For peak performance we recommend you change out the solution in your hydroponics reservoir every seven days. During the period, only top-off with pure water. Do not add nutrients to a prepared tank, as an imbalance may occur.
Depending on your plants vegetational progress or genetic profile, you may skip the transition period. If you desire the least amount of ‘stretch’ possible, simply feed according to our bloom chart when flowering is initiated.
The majority of our customers report that the necessity to flush when exclusively using Cutting Edge Solutions is greatly diminished or not necessary at all. We recommend you take individual samples at the beginning of a flush period and at the end and compare the harvest of a “flushed” plant versus one that is not. We simply recommend discontinuing feeding the last week, and water normally with plain water. We do have an “optional flush” formula on our feed-chart if you wish to feed lightly during flush stage.
CO2 enrichment is only necessary in a sealed grow-room environment. We recommend beginner gardeners work with the natural CO2 in the atmosphere and simply introduce and exhaust large volumes of HEPA filtered, fresh air, to keep CO2 at levels the plants would have in the fields. If you are growing in a sealed industrial style, CO2 enrichment is required for success. Customers using dual-ended 1000 watt fixtures may have the necessity for even higher levels of enrichment.
We recommend you maintain your reservoir within 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Be sure to always aerate your reservoir. Use of water-chillers is especially important with RDWC and high-temperature growing environments.
When using the complete Cutting Edge Solutions product lineup, the need to flush is minimal. We recommend you simply stop feeding you base fertilizer the last seven days before harvest. Water like normal with only Sugaree or Sour-Dee, to keep medium moist and plants happy. No excessive ‘flush’ of water through the containers is necessary. The especially clean formulation of our nutrients prevents build-up in your containers. Be sure to allow runoff from containers, saucers will restrict the natural flush.
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is the best precision measurement of the nutrient concentration of a hydroponics solution. To estimate TDS, one can use a meter that measures the Electric Conductivity (EC) of a solution, and convert the number to TDS in parts per million (ppm). Many meters will do this conversion. PPM meters actually measure the value based on EC and then convert the EC value to display the ppm value, having different conversion factors between differing manufacturers is why we have this problem communicating nutrient measurements between one another. Cutting Edge Solutions feedcharts are calibrated with a US conversion of 500 PPM = 1 EC