Hey Do, thanks for the write up. I just wanted to bring up a point with regard to pH and soil growing. You can avoid having to test your pH all together once you get your soil mix dialed in properly. A great option for soil growers is to buffer your bag soil a bit more before you transplant into your final pots. This way the pH stays stable throughout the entire grow vs. having to flush somewhere down the road. You can start with straight out of the bag soil for seedlings and all the way through early veg, but then when you transplant you can amend the new soil with things like Lime, Oyster Shell, Azomite and Rock Phosphate, all of which will buffer your soil very well. I feel like it's generally better to focus on the source (soil) than the symptom (pH fluctuations), and it's quite liberating once you stop playing the pH chasing game all together.
That's all organics right? I'm really wanting to get into organics, I just haven't yet. Sometimes it just sounds so hard, like thinking of all the components and having it all right... I dunno, might be looking too hard into it. I just like using FF stuff, measuring it out, and putting it in my plant. I've found as long as I do monitor the pH it works pretty nice. But I do get what you mean, it would be amazing to not have to pH chase all grow.
I found this thread very helpful. What pH meters do you recommend at different price levels? Or do you only recommend getting the best and pricey.
Honestly right now I'm using a very cheap one, and I regret it. I found some Chinese rip-off from eBay, and it loses it's calibration so quickly and easy. However, it cost me about 15.00 and it works OK. I do have to calibrate it twice during use, which gets annoying, but meh... I actually just invested in a bit pricier Hanna pH/EC meter so I'll post a review of that in a few weeks or so. Good question though...
Here are some good ones. PH/Ion Pocket Testers And Oakton Waterproof EcoTestr PH 2 Pocket PH Tester - Cole-Parmer Catalog pH 600 [MTR-014] - $21.95 :: Ballasts, CO2 Generators, Humidity & Temperature Controllers The Oakton is probably better.
I will be adding more to this at a later time, don't have the time to do it atm. In other words /bump, until people quit asking about pH .
Great thread going guys. I bought a Hanna ph/ec/ppm meter and it works great. I don't yet know what that "u/s" in greek letters means but I'm working on it. Also, I'm looking into a RO system so I can dial in the water. Thanks again guys.
Great. I have the ph2 and it works as intended. You should be happy and will not have to worry about one major factor.
Can you use the ph meters to test the water and the soil? Do they come with the calibration solution? Thanks
You test your water, then test the runoff water after running through your plants. That will be the soil ph. They dont come with calibration solution but it it cheap. You will need storage solution(about $10) and some ph up and down(about $20)