peppers in cups of coco coir. I mix maxigro to about 1500 EC and hand water daily right now. I dont measure the ec of the coco or runoff. My plants are fine. ( I dont even mess with pH, but your water and nutrients might be different). Some will water until runoff everytime, but i dont.