I have been reading alot of posts on soil and water testing, however I am still a bit lost. I have a few questions.
Testing equipment:
Is there a standard list of needed/recommended testing equipment? I understand that a lot of folks have their own preferences, but I don’t even know where to start.
What, when and how to do said testing. I have read a bit on ppm and ph testing. I am so new I am not sure what questions I should be asking…
Do I test the water in and the run-off?
I have never tested dirt. Not sure what to ask.
I am a step by step type of guy, so shooting from the hip makes uncomfortable. Lol.
PH meters and PPM meters are something that every grower should have in there quiver PPM is parts per million and PH is measured in a 14 point scale 7 being neutral and the lower the number more acidic higher more alkaline spend some money on a good Ph meter Aprea 20 is a good one for about 50 bucks PPM meters you can get buy with a cheaper one
And a cheap tds meter. There are like 3 scales that ppm meters will use depending largely on where in the world they are made. 500 650 and 700. FF nutes for example are based off a ppm700 scale.
Here is a conversion chart should you ever need it.
To the question when will you use them you will using them right away before you germinate you first seed you test your tap water to see if it is good to use. I am lucky my well water has 130 PPM and a PH of 7.8
My city tap comes out at like an 8ph and 400+ppm. It’s not so good. If you use a municipal water source you will likely need to treat your water with a chlorine remover or via 24 hr airstoneing (like for a fish tank) RO is often the best choice vs distilled due to price. I myself use a primo water station at Walmart. Water costs 0.30 cents a gallon.
Both RO and Distilled have one draw back. In order for water to hold its own PH it must have at least 150-200ppm dissolved solids.(depends who you ask) otherwise it will adopt the ph of the medium it is poured into. Distilled has 0 and RO is usually 20-50ppm depending.
blue lab makes good stuff and yes you will need a PPM meter but the cheaper ones work ok unlike the cheap ph meters but if you got coin burning a hole in your pocket Blue labs make good PPM meters to
That is a super nice EC/TDS (TDS means total dissolved solids) pen. It will cover anything you may need for growing weed. It’s expensive but it is very nice. You do not NEED a super nice one to successfully grow. If you plan on being at this no reason not to get one. If you do, care for it well. In my honest opinion, for EC/PPM a cheap one is best. I use this one.
PH requires ACCURACY a half a point in the wrong direction can really mess things up. If your tds is off by 200ppm not the end of the world. Some prefer to be very precise about every aspect and some don’t. It’s really about what you wanna do or need.
All good choices. Ph pen and tds meter are used every time you put any liquid into your plants, they are keys to good growing. Take special care of them and they will treat you well. If you don’t have a growlog yet, you should start one. It’s good to document the journey. Newbies can learn from you and it gives a single thread to go back to as you move forward. Tag me into it by typing @ Docnraq (no space). I’d like to follow along.
