Do I really need a ec/tds tester for soil grows

[the gnome]

just like the title say, I have a really nice kelway Ph meter thats strictly for soil, but I need the pen type that does the liquid Ph to test my runoff and tap water.
reading here last nite some guy had a prob with his soil grow and he was asked for the Ph, ec and tds reading on the run off from his soil?
do I need the ec/tds meter if I'm doing a soil grow? and why would I need it?
what does the ec/tds part test? and what do they stand for?
I think tds is total dissloved solids and it measures the amount of ferts in the water??

I'm about ready to order a liquid PH meter in the next day or so and I don't want to find out next week I should have bought the multi tester that also does the other two.

 

[the gnome]

bump

 

[Daffy]

If you want to go without one just don't overdo any specific nutrient. A light balanced feeding can be applied over and over with less risk of toxic medium(that's how they do it in non-cash crops with sprayers to foliar feed semi/continuously). Another alternative is to fertilize 1 day full strength next day water only. More or less, the meter will help you optimize feedings. If you can afford it buy it, if you can't oh well you can get good results using common sense. I have is a sunleaves HM digital TDS cheapo works fine. My solutions is 300-500 for small and 600-700 for medium and 800-1000 for large. I also use nutritive amendments in my soil. Mix is 1-1-1 of MG Perlite, mg sphagnum, sunleaves coco coir, blood meal, dolomite, indonesian bat guano, diatomite, and cannabis compost. Which brings me to my final point, since It sounds like your starting out maybe you should go buy some roots organic or some super tea then make a soilless. I was shopping around for soilless mix and the best I saw wast the roots organic. It has everything I wan't in a soil. Then you can just apply fertilizer when necessary which should only be around once or twice during flowering.

 

[cobain420]

It's one of those things that is nice to have, but I have done many soil runs without using a meter, just my two cents

 

[supermanlives]

with organics i found them not to be accurate. i threw mine away 6 years ago.

 

[the gnome]

well I'm brand new to this and I didn't wnat to buy the Ph meter then find out I really should have bought the ph-ec-tds meter.

for now I'll i guess I'll just get one of those Ph pens to check the runoff out of the pots.

I'm really not sure what a the tds meter is and what it does,
I think it checks the PartsPerMillion the TotalDissolvedSolids of a liquid sample.
Now, I've where read people saying they like to keep it at 1100ppm no more than 1300ppm
and I have no idea what it means.
even in this thread daffy said:
My solutions is 300-500 for small and 600-700 for medium and 800-1000 for large
and I'm clueless.
Ive done some searching and reading but I don't know what these basic terms mean.
and they're realevance

is this the amount of nutes in the ppm they're refering to?
so if I had a TDS meter I could measure the runoff from my the soil and see how much ferts are in the sample?

as far as a EC meter I'm clueless, electrical conductivity??
and what function and purpose does this one perform

daffy, yes I am new to indoor growing and I'm going soil.
I already have the Fox farms OF.
right nowI'm practicing with various mixes with cheepo bag seed to see what performs the best like this:
FFOF 1part
perlite 1

ffof 2
perlite 1

ffof 1
perlite 1
verm 1

etc etc etc.... I had some good seed that a friend sent to me but I fried em up with overwatering, soil mix too hot and other probs so this is why I'm trying out the various ratios of OF-verm and perlite.

I even started some seedlings in a 50-50 perlite/verm mixture and the did good.
I think I stand a better chance with soil for my 1st go at an indoor party

 

[Green9]

A quick Google search on PPM yields this result:

"This is a way of expressing very dilute concentrations of substances. Just as per cent means out of a hundred, so parts per million or ppm means out of a million. Usually describes the concentration of something in water or soil. One ppm is equivalent to 1 milligram of something per liter of water (mg/l) or 1 milligram of something per kilogram soil (mg/kg)."

 

[pinecone]

with organics i found them not to be accurate. i threw mine away 6 years ago.

I grow organic in soil and don't use any meters or make any adjustments.

EC in organic soil is probably a different thing (than hydro or non-organic soil) as the nutrients in organic growing are not immediately available to the plant, needing to be broken down first by microbes.

Pine

 

[Scrogerman]

Just Bought some canna terra, its weak as piss, Half Strength was just touching EC 0.4, now if i never had the tools i wouldnt know what fukin strength i was giving, its wise to have them imo! but like others have pointed out a good well balanced rich soil should do the trick with the right amendments in it, you may never have to feed at all, a SuperSoil Springs to mind, check that shit out bro, SuperSoil(youtube), but make sure you only give to mature plants no babies! Read Read read! id still get the meter or borrow one and write the the different strengths for that paticular brand of nutes per litre etc, then you'll know without having to splash the bucks!

 

[olddaffy]

I like the test strips or drops my self.

 

[Japanfreakier]

now if i never had the tools i wouldnt know what fukin strength i was giving

You could just ask. Most of the major nutes you can find out what E.C. they are at different ratios on the net, there are spreedshets preloaded with the info out there as well.

 

[whodair]

Do I really need a ec/tds tester for soil grows

do you like making things more complicated than necessary ?

 

[the gnome]

do you like making things more complicated than necessary ?

yeah... doesn't everybody???

pffft..of course I don't want to complicate crap anymore
than I need to,
I'm very new to indoor cultivation so this is why I'm trying to educate myself by asking Qs like what does it do and why would I need or want a tds/ec meter if I'm doing a soil grow ?
and hopefully getting reliable, informative advice in a constuctive manner

I think I'll do this,
I get my pool water tested a few times a week so I'll just take my tapwater samples to them and see whats up with my Ph
also get some Ph strips.
I still would like to get one of those neat Ph pen type meters down the road so if anyone wants to chime in about a good reliable one thats fairly reasonable let me know

 

[Hash Man]

just grab one if you have the money. its nice to have around if you need it. at least get a ph meter or some ph drops to have around. the drops are like 10$US, no biggie investment wise.

I have the full arsenol as recommended by Tom Hill. An ORP, and ERGS, Sodium, PH, and Soil PH tester. A good example of when its good to know what your doing occurred last night. I mixed up a foliar feed or Brix Mix, Molassas, ascorbic acid, and silica, the ph was 4.5. Had i sprayed the plants with this solution without testing the ph and then raising it to 5.8, i doubt the foliar would have been as effective. Food for thought.

 

[Daffy]

Sorry if I missed it but have you bought any nutes?

 

[FreezerBoy]

A quick Google search on PPM yields this result:

"This is a way of expressing very dilute concentrations of substances. Just as per cent means out of a hundred, so parts per million or ppm means out of a million. Usually describes the concentration of something in water or soil. One ppm is equivalent to 1 milligram of something per liter of water (mg/l) or 1 milligram of something per kilogram soil (mg/kg)."

Don't confuse PPM with "PPM". PPM requires a chemical analysis these pens cannot provide. "PPM" readings have nothing to do with Parts Per Million. "TDS" has nothing to do with Totally Dissolved Solids. "PPM" and "TDS " are both EC (Electrical Conductivity) converted to babel. As "PPM" and "TDS" pens and meters are incapable of measuring anything other than EC, better to get an EC meter that displays it's actual findings with accuracy and meaning.

 

[the gnome]

Sorry if I missed it but have you bought any nutes?

I'm using FF OF soil and I bought the three pak liquid nutes,
big gro
big bloom
and tiger bloom
I also aquirred some humboldt co. snow storm
freezer boy, would a tds/ec meter have any use in a soil grow.
Ive read some hydro threads and it seems to be standard equipment.

 

[Sirus]

I would say if you can afford it get it...I am in soil now but I know a bubble bucket is in my future so I bought one in anticipation. Good luck bro!