Welcome to the Growery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!
Well I bought a EC meter, it also converts measurements to ppm, TDS etc.
I thought the purpose of this kind of device would be to measure the amount of diluted salts, and thus, nutrients IN the SOIL. So you can know at what rate the plant is consuming nutrients and if/when it needs more. Also for measuring nutrients in the watering solution so you know how much nutrient you are giving the plant.
But everywhere I read about EC meters, it says it can only be used in solutions, or at least that's what I have interpreted so far (so what happens with the soil?).
Are there different kinds of EC meters? for soil and solutions... And how can diluted salts/conductivity be measured in a non liquid medium?
If I'm right you should be able to collect the run-off water from your plants and measure that. With organics you can kind of predict what you need to add anyway, but I'm sure its fun to test with those meters.
no man EC meters only work for solutions. The EC stands for electrical conductivity and it calculates the quantity of dissolved ions in water by measuring the variation in the conductivity of the solution. Plain 100% H2O is in fact a fantastic insulator so the higher the conductivity the higher the PPM. DungenessDank is correct though, you could always test the runoff, but they also sell soil test kits that can tell you the % of N, P and K in your soil without having to dilute it into a solution.