Hi everyone! Hope everyone is having a good season so far!  It's exciting that it's finally spring!

I'm still a novice grower and was wondering if there is any utility in using moisture meters for checking your potted figs and for your just rooted figlets?  I think I saw some posts intermixed in other threads but thought I'd ask the group!

Thanks!  Looking forward to the replies!:)
Eun

eun97, I use one of those little green ones with the 8" probe that sell for around 6 dollars at Lowes. When you have 50 to 60 cuttings to check, it makes quick work of in. I just try to keep the moisture no higher than 5 or 6 and never water until it goes into the red zone which is about 3 on the meter. How accurate is it? I'm not sure, but with tap water it works well enough to keep you from drowning your cutting or letting them get too dry. If you have them in cups in a tote inside, it doesn't take much to overwater them and you probably don't need to water them but once a week or less depending on your set up. Once mine are showing roots and leaves I move them to a shed where they get indirect sunlight with the temp to 80 or 85 degrees for their first hardening off. It takes only 3 or 4 days for them to dry out, so the meter quickly let me know what's going on. It saves the time and trouble of picking each one up and weighing it or poking your finger in it.

I like the meter to check my larger pots also. Even though the medium in a pot look dry on the surface doesn't mean that it's dry at the root level. Until you get acquainted with a good watering routine the meter comes in handy letting you know what's going on at the bottom of your pot. Some mixtures hold too much water and although the surface seems dry your plants can be drowning and on the other hand, some mixtures need watering daily or twice a day.

Using a meter is no guarantee, but it takes the guess work out of it for someone new as yourself. It lets you be consistent in your watering. A slightly moist medium and a little drying between watering equals a happy fig. Good luck
"gene"

Enu, I would not live without a moisture meter!  I have too many tree to check and a moisture meter have never lied to me.  I can very easily stick in the probe and boom, I'm done!  There is no guess work, plus I have 2 different types.  One that's just a probe and one that has all 3, light, moisture and pH.  I use the pH whenever I make my own fig dirt and it work flawless!  How Bout Those Figs!!!!

Thanks everyone!  I bought the Mosser Lee one, where it has the light, pH, and moisture meter!  I definitely have drown little fig babies and lost them, so hopefully this will cut some of the losses down! :)

eun97

Do you worry about damaging roots when you insert the prob in the potting mix?

71GTO, I use a very light and airy medium which allow the probe to enter without causing any damage. The probe is pointed and just pushes aside any roots it encounter without any noticeable damage. Either way it hasn't shown itself to be a problem.

One note about light mixes, the reason I never try to get the reading over 5 or 6 is because if you take the medium with a 5 or 6 reading and hold it in your hand and squeeze it tightly around the probe you'll get a much higher reading. Light and airy mediums hold a lot of water but it is held apart by the mixture which has a lot of air in it. Give it a try and you'll see what I mean. By comparison, if you take soil from the ground and take a reading then put the same soil in you hand and squeeze it around the probe, the reading doesn't change much or none at all because it is tightly compacted in it's natural state.
"gene"

Thanks, I think I am going to have to pick one up next time I am in lowes or homedepot. I think that would be a handy tool. What do you look for in PH and how do you adjust that? I don't know if that is something I would want to play with now when I still learning the basics, but I am curious.

In my experience, the inexpensive moisture meters sold at garden and big box stores are ok for plants in manufactured potting soils. However, they are not tuned for soils containing clays and at best in that situation give readings at the extremes of reality.

Most of us growing outdoors in the ground have some elements of clay in our soils. Further, it is imperative to measure soil dampness at depth -- 32 inches or so. Now were talking about a couple hundred dollars per sensor. But wait! Some of the sensors produced for agriculture (e.g., grapes) are actually a cluster which will return multiple readings: moisture, pH, available nutrients, etc.

I'm interested in who is using what -- because it might be better than my current solution. I know HarveyC has been looking at this for quite some time.

I have a moisture meter that I questioned the accuracy, so I put the prongs in a container of pure water and it only slightly moved, try it and see what happens.

That explains it, the meter is cheap and no matter the moisture, the needle hardly moves, slightly moist to waterlogged using 60% pine bark fines and 40% peat/compost/perlite.

Does anyone have a suggested way of checking them?  I realize this would just be a general test to see if the meter appears somewhat accurate.  Thanks all.