Ph testing on the cheap

[Weedman_automagic]

20 dollar ph pen off amazon, strips, or liquid test kit? I have a bit of troubleshooting to do with an organic grow. I don’t plan on testing all that often. Just wondering what way I should go. I don’t want to vomit to an expensive ph pen if I am not going to use it often but will bite the bullet if I need to in the future

 

[St. Tom]

the yellow ones with the little calibration screw ive used a few over the years just make sure you buy the 7.0 calibration fluid with it should cost you about 15 pounds ive still got them as spares but i use an essential ph meter now and that's spot on but its about 35 pounds i wouldn't bother with the strips and the black ones still going strong after a year

 

[MrOldBoy]

20 dollar ph pen off amazon, strips, or liquid test kit? I have a bit of troubleshooting to do with an organic grow. I don’t plan on testing all that often. Just wondering what way I should go. I don’t want to vomit to an expensive ph pen if I am not going to use it often but will bite the bullet if I need to in the future

I grow organic and haven’t even tested my water for this grow - organic soil if right should buffer any minor issues but my water, when I did test seemed to be ok, around 6.8 and 23 ppm ..... but I use mostly rain water I catch and it tested 6.8 or something like that but I live in a rural area if I lived in say LA or Chicago I would for sure be testing the rain water I caught ..... Also if on a well your water could be too alkaline so test ....

Another thing you might want to do, and it’s free, is ask your water department for water test results, by law they must have at least here in the US - You won’t find the PHbut you will know if your dealing with good or poor quality water .....

Good luck with your grow!

 

[karlkutta]

I used the liquid for testing aquarium pH and I am quite happy with that. I did buy a ppm Meter which helps further know how thick your water is

 

[GeorgeCloney]

I'd like to share a little insight, and I hope the more experienced can fill in the blancks on this.....
Can you grow without a PH meter of any kind , YES.
Will you grow with any kind of REGULAR success, NO.

Not all plants absorbe nutes the same way.
Soil PH changes as you add nutes, which means , eventually you want to read the run off from under your plants to correct the PH going in.

Further to this thought is,...
Plants absorbe different nutrients are different levels of PH.
And to make matters worst.
You will eventually have a prize plant start looking sick with brown spots.
Now what?....
Well it turns out that its probably a calcium deficiency.But you've been adding plent of Calcium, right...yes you have.
But you're PH was out of whack and at higher PH, plants shut down on absorbing calcium.

So,...
Now to correct this, naturely you add more calcium.
This now leads to the plant being over fed of calcium,....and refusing to absorbe a plethora of other nutes..
Especially magnesium.

And you thought you'd save a few bucks being cheap huh?

I'm cheap, and cheap comes at a price.
Can you afford it?
That is the ultimate question?

 

[Olderfart]

FWIW, I bought a cheap meter, it died in about three days (lucky for me actually because it went straight back to Amazon at zero cost), so I replaced it with an Apera which has worked a treat since.

FWI is also worth, I would not try to grow without both an EC/PPM meter and decent pH meter again. You will need both to get out of unexpected difficulty, and you will have a hell of a lot fewer problems develop if you start out with both.

OTOH, I do not grow organic, so have only indirect information on what you might be dealing with. If you absolutely do not want to go for a meter, the pH drops do work, sort of, but I find that judging the color of test solution to be a challenge at best, and there is nothing wrong with my color perception. Bottom line is that the drops get you in the ballpark, but only just. Certainly, they are a lot better than nothing.

Good luck with your grow, and you decisions re. pH monitoring.

 

[Machamillion]

I threw my cheap testers away. No need for ph, ec, ppm meters. Or cal mag, bloom, etc, etc

 

[GeorgeCloney]

I likes this a lot,
My only question is.
You have to use distilled or RO water at all times I would believe?
How do you adjust for deficiency?

 

[Machamillion]

I likes this a lot,
My only question is.
You have to use distilled or RO water at all times I would believe?
How do you adjust for deficiency?

No sir, I use well water at 280ppm and 7.2 ph

 

[Machamillion]