I very much appreciate your comments.
Re-looking at my documentation and emails from JR Peters -- they were mostly on lettuce which is growing nicely for me.
Since Dr. Cari Peters co-authored the Cornell paper, I went with the JR Peters recipe for tomatoes stated there -- it gave me an initial EC of 2.9. Howard Resh states that an EC range of 1.5 to 3.0 was good for tomatoes. I've read other articles that state the 1.5 to 3.0 EC produces a good volume of tomatoes but not flavorful ones -- tastes like the one in the store - bland. For flavor -- the EC should be 4.0 to 4.5 --- so I was not concerned about my EC climbing to 3.4.
Here is the excerpt from Jack's blog:
The 5-12-26 + Calcium Nitrate is a great vegetative fertilizer if you need to modify your nitrogen needs or to fit in with your specific water types. This combo can be used to grow a wide range of crops from lettuces, herbs, and fruiting crops. In its simplest formula you can mix ½ tsp. of each product in a gallon of water. I generally do not recommend this rate, but if you only need a small amount, it works. To make 10 gallons of solution follow this formula:
In 10 gallons of water, dissolve 1.3 ounces of 5-12-26, when that is totally dissolved add 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts for extra Magnesium and Sulfur. Finally add in .86 ounces of Calcium Nitrate. This will give you 150ppm of Nitrogen, which is the perfect rate for growing hydroponically.
Point taken of
nutrient unbalance and changing out the solution. Earlier today I added 4 gallons of straight RO water - no
nutrients. Tomorrow I will flush the system and start anew. Being a retire engineer, I'll start collecting data daily - add a variable for plant size -- and see if I can start predicting when to change out the solution as opposed to waiting until I get massive PH swings.
I looked at the white spots under a stereo microscope and they look like small patches of tiny hairs -- not spider web as I previously stated. That would lead me to conclude that my issue is a fungus as you stated in your post. Please share your fungus article.
Thanks again for your comments.