Taking the guesswork out of hydroponics with a bluelab combo meter

Posted by AmandaTom on September 27th, 2013

Every grower knows that hydroponic plants tolerate deviations in temperature, nutrients and pH of the growth substrate far less than soil grown plants care about the same variables. That’s why in hydroponics having your growth substrate have the exact needed amount of nutrients and the exact needed level of pH is extremely important.

Plus if you dabble in hydroponics, you probably enjoy getting the most out of your plants and toying with gadgets such as a bluelab meter. Of course, your plants will live even if their conditions are less than ideal. They might even give you an occasional good harvest. But it’s pretty obvious that just the survival of your plant is not enough. Every enterprising hydroponic wants his crops to thrive and to provide him with a bountiful harvest. And that can only be achieved by using a bluelab meter such as a bluelab combo meter.

So let’s look at the variables covered by a bluelab combo meter, a bluelab meter that doesn’t measure just the pH.

And speaking of pH, well, of course this variable is covered by the bluelab combo meter. It’d be silly if a bluelab meter didn’t cover pH, after all, if the pH levels are not appropriate to the plants you try to grow, you won’t see them flower, let alone bear fruit. This parameter is extremely important, and is also very finicky. If you don’t have a reverse osmosis water filtering system, you’re pretty much doomed to playing a game of “guess the pH”. Tap water can have wildly differing pH rates, depending on the location, and even a local pH rate is subject to change over time. You’ll never be able to achieve an ideal solution without a bluelab meter, as you don’t know the original pH. This, in turn, means less than ideal yields or even dead plants.

Another very important parameter is, of course, the level of nutrients in your hydroponic solution. Nutrients are very important to the plant, and sufficient levels ensure that it will grow to its potential and provide you with a plentiful, tasty harvest. You can’t just dump several pounds of minerals and vitamins into your hydroponic solution. First the solution will turn a merry color, then the plant will. And then the plant will die. Obviously it won’t give you a good harvest, just like undernourished plants won’t. That’s why you have to know the exact amount of nutrients in your solution. Fortunately, our combo meter can handle this just fine, as it has a conductivity probe, letting you measure the nutrient level in the solution.

The final reason you should get yourself this bluelab meter is that it measures temperature. And temperature is important, as the right temperature will ensure optimal growth for your plants.

If you want to take all guesswork out of hydroponics, get a bluelab meter. And there’s no need to buy separate meters for temperature, pH levels, and nutrients, as a bluelab combo meter will easily measure all of them.