my organic soil e.c. too high?

Overgrowtho

Overgrowtho

Well-Known Member
Do organic soil growers actually measure the EC of their soil?

I ask because I have a plant monitor Bluetooth device. It showed the plant moisture getting down to 24% which is why I watered my plant today. Before watering the EC was about 750 and after watering it was very high over 2000. I brought soil moisture into the 60% range.

(I watered with RO water that was pH corrected to 6.0 using citric acid monohydrate).

My questio is: should I be worried about this very high EC that's according to my sensors, too high and out of range? Please see attatched. Thank you
 

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Overgrowtho

Overgrowtho

Well-Known Member
How are your plants? What stage are they?

Mine are just seedling and small....

Can any experienced, advanced grower please comment?

This normal or perhaps such EC can burn/stunt/stress/kill plants?
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
Read up on what CEC is and why soil is higher in CEC.This is why run off is so high.You may not need to ph your water so low.
 
Overgrowtho

Overgrowtho

Well-Known Member
Yeah but should it be a concern? Seems like out of range.

Maybe this soil is too strong or too strong for seedlings?

I have burned seedlings in hot nutrient rich soils before and want to avoid such mistakes.
 
myke

myke

Well-Known Member
Then make a weaker mix. Say take 40% of your bagged and mix with peat and per light.
 
JimmiP

JimmiP

Well-Known Member
Overgrowtho said:
Do organic soil growers actually measure the EC of their soil?

I ask because I have a plant monitor Bluetooth device. It showed the plant moisture getting down to 24% which is why I watered my plant today. Before watering the EC was about 750 and after watering it was very high over 2000. I brought soil moisture into the 60% range.

(I watered with RO water that was pH corrected to 6.0 using citric acid monohydrate).

My questio is: should I be worried about this very high EC that's according to my sensors, too high and out of range? Please see attatched. Thank you
Click to expand...
No and no. And you shouldn't be having runoff in an organic soil situation.
 
BluntMoniker

BluntMoniker

Well-Known Member
Don't worry about EC/PPM... useless quantification in organic soil. Our nutrients are essentially "slow release" and aren't being used at the same quantity that they are present in the soil.

Inorganic chelated nutrients are readily available for plant uptake, so when you read 2000ppm, your plants are likely burnt to shit. 2000ppm in organic soil isnt reflective of plant uptake, just what is present in the soil, thus its essentially meaningless.

If your plant looks good, your fine. If it doesnt, you can't use EC/PPM to figure out the issue. Youll need to diagnose it by using visual cues
 
Overgrowtho

Overgrowtho

Well-Known Member
I'm not planning to dig up the seedling and replant in a medium of my own making because I did that many times and it didn't work out well. What I am doing is testing different retail seedling mixes to see what is best.

Thanks JimmiP and Bluntmoniker. Maybe I'm paying too much attention to this. Nobody actually measure soil EC in organics.

However this leads me to ask: how can we determine if a soil is too hot for a seedling?
 
BluntMoniker

BluntMoniker

Well-Known Member
Overgrowtho said:
I'm not planning to dig up the seedling and replant in a medium of my own making because I did that many times and it didn't work out well. What I am doing is testing different retail seedling mixes to see what is best.

Thanks JimmiP and Bluntmoniker. Maybe I'm paying too much attention to this. Nobody actually measure soil EC in organics.

However this leads me to ask: how can we determine if a soil is too hot for a seedling?
Click to expand...
Exactly what jimmiP said... start seedlings in a "seedling mix" of some kind. Or take your soil, and mix it with with some peat/perlite to dilute the nutrient content to make it "weaker" so it won't burn up a seedling
 
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