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Bluelab soil Ph meter
- Thread starter mliokv48
- Start date
brandonwalsh420
New member
I have a bluelab ph pen and a blue lab monitor and both are nice quality and easy to use/calibrate. I also thought about the soil pen but opted out. you can get a decent estimate of the ph of your soil by ph-ing your water before it goes in and testing the runoff. then just split the difference and that's about where your soil ph is at... hope this helps you out
Totally depends on your scale as a grower. On a large enough scale these can certainly pay for themselves. But on a smaller scale the Rapitest meters are going to do a good enough job.
But for Coco... No way are either needed.
I'm going to be very honest right now. I have not, I repeat, HAVE NOT LOOKED AT MY PH IN 2 YEARS. Seriously! I have a meter, I have pH up and down (well, I have silica and pH down) but I don't even bother in coco.
The moment I learned to "just let it go" was while running Cutting Edge Solutions entire lineup. One of their products, Plant Amp, is a Calcium supplement containing weakly bonded organic acids. These acids will throw a wildly misleading pH reading but will break down rapidly when introduced to the media. I FREAKED out when I saw 4.4pH on my meter and pH up'd that solution to death. That's when my plant health began to suffer. Spoke with CES and they got me back on track and trusting the program.
So now I use organic acids. Citric Acid pH down from Earth Juice. Super cheap and extremely effective. I mix my nutrients. Drop in "enough" of the citric crystals, stir, and use. No mess, no fuss, no droppers and calibration... No pretending I'm a scientist with equipment that is, at best, imprecise.
Plants have never been happier. Leave the pH bullshitting to the natural buffering ability of the Coco. All the heavy acids and bicarbonates we add just skew our solution and make problems that we just don't need to deal with. Because we are coco growers. And we're better than that!
But for Coco... No way are either needed.
I'm going to be very honest right now. I have not, I repeat, HAVE NOT LOOKED AT MY PH IN 2 YEARS. Seriously! I have a meter, I have pH up and down (well, I have silica and pH down) but I don't even bother in coco.
The moment I learned to "just let it go" was while running Cutting Edge Solutions entire lineup. One of their products, Plant Amp, is a Calcium supplement containing weakly bonded organic acids. These acids will throw a wildly misleading pH reading but will break down rapidly when introduced to the media. I FREAKED out when I saw 4.4pH on my meter and pH up'd that solution to death. That's when my plant health began to suffer. Spoke with CES and they got me back on track and trusting the program.
So now I use organic acids. Citric Acid pH down from Earth Juice. Super cheap and extremely effective. I mix my nutrients. Drop in "enough" of the citric crystals, stir, and use. No mess, no fuss, no droppers and calibration... No pretending I'm a scientist with equipment that is, at best, imprecise.
Plants have never been happier. Leave the pH bullshitting to the natural buffering ability of the Coco. All the heavy acids and bicarbonates we add just skew our solution and make problems that we just don't need to deal with. Because we are coco growers. And we're better than that!
I'm saying that pH is not a factor in Coco as long as it is close. I've never seen a genuine case of the coco pH being off for any reason other than poor feeding habits.
Follow a nutrient program and go ahead and adjust your reservoir pH... but don't go spending money you don't need to, to probe coco. The root damage alone is reason enough.
Follow a nutrient program and go ahead and adjust your reservoir pH... but don't go spending money you don't need to, to probe coco. The root damage alone is reason enough.
