Dear Jay,

Thanks for the great question.

Many growers, like yourself, use Emerald Harvest nutrients because it’s so easy to tailor feedings for success in your garden. We recommend that you base your nutrient application on our accurate, easy-to-read feeding charts. Remember that application rates may vary depending on the water condition and what type of growing medium (for example, soil, coco, peat moss, clay pellets, DWC, aeroponics, etc.) you use. In addition, the plant species, size and age should be considered when dialing in the optimal application rates for your crop.

Then you can determine whether or not you need to tweak the application rates on the feeding chart by measuring the ppm of the nutrient solution. Please look at the two tables below. In Figure 1, you can see the recommended safe ppm for all growing mediums except DWC (deep water culture) and aeroponics, while Figure 2 shows the recommended ppm for DWC and aeroponics.

Figure 1—all growing media except DWC/aeroponics:

Figure 2—DWC or aeroponics

The nutrient charge of the nutrient solution should be measured correctly before applying nutrients to the selected growing medium. A second measurement should be taken from the nutrient run-off after it has been applied to the growing medium in order to assess the correct ppm (or, if you measure electroconductivity, the EC) range.

If you have any other questions, please let us know! We’re here to help.