Cheap PH meters

I am having to lowering my water or nute PH using vinegar to lower PH .
I have given up on this cheap meter .

I now count the number of drops of vinegar that I put in a consistent amount of water .

I also have no organic matter in my grow medium so I flush with Indoor Plant Liquid Nutes that have been Ph adjusted down with a certain number of drops of vinegar . I am using Tap water that has a PH of 8.5

I made the mistake of flushing with my tap water without adding nutes into my water and without using vinegar into the water . The result was getting a Boron Deficiency . To make matters worse , at high PH , Boron is not available enough ,
Luckily my Indoor liquid plant food has Boron and Copper , Iron and Manganese .

Because I have no organic matter I have to flush with Indoor liquid plant food that has been PH adjusted lower than 8.5 . My meter is not accurate , so I am left with counting the number of drops of vinegar that I put into a 6 ounce cup of water + Plant food and adjust by increaasing the number of drops I add to the flush liquid , incrementing one more drop at a time and documenting how many drops I add with each increment of drops of vinegar . I can't flush with PH adjusted water because my grow medium has no organic matter and no nutes in the grow medium unless nutes store up in coco coir ?

Halman9000

hey man I hope this finds you well.

Flushing is for toilets, unless you are talking about salt build up in a soilless grow.
But if you are going to flush, you don't need to ph the water you are flushing with and you dont need to add nutrients to it either. Because when you flush everything is going down the drain. Just use plain tap water to flush.

Just ph the water you are feeding/watering your plants with. Also, not sure about this one we need a more experienced hydro grower, I don't know if vinegar is really effective for ph-ing your water. Not sure how long his ph-ing effects last.

DoobieDoobs said:

hey man I hope this finds you well.

Flushing is for toilets, unless you are talking about salt build up in a soilless grow.
But if you are going to flush, you don't need to ph the water you are flushing with and you dont need to add nutrients to it either. Because when you flush everything is going down the drain. Just use plain tap water to flush.

Just ph the water you are feeding/watering your plants with. Also, not sure about this one we need a more experienced hydro grower, I don't know if vinegar is really effective for ph-ing your water. Not sure how long his ph-ing effects last.

Click to expand...

Not long. LOL. Just more salt in my past.

Use the pen. Learn to maintain it and calibrate it. They are truly game changers even if close to accurate.

don't use vinegar as acid
get some phosphoric acid

I have grown with hydro for 5 years now and all I use for ph monitoring is a cheap Amazon ph meter and some GH test drops for a cross-check.
The best suggestion I can make would be to invest in storage solution(KCl) to keep the meter consistent and calibrating it at least monthly.
Letting the bulb dry out is what kills most meters, so storage is critical.

GBAUTO said:

I have grown with hydro for 5 years now and all I use for ph monitoring is a cheap Amazon ph meter and some GH test drops for a cross-check.
The best suggestion I can make would be to invest in storage solution(KCl) to keep the meter consistent and calibrating it at least monthly.
Letting the bulb dry out is what kills most meters, so storage is critical.

Click to expand...

I agree with cheap pens. Have to say proper utilization of distilled water and blow drying eliminates the scale build up your storage solution prevents. And baking soda in distilled is 9.0 for calibration. Honest truths. Stop biting the bait. Learn maintenance and what you are trying to do. LOL. Just fact. Not insult. Apologies.

GBAUTO said:

I have grown with hydro for 5 years now and all I use for ph monitoring is a cheap Amazon ph meter and some GH test drops for a cross-check.
The best suggestion I can make would be to invest in storage solution(KCl) to keep the meter consistent and calibrating it at least monthly.
Letting the bulb dry out is what kills most meters, so storage is critical.

Click to expand...

Renfro makes his own. I listened to his advice. Got myself a magnetic stirrer and some potassium chloride.

If you're in the States quality ph meters are in abundance there for reasonable prices, Apera/Hanna cost you guys almost half the price it costs us, something like a ph60 is a bargain, you can replace the bulb for 30 bucks and they're amaintenance free, the ph20 is well worth buying if a ph60 is out of budget.

Personally I wouldn't use a cheap meter I'd get a quality one or use a test kit/ph paper.

The acid test of for any ph is a triple calibration test, measuring ions isn't something that can be done accurately with cheap tools.

Fwiw water from the dehumidifier is ideal for rinsing you ec/ph meters before storing, I store my one in kci but its not absolutely necessary according to Apera?

Star Dog said:

If you're in the States quality ph meters are in abundance there for for reasonable prices, Apera/Hanna cost you guys almost half the price it costs us, something like a ph60 is a bargain, you can replace the bulb for 30 bucks and they're amaintenance free, the ph20 is well worth buying if a ph60 is out of budget.

Personally I wouldn't use a cheap meter I'd get a quality one or use a test kit/ph paper.

The acid test of for any ph is a triple calibration test, measuring ions isn't something that can be done accurately with cheap tools.

Fwiw water from the dehumidifier is ideal for rinsing you ec/ph meters before storing, I store my one in kci but its not absolutely necessary according to Apera?

Click to expand...

Apera is good shit. Blue Lab is decent too. And just for a heads up, not being a grammar nazi. It's KCl for Potassium (K) Chloride (Cl).

PadawanWarrior said:

Renfro makes his own. I listened to his advice. Got myself a magnetic stirrer and some potassium chloride.

Overfeeding?

Greenway This one? Thanks for the help man...

www.rollitup.org

Click to expand...

Nice to see you.

PadawanWarrior said:

Apera is good shit. Blue Lab is decent too. And just for a heads up, not being a grammar nazi. It's KCl for Potassium (K) Chloride (Cl).

Click to expand...

You know I've used storage solution for as long as I've used quality meters and only learned what kci actually is only 3/4 days back... Sorry KCI lol
Fwiw I'm also a big blue lab fan I wouldn't be without my ec truncheon, I've even got a spare lol.

How much did it work out at for you to make your own KCI... and how much?
I can get Growth Technology £4 for 300ml, that being the case do you think its worth the trouble for me to make?

Star Dog said:

You know I've used storage solution for as long as I've used quality meters and only learned what kci actually is only 3/4 days back... Sorry KCI lol
Fwiw I'm also a big blue lab fan I wouldn't be without my ec truncheon, I've even got a spare lol.

How much did it work out at for you to make your own KCI... and how much?
I can get Growth Technology £4 for 300ml, that being the case do you think its worth the trouble for me to make?

Click to expand...

A truncheon never needs calibration. Just a gentle cleaning of the probe ends with Soft Scrub or a Mr Clean Magic Eraser. Stop Wasting money. I have one also.

Star Dog said:

You know I've used storage solution for as long as I've used quality meters and only learned what kci actually is only 3/4 days back... Sorry KCI lol
Fwiw I'm also a big blue lab fan I wouldn't be without my ec truncheon, I've even got a spare lol.

How much did it work out at for you to make your own KCI... and how much?
I can get Growth Technology £4 for 300ml, that being the case do you think its worth the trouble for me to make?

Click to expand...

If you scroll up in that thread you'll see the bag of KCl that will last me forever on an Amazon link. It's the same one he uses. It was $20. So super cheap this way. I used a 1/2 gal Mason jar to mix it and that's what it's still in now. It only makes a liter with that recipe so it takes up half the 1/2 gal.

I have the BlueLab soil pen, and also a cheap Amazon one. I haven't needed to adjust the BlueLab, but the cheap one is off. I don't keep it in KCl solution though like I do the BlueLab.

MICHI-CAN said:

A truncheon never needs calibration. Just a gentle cleaning of the probe ends with Soft Scrub or a Mr Clean Magic Eraser. Stop Wasting money. I have one also. View attachment 4901200View attachment 4901201View attachment 4901202

Click to expand...

Yes I know that... I'm talking about ph probe storage KCI lol.

I do have a ec test standard for my truncheon but I rarely test it, just keep it clean.

Star Dog said:

Yes I know that... I'm talking about ph probe storage KCI lol.

I do have a ec test standard for my truncheon but I rarely test it, just keep it clean.

Click to expand...

I don't know why he's laughing.

Star Dog said:

Yes I know that... I'm talking about ph probe storage KCI lol.

I do have a ec test standard for my truncheon but I rarely test it, just keep it clean.

Click to expand...

Sorry. 5 windows open. My blue lab ph bit it in two years per directions. My $6 is perfect going on 4 years.

If you must use solution? Please hack to best advantage.

PadawanWarrior said:

I don't know why he's laughing.

Click to expand...

Because I F'd up. LOL.

PadawanWarrior said:

I don't know why he's laughing.

Click to expand...

I'm just guessing but he's realised that he jumped the gun lol

Star Dog said:

I'm just guessing but he's realised that he jumped the gun lol

Click to expand...

Aka fkd up!

Star Dog said:

Aka fkd up!

Click to expand...

Wrong thread for the cliches I could baffle you with.

Apologies to the OP. My excuse is a slow Friday.

Humor on.