Every feed you give a plant carries a certain weight — the dissolved minerals, the intention behind the mix, the balance between enough and too much.
Feed strength is the language between grower and plant, a conversation measured in EC and intuition.
Learn to read it, and your plant will speak back in growth, color, and calm.
How Strong Is Your Water
Feed strength describes how concentrated your nutrient solution is, usually measured in EC or PPM. Too weak, and your plant grows hungry; too strong, and roots struggle to absorb water. Beginner growers learn to start gentle and increase as the plant matures.
A Gentle First Meal
You mix nutrients at half strength for young plants.
After a week, new leaves look vibrant instead of burnt, and you know the feed matched their needs.
Reading the Plant’s Response
As you gain confidence, feed strength becomes a feedback loop. The plant shows you signs: darker leaves when strength is high, pale tones when it’s low, burnt tips when it’s too much.
Dialing in strength means adjusting your EC based on growth stage, medium, genetics, and environment.
Listening to the Leaves
You notice slightly pale new growth in mid-veg.
You raise EC from 1.4 to 1.7, and within days the plant responds with deeper green and faster growth — the feed strength was simply too light.
Balancing Ions and Intuition
Expert growers treat feed strength as both chemistry and art.
They consider CEC of their medium, osmotic pressure at the roots, environmental demand, transpiration rates, and nutrient interactions. At high skill levels, feed strength isn’t a number. It’s a harmony of plant signals, water chemistry, and timing.
The Edge of Burn and Boost
Late in flower, you're pushing EC higher for bulk.
When leaf tips show the faintest kiss of burn, you hold the strength steady, riding the fine line where yield meets chemistry.
