For hydro, pH meter is essential but also cheap to gauge. with soil, I'm sure it's equally important. As far as ppm, I've gone pretty far without even knowing that was a measurement taken, so I guess it really depends on grow medium and how much you're willing to invest in your plant's health. Happy growing!
If going soilless or hydro and ph meter is needed. I dont use a ph meter for soil grows, but some people swear you can't grow without them. A ppm/ec/tds meter depends on how you are growing. With soil or DTW systems they really aren't required. I would recommend getting one if running any type of hydro system where you are topping off a reservoir so that you maintain nutrient concentration.
For me it's absolutely essential. I'd be lost without it as every watering/feed would be a huge guess.
It's very important to maintain a proper ph otherwise you will experience all sorts of nutrient lockout, and then your going to think its something else and waste time and money adding different nutrients and flushing and still have fucked up plants. You can find cheap ph tester kits for under $10 if money is a issue or even ph paper little more hassle but works. As far as ppm meter goes if hydro its pretty important but if you went light on dosages you could probably get away with it and have a descent grow as long as you payed attention to what the plant was telling you. Same would imply with soil but hydro is a little more important to have one, monitoring both ph and ppm will help insure a healthy plant with optimal yield and potency. Hope this helps answer your question. G
Lots of opinions here, here's mine... In hydro a pH and ppm meter are absolutely essential otherwise you are missing out on one of the most beneficial aspects of hydroponics. In soil, if you have used suitable soil and suitable water there is very rarely any need to adjust the pH of the nutrient solution and going off the directions on the bottle is just fine. but buying a digital pH meter and ppm meter will run you up about £4 each so there's no harm in testing things out
I run a hydro recirculating system and find a ppm or EC meter essential. There are conversion charts available with a Google search. pH tester is also essential. Good luck.
so doing a quick conversion on today's market, that a difference of roughly £56.75 more that I spent for a useless piece of equipment.... ARGHHHH!