FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey guys, I'm struggling to find how to effectively measure TDS of my peat moss. I'm aware that you have to mix your peat with your water, but I think it has to sit for X amount of hours and I'm not sure what the peat to water ratio should be. Any help?

EDIT:

So I found a link saying to do a 1:1 ratio of peat and distilled water and let it sit for 24 hours. Does this sound right?

Also, how much peat do you need for a reliable reading? I'd love to be able to use the peat in my pot rather than using the raw peat from that bag that has never been watered before. The only problem is that I can't afford to remove a lot of it.

I've measured TDS while rinsing peat a few times. I never really pay too much attention to the ratios, probably 1:1 or 1:2 peat:water. What I have noticed is that the TDS reading seems to max out after about 30 seconds (at least with my peat.) I've waited up to an hour with no change to the reading so I don't bother soaking it for an extended period of time. Your mileage may vary - I suggest testing it multiple times over a period of time like I did (you could go longer just to be sure) and try to figure out the most efficient amount of time to soak for.

I usually fill a 5 gallon bucket 2/3 with peat then fill it with water to 3/4. I don't let it sit either, unless I'm doing other things. Usually mix it all up using your arm. Then pour it off and repeat. I usually do 1 tap water rinse followed with 3 rain/RO/distilled rinses.

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If you want to measure the TDS of the peat in your pot can you isolate the pot onto a tray, water it and measure the tds of the water in the tray?

Cheers
Steve

Whenever i am mixing up enough peat to fill multiple pots with, I boil it to kill anything that isnt supposed to be in it pathogens, germs etc. Then i rinse with tap water to cool it off. Then i add the other components to the medium IE, perlite, sand, etc... mix it all up and then distribute it to however many pots i made the medium for. I run distilled water over the tops of the individual pots and catch the runoff that discharges from the bottom of the pots into a bowl below and get my first tds reading. The readings will always start out high at first since i use tap water as a boil, and soaking agent. Usually it takes a few distilled water rinses to drive the readings down to within acceptable ranges. I dump the runoff bowl several times after multiple rinses and tests per pot and repeat the process. In my opinion, acceptable is 0-40 ppm. It could even be a little over that and it wouldnt hurt, but imo its unnecessary to allow it to be high like that when i have the water to rinse it down further with. Once i get it where i want it, i then sow the seeds, or plant whatever i intend on growing there. The process can be a pain in the butt, but it works for me and i never have any issues with minerals, and all of my plants look great and are troublefree (minus the non tds related issues from time to time usually caused by me or insects lol) I will top water from time to time to rinse the roots and soil out and to get rid of accumulated deposits that have built up over time.