TrichCrazy5280
Member
I am looking for more information on this topic, i tried doing searches but was not able to find what i was looking for.
So i know from reading books and experience that using the pour through method for checking your soils PH is a great tool and i use it regularly and love it.
But i see it being commonly recommended to check the same runoff for EC to determine if you have a buildup or not and i used to do the same thing. But i have had some experiences that have led me to think this is not the best way to determine if your soil has a build up.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/Florex/PourThru Handout 123s.pdf
I see this link being tossed around for a guide for testing the mediums salt levels.
This is where i get confused. According to that link if i was growing in 7 gallon containers of soil i would use 70 ounces of water to run through the container and collect the first 50ml of runoff.
Does it make sense that if you run that little of water through that much soil and only collect the first tiny bit of runoff that its obviously going to test high. Its a concentrate right?
My brain just cant compute how that is a valid testing method. BUT i can wrap my head around the "slurry test". Mixing equal parts of distilled water and soil and then testing them for EC would make more sense to me. Maybe i am missing a huge factor here.
Now let me explain my experience that has led me to think that checking your runoff for EC is not a way to determine the actual salinity of your medium.
In the past i have had crops that have shown some issues that lead me think either to much or to little nutrients. SO, i would do a pour through method test and collect the first small amount and the EC would be so high it was maxing out my truncheon meter. So i would do the obvious mega flush and watch the plants continue to get worse and worse after, not better. I would then begin the feeding process again watch the plants get better very quickly after feeding them again. After so many times of this i came to the conclusion that i was not having buildup issues and began to ignore the ec of the runoff and only check the PH.
From that point on with crops of the same age i would just continue to fertilize and the plants responded great and stopped showing the "issues" that originally led me to think i was over doing it. It would appear they were underfed while still showing runoff being high.
I should also add that when i would do the runoff tests my solution would max out my pen BUT when i did a slurry test by mixing equal parts my Truncheon meter would not even turn on or read around 100ppm. So one test(pour through) shows salt levels well over 3000ppm and the other test(slurry) shows a much different picture.
Any help or your personal experience with this is greatly appreciated.
So i know from reading books and experience that using the pour through method for checking your soils PH is a great tool and i use it regularly and love it.
But i see it being commonly recommended to check the same runoff for EC to determine if you have a buildup or not and i used to do the same thing. But i have had some experiences that have led me to think this is not the best way to determine if your soil has a build up.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/floriculture/Florex/PourThru Handout 123s.pdf
I see this link being tossed around for a guide for testing the mediums salt levels.
This is where i get confused. According to that link if i was growing in 7 gallon containers of soil i would use 70 ounces of water to run through the container and collect the first 50ml of runoff.
Does it make sense that if you run that little of water through that much soil and only collect the first tiny bit of runoff that its obviously going to test high. Its a concentrate right?
My brain just cant compute how that is a valid testing method. BUT i can wrap my head around the "slurry test". Mixing equal parts of distilled water and soil and then testing them for EC would make more sense to me. Maybe i am missing a huge factor here.
Now let me explain my experience that has led me to think that checking your runoff for EC is not a way to determine the actual salinity of your medium.
In the past i have had crops that have shown some issues that lead me think either to much or to little nutrients. SO, i would do a pour through method test and collect the first small amount and the EC would be so high it was maxing out my truncheon meter. So i would do the obvious mega flush and watch the plants continue to get worse and worse after, not better. I would then begin the feeding process again watch the plants get better very quickly after feeding them again. After so many times of this i came to the conclusion that i was not having buildup issues and began to ignore the ec of the runoff and only check the PH.
From that point on with crops of the same age i would just continue to fertilize and the plants responded great and stopped showing the "issues" that originally led me to think i was over doing it. It would appear they were underfed while still showing runoff being high.
I should also add that when i would do the runoff tests my solution would max out my pen BUT when i did a slurry test by mixing equal parts my Truncheon meter would not even turn on or read around 100ppm. So one test(pour through) shows salt levels well over 3000ppm and the other test(slurry) shows a much different picture.
Any help or your personal experience with this is greatly appreciated.
