Yes that must be… ( predicted ec value) I haven’t used hydrobuddy in over 1 year so I’m foggy… and no… I counted ppm like I looked at N P K etc… and counted the ppms in total… and the ec was never close… so I ignored ec… and figured my own by the ppms @Nitt
It’s because they’re completely different things. One is basically a measure of electrical charge. The other is an arbitrary number derived from multiplying that electrical charge by a conversion factor.
And then the “predictred ec” from the HB app is another thing again, as it’s only “trying” to estimate/calculate what the electrical conductivity of the solution will be. And that doesn’t take into account a bunch of things (like starting water quality parameters, other environmental parameters, etc.)
No real reason to use the “predicted ec” for much. Just trust your/our ec meters for that measurement. And trust HB for the elemental ppm breakdown/math.
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
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I get that… ec stands for electrical conductivity… meaning… the solids in the water allow for so much electricity to conduced through itself because of the solids
Without solids water would not be conductive at all
Yes I always trusted my ec meter… but when formulating mixes I counted my ppms so I knew where it should be… and double checked with my bluelab ec meter…
This is why I am getting away from hydro… it’s complicated for zero reason other than people think they can do better with complete control
I’m my opinion I disagree, I feel like it should mean better… yet in reality does not mean better…
Brix levels in the plant are directly in correlation with the flavors and smells the plant has…
Ever eat a hydroponic grown strawberry? Tastes like water mostly… low brix level… again with soil grown strawberries… they taste like a strawberry 
- high brix level
So for me it’s about quality that I abandoned hydro
I can either break my brain trying to eventually come up with a winning formula in hydroponics
Or I can make a good soil or even just buy 1… like build a soil 3.0, and have the plant grow to the best of its ability without all the formulations and science lab bs @Nitt
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eh, I find it a lot easier than needing to be psychic or grow the plant a few times to know when you need to amend it and with what. Haven’t seen a soil you can drop the plant in and not touch it the rest of the run unless you’re running massive pots. IMO if you know what you’re doing, Soil/organic is not any better than hydro and hydro is not any better than soil/organics. The best media to grow in or style to grow, is the best way you know how to get the best bud you can. You grow better with soil? Then grow with soil. Doesn’t mean hydro sucks. Some of us grow better with hydro than we’ve ever done spending 500+ dollars just to do some soil grows.
I don’t care about PPM’s or EC. None of that matters really. Its a reference point for later. I can tell you tsp/tbsp amounts to have a successful grow. Find a baseline of nutrients the plants like, then you can see what that ppm/ec is and note it for later. Then you can start tweaking things if you want, but you don’t need to know what it should be ahead of time or anything. You’re just shooting in the dark at that point. I can’t tell you the last time I bothered to check what PPM/EC I was running.
Here’s some “super low brix hydro flower”
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I’d like to know the tsp/tbsp amounts used for that grow, looks real healthy & sparkling. Loving that canna-goop from high-brix. Do you use calcium sulfate? Cheers!
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That whole flower run was 1.5g solution-grade gypsum(calcium sulfate) and 7g maxibloom per gallon. That’s it. For a 5 gallon bucket of water, it’s like 1.25 teaspoons of gypsum and a fat tablespoon of maxibloom.
7 weeks
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Very nice! The added calcium + sulphur really makes a big difference. Bet they were smelling real potent also. Thanks for sharing @HolyAngel 
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Is brix even a good tool to measure what we’re looking for? Ie: flower material, oils etc…. Not sugar content. I’ve read it can an indicator of relative plant health but should actually drop (in the flowers) as you reach peak ripeness. Anyone using one?
FWIW I’ve had good results using the ec prediction in hydrobuddy. It’s always +/- 0.1 after accounting for my tap water.
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I thought smoking sugar was bad for lungs
: )
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When I added calcium sulfate I saw a direct correlation to boosted plant health and visibly more trichomes. Didn’t worry so much about the sugar aspect as much as the health aspect. Cheers
Cool, guttation.
I don’t think guttation is from high brix. It’s supposedly water transport related (moisture in media, roots, air, pressure.
I’ve had it multiple times in a specific variety. Looks cool, especially when it dries into this amber crystal like sap residue.
How much (elemental) were you providing before, and after? How did you measure?
Can anyone find info on brix levels and hydroponics specifically, and please share it if you have the time to check it out?
I vaguely remember Harley (Smith?) from NPK industries did some talks on brix, and maybe it was related to the Netherlands/dutch grows (which largely used rockwool, eg: tomatoes in rw slabs). He mentioned how “advanced” they were with the nutrient delivery methods, bio-stimulants, etc. - and I think brix was a topic more than once…
Thanks.
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I can’t really find anything in particular yet but I’ll keep searching. Seen a few papers on EC and water stress raising brix levels but it’s irregardless of hydroponics or soil. Brix is a measure of sugars and things in the sap. Less water = more stuff = higher brix level. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better.
For sure guttation doesn’t necessarily mean high brix either. It means the plant is healthy and there’s high moisture levels in the media used, but when it comes out looking, burning, and tasting like pure caramel, I’d think it’s safe to say the brix level is not low 
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Not saying it isn’t possible… don’t get offended
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Nice! I was providing about 110ppm calcium (cal-nit) without adding extra calcium sulfate, reached about 160 after adding according to the calc I use. Only used about a half gram per gal
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Did you do a brix test?
Definitely not offended, apologize if it might’ve come off that way. Not trying to attack.
I did not do a brix test but now you have me interested so I’ll go pick up a meter for the future grows.
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I can’t remember where I saw this stuff at… I want to say its cultured biologics… the founder… went through brix and its importance in marijuana…
Went on to say that without carbon attached to Nirogen … lowers brix levels… and continues to do so each generation
This is the video explaining all that @HolyAngel
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Check the video I posted… that’s where I got my info from
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From what I remember (greengenesgarden mentioned this) hearing, the air is the largest single source of carbon a plant (cannabis plants) the plant has available. Adding ©o2 is the “easiest” way to increase the carbon available to/or “in”(?) the plant, is what this supposedly suggests. Which also was suggesting that is also the single factor that would increase yield (plant matter) the most.
But I wonder what specifically is the claim about “soil” or “organic” grown plants having a higher brix level, or potential for a higher brix level, than a “synthetically” grown plant… What is the claim here? What are the components that are supposed to be responsible for this (some input that isn’t commonly or easily used in synthetics? the microbiology in the soil having some compound effect that is hard to replicate in synthetics?).
I understand that a wild strawberry tastes like heaven, and *comparatively" a “basic” (nothing special) mass produced for size and whatever else strawberry tastes very weak, less sweet, less general flavor, etc. - same as any other crop, really.
But I’d like to know what is actually responsible and what synthetics/hydro can do to improve, if in fact “brix” or something related is responsible.
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Add a carbon molecule to the nitrogen… that is exactly what cultured biologix did @Nitt
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