Moisture Meter

I bought myself a moisture meter. I really like it. For those of us who may not be so great at the guessing game of "who needs water this time" it is quite handy. I stick my finger in the soil but I just don't feel confident when doing so.

It says to check the moisture at the root level and near the center of the plant. I have been checking more than one spot in the plant to be sure the moisture level is "good" throughout the pot.

Daisy, great minds again, I bought a moisture meter last week! I thought I was pretty good at judging watering needs by feeling the soil and feeling the weight of the pot but the moisture meter tells me I'm not! Pots I thought felt dry and light turn out to have wet soil and pots that feel heavy turn out to be dry. I'm trusting that the moisture meter is accurate and I'm not, so I'm now testing every plant with it before watering. Hopefully it'll prevent any more overwatering problems.

Paulie,

I also went around my house and "tested" every plant before watering.. some I might have normally watered from my finger poke, did not get watered, and will be checked again in a day or two. I have 46 houseplants, and this makes me more comfortable. oooh-oooh, 47 as I got a new plant over the weekend.

Daisy, the moisture meter could turn out to be the greatest invention ever, lol. By the way, what's your new plant? I've been buying lots of cacti and succulents on ebay recently (still waiting on my Monstera obliqua arriving from Austria, though - hope it survives this cold weather) as well as some different varieties of spider plant, callisias and lachenalias (spelling?). Also ordered some larger plants online but they can't be sent out until the temperature rises above freezing (not this week, then); large branched yucca, some begonias, calathea and sansevieria with green and cream striping (sold my CD collection and decided to buy some plants that I normally couldn't afford!).

I've tried moisture meters at various point in time and in general I find my finger & pot weight to be more accurate indicators of when it's time to water. The one advantage of the meter is it can get down a bit farther in the pot than your finger so for large pots it can help. Unless they've changed things recently, the moisture meters don't really measure moisture, they measure it indirectly by measuring conductivity or something like that so levels of salts can affect the measurement as well as actual moisture. So I wouldn't totally give up on your other checks--using them in conjunction with the meter will give you the best picture of what the situation really is.

Interesting point about how moisture meters work. So would higher salt levels indicate a wetter or drier soil?

I had a moisture/light/pH meter many years ago. I gave up on them when I couldn't get the same reading when I moved it about the pot. Hopefully they have improved since then. I trust my instincts for the few hundred pots I water (don't really have the time to use either the finger method or a meter). Knowledge of the plant and the soil mix helps tremendously.

Guys - the inexpensive moisture meters measure EC (electrical conductivity). If you put the probe in a cup of deionized/distilled water it will read dry, but add a teaspoon of fertilizer & stir & it will read wet.

A tip: Feel the soil or screen at the drain hole, If it feels dry, water (within reason - you need to make allowances for plants with special watering preferences). If it's still damp, don't. Better yet - insert an absorbent wick in the drain hole. You actually get two benefits if you use the wick right. After you water thoroughly, if you allow the wick to hang below the pot it will drain all or most of the perched water from the pot. This often allows you to use a somewhat heavier soil that would normally get you into trouble because it's too water-retentive, and still water correctly. Back to the topic: all you need to do is feel the wick where it exits the pot. If it's damp, withhold water & if it feels dry - ok to water.

Soil FEELS dry to human touch when it still has 40%+ water retention, but most plants can extract water from soils that are 25-30% saturated, so there is usually a considerable buffer between what feels dry to us, and what IS dry to the plant.

Al

Al,

This.... "Soil FEELS dry to human touch when it still has 40%+ water retention, but most plants can extract water from soils that are 25-30% saturated, so there is usually a considerable buffer between what feels dry to us, and what IS dry to the plant" IS what worries me and make me feel not so confident in the finger test.

I still check with my finger, but sometimes I can't tell if the soil is wet or just cold.. makes me nervous.. I don't want to kill my plants and I dang sure don't want fungus gnats again.

Paulie, The new plant is a Sedum of some kind.