Maximum Yield Cannabis USA August / September 2017 | Page 29

It's something often
MISUNDERSTOOD,
OVERLOOKED, and
HIGHLY IMPORTANT.
Unlike pH, nutrient concentration
should be adjusted for different strains of
cannabis. The electrical conductivity (EC)
or total dissolved solids (TDS) are both
measurements used to determine the
nutrient concentration in your medium.
“You can definitely manipulate how
often and how much you feed individual
strains,” Haché says. “The fast-growing
plants will be very hungry. You can
afford to feed them more and keep
pushing them. If you were to do the same
to a shorter, slower growing plant, you
might push them too much.”
Overfeeding a plant will likely result
in nutrient burn, causing the plant’s
leaf tips to turn yellow or brown. Left
unchecked, nutrient burn will hinder
growth and yield. Underfeeding will
also affect the plant’s ability to reach
its full potential.
To find out what’s right for the
strains in your garden, Haché
recommends starting with a low
nutrient concentration in the cloning or
seed phase of growth. The EC should
gradually increase as the plant matures.
“With a nine-week flowering or 10-
week flowering plant, I would peak
around the fourth or fifth week, so you
can start your flush at the end. You
slowly creep up,” says Haché.
A gradual increase, as well as a
slow decline, in EC will allow you to
determine how far you are able to
push your plants while avoiding
possible shock caused by drastic
swings in nutrient concentration.
“Never have big shifts. A change
is a stressor,” says Haché. “Con-
si