Looking to get a new ph meter...

Reeferfish said:

What kind do you recommend? The stick in soil type (I’ve seen them with light meters and wetness meters) or the probe that tests water?

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Roger A. Shrubber said:

the ones you use in water. you want to check the ph of your nutrient solution, to make sure it's in the usable range for your medium. the only time you'd need one of the soil units is if you think you have some kind of serious problem...i haven't said "boy i sure wish i had a soil ph tester"....ever.
https://www.amazon.com/Dr-meter-PH100-V-Resolution-Accuracy-Measurement/dp/B00ST3VTQ4
that's the one i use. it's not the best made, but it's an order of magnitude better than the cheapo chinese units. i test it every other month and it's made one small adjustment to itself in close to a year now

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Reeferfish said:

Ok so you’re using that one to test the run off of the soil correct?

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Roger A. Shrubber said:

no.
i'm using it to test the ph of my nutrient solution before i feed it to my plants. why do you need to know the ph of your soil run off?
are you having some kind of serious issue? if you put it in in the right range, then you shouldn't have to worry about it.
this might sound like im being a dick, but i don't mean it that way....do you even know what all the numbers mean? if your soil run off is coming out at 7.5, what does that mean? if its coming out at 9.2, what does that mean? if its coming out at 4.5 what does that mean?....it's never going to come the same as you put it in. the ph will rise as the plant consumes some of the nutrients in the solution, but how much? depends on how hungry your plants are at the time. and that depends on the general health of the plants, the type and strength of your lighting, the relative humidity in your grow room, the type of medium you're growing in.....my point is checking the run off ph is usually not a necessary thing to do, and most of the time will only lead to people over analyzing a situation and causing more problems trying to fix something that isn't really broken.
if you're growing in soil, ph your nutrient solution to 6.3-6.7. the small range helps to make sure you aren't getting partial lockouts by staying too close to either end of the acceptable range.
you can check the run off if you want, but before i'd try to use it as a reliable diagnostic tool, i'd get a wide set of data points to compare

Click to expand...

Roger A. Shrubber said:

no.
i'm using it to test the ph of my nutrient solution before i feed it to my plants. why do you need to know the ph of your soil run off?
are you having some kind of serious issue? if you put it in in the right range, then you shouldn't have to worry about it.
this might sound like im being a dick, but i don't mean it that way....do you even know what all the numbers mean? if your soil run off is coming out at 7.5, what does that mean? if its coming out at 9.2, what does that mean? if its coming out at 4.5 what does that mean?....it's never going to come the same as you put it in. the ph will rise as the plant consumes some of the nutrients in the solution, but how much? depends on how hungry your plants are at the time. and that depends on the general health of the plants, the type and strength of your lighting, the relative humidity in your grow room, the type of medium you're growing in.....my point is checking the run off ph is usually not a necessary thing to do, and most of the time will only lead to people over analyzing a situation and causing more problems trying to fix something that isn't really broken.
if you're growing in soil, ph your nutrient solution to 6.3-6.7. the small range helps to make sure you aren't getting partial lockouts by staying too close to either end of the acceptable range.
you can check the run off if you want, but before i'd try to use it as a reliable diagnostic tool, i'd get a wide set of data points to compare

Click to expand...