Fun with tds meters

[SarraceniaScott]

Since I got my TDS meter, I started flushing out pots with distilled water.

Many pots were showing initial TDS readings of 50-80 ppm in the initial flushout water.  I kept flushing until the reading was below 35 ppm.

Some new soil I mixed is troublesome.  Many plants have not done well in it, and a few have died.

When I checked the TDS reading from these pots, it was ~200 ppm!

These pots were filled with peat that (for the first time) I had rinsed well (with rainwater), and mixed with sandbox sand.  It took a long time for the readings to drop, and once they did, I found if i rinsed a day later, the readings were very high, again.

What's the deal? Maybe the sand is not pure quartz, and is leaching in the acidic peat?

 

[Brian_W]

I would soak the peat and sand in separate containers, and then test the water. Perhaps both are to blame.

Brian

 

[SarraceniaScott]

With my newly-cleaned gutters, and yesterdays rain, I secured 60 gallons of water with only 6 ppm TDS.

I dumped out most of the water over 10 ppm, and dumped a few 5-gallon pails that registered 50 ppm.

I have a few buckets measuring 13 ppm which i will replace with fresh water as i get it.

I hope this effort will translate into renewed vigor in my plants.

I've noticed my U. calycifida 'Mrs. Marsh' started sending up a flower after i flushed the pot out. maybe a coinkydink, though.