You’ll get mixed opinions here brother. Everyone shits on the cheap ones but my cheapy has been going for 3+ years. I just monitor PH not PPMs, no PH issues or nute burns. Just like people say that you don’t need expensive nutes for success, I think the pen kinda falls in the same category.
Fully agree. To me it's mostly about maintaining your equipment. Rinse and shake dry-ish and a cheapish one works fine. If you have doubts about accuracy just recalibrate from time to time. My el-cheapo stays pretty dead nutz. Plus if you accidentally drop it in a bucket of nutrient solution and it gets ruined, not as big of a kick in the junk.
Ok so maybe I should be a bit more specific about the set up? Will be running a 4 pot autopot system inside a 1.2 x 1.2 metre mylar tent (2 metres high). HLG 550 V2 RSPEC LED Medium will be coco. It's all actually almost ready to go...as some of you may have heard me mention, spanish@rcher was helping me out with things as I'm SUPER rusty...I'm getting kind of antsy waiting and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to find him so I'm coming to whoever might be able to help right now. He *did* mention like you guys that it's not integral to get the "most expensive" one...but yeah honestly wasn't too sure which to go with. As well as that...in my old hand watering days I was using a liquid PH test kit...but I believe there is other ways to check PH...is that like a PH pen? I'm looking for some info based on the specific setup I'll be using. Thanks in advance.
Since no one else will give you an answer, I will, get Bluelab. You can get separate PH and EC testers or get one that does both. It’s a top quality brand, that people who grow for a living trust and use daily. I surely wouldn’t cheap out on any instrument, as important as your ph and EC pens! Obviously in the end, it’s up to you but Bluelab is among the very best and i won’t use anything different!
For starters I don’t pay retail for anything. Secondly, if it’s good enough for people who grow for a living, it’s certainly good enough for me. They wouldn’t buy your cheap no name, because they want quality, accuracy, and long life because it’s so important to not fucking up your crop! There’s something called quality components, that Bluelabs are made with and guarantee yours isn’t. Not to mention mine is completely water proof, is yours? I’ll take my professional quality tools why you’re buying your cheap shit! Something as important as PH, PPM/EC is to growing hydroponically, you don’t cheap out on! You’d probably be offended too cause I bought a bunch of Black Dog Phytomax2 1000’s and you can still grow weed with your cheap $200-$300 LEDS! LMFAO You get what you pat for!! I pay for quality!
If this is your first grow and you’re only growing one or a few plants, on a shoe string budget, then get the cheap one. However, if you’re serious about growing, plan on doing it for awhile, don’t cheap out on the one tool that can absolutely ruin your grow, if not working properly. If taken care of a stored properly, you’ll get many years worth of use out of it.
I keep it simple and just use the drops. Works perfectly and very cheap. I use nutrients as well that are ph adjusted and extremely low in residual salts you can see through most nutrient solutions. Lower ppm the more you can add. I add 5 different nutrients and ppm is 400 and plants are loving it. I also feed every single watering. They seem to love it. 1 month of veg and 3rd week flower 1 day.
“nutrients as well that are ph adjusted” are you saying you’re adjusting them or you buy them adjusted? If they’re bought adjusted, how does that account for the PH in your water, considering everyone’s water is different? PH of water affects ph of nutes! Plants look good!
Well I still always check the ph. Luckily my tap water is very low ppm and just a little above 7ph. Tap water comes into play a lot as well. I live in Humboldt county but when I lived DC the ppm was 660 out of tap gross.
I’m lucky cause my water had zero PPM and around 6.6 PH. After I mix my nutes with it, ph is always money. Sure makes life a lot easier.
Yeah budget isn't so much an issue. So it does both the PH and ?EC? See that'll say how inept I am, I am unfamiliar with this. So the deal with these autopots/reservoir...is that it circulates and recirculates the water and the feed right? The PPM is to what, tell me how much viable feed is left in there? The PH is to make sure the water 5.8-6 while vegging and 6-6.2 flowering? So what, I test all the water before putting it in the reservoir? Then kind of test the reservoir intermittently to see the ppm of feed left and adjust that and PH accordingly? Sorry if I'm getting this wrong...like I said only ever hand watered before and I kind of fucked that up.
They do make combos but the body is bigger and has 2 wires, with probes, one PH and PPM. Those are more expensive then if you got separate pens. Both pens are around $150-$160 vs over $200 for combo. If you plan on growing awhile, get Bluelab and you won’t regret it. There’s other commercial quality brands, same quality, that are similarly priced, but Bluelab is the most commonly used and are extremely well made!
Anyone here got experience with these autopot things? Think I'll go with the bluelab just because. I need things pretty idiot-proof, really I do. Are there different models or?
I got the vivosun kit on amazon. $22. PH meter, PPM meter, ph testing kit. I use the drops about once a month just to make sure the meter is still calibrated. No worries.
This is the set you want. Not necessarily from this website but this set! Bluelab Grower's Toolbox Then you store the PH pen in either tap water or their storing solution to keep probe wet. The PPM pen doesn’t need to be stored wet. Also, make sure you buy bottles of solution, for testing/recalibrating because the little packets they give you to start off with, don’t last very long.