Rapitest moisture meter.

[minds_I]

Hello all,

Are these things worth the $$?

http://www.treehelp.com/shopping/product-detail.asp?Product_ID=2432


Thanks,

minds_I

 

[Guest]

You're better off learning the wet and dry weights of the containers you use to determine when to water

 

[minds_I]

Hello,

Yeah, thats what I have been doing- I also use the "finger up the hole" method as well.


Buahahahahaha- MJ stinky pinky. Buahahahahaha


That was bad.....

Anyway, I find myself these days lifting the pot-feeling the soil around the drain holes and how they look, the humidy and the temps to determine if they need moisture.

It has been a hard lesson learned but it is absolutely necessary to let soil (less) dry out some before watering.

minds_I

 

[imnotcrazy]

I wouldn't trust the readings it would give you to be accurate, but you could mix up a container of your favorite mix and use it to measure completly dry and after what would a half and what would be a full watering/feeding. Would at least give you an idea, but couldn't be calibrated to be totally accurate. Same as if you were using Lucas Formula and ran out of calibration solution. Mix up a gallon of 0-8-16 and calibrate meter to 1330ppm @ .7 conv. You'll be pretty close with your calibration and your meter could give you a reasonably good impression of what you were dealing with. As for the moisture meter, it could make you more confortable if you did some baseline "calibration" as I suggested and would keep you from having to lift pots all the time if it were difficult for you to do, and you became comfortable trusting its readings with your baseline tests and some practicing with using it.

 

[Guest]

i think they work great i use them alot

 

[MTF-Sandman]

All the ones I've seen are straight up junk...the medium can be dripping wet and it'll show that it's too dry....about the only way it'll show that it's too wet is if you're medium is mud - and mud ain't that good to grow in.

IMO, stick with the lift and feel technique or setup an automated watering system.

 

[Scorp1on]

I got 1 of those, I dont use it anymore because:

1- I can lift the pot to see if they need water

2- I dont like using it because everytime I put the tester into the pot Im thinking that im hurting my roots

 

[Kozmo]

I like mine. Just on occasion. Not religion. Keeps me from second guessing and my confidance up.

 

[queequeg152]

electrical conductivity based moisture sensors are dog shit.

they rely on the soil or media to have the same conductivity at all times... meaning if you periodically irrigate it with fertilizer, it will give non constant readings.

the ONLY real way to measure the soils moisture is with a tensiometer... i have one, but its just not really that useful with my grow method if im honest... im targeting a specific volume of runoff and not much else.

however if you are curious, or just so inclined to buy these sorts of things.... google irrometer, or jet fill + tensiometers... you must be aware that the dense thick ceramics are for heavier soils where you can get very high vacuums.

if you are running something very light and porous like promix or peat lite...you want the irrometer brand, and the 'lt' tips... this will give you much more accuracy within this very low tension soil type.

you also need the calibration kit. its like... this nipple pump thing and a chart. the meter + the calibration kit will be atleast 100 bucks.

the blumat digital tensiometer is... pretty bad imo, since it cannot be calibrated.