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Peat moss soil test result and question.

*Update* 150 initially ppm. after 30 mins its 125 ppm.

Hello, *
I took a sample of peat/silica about half a small plastic dixicup full of watter (peat included+distilled watter) and let it settle for 30 seconds or so i then poured the watter off the top approximately 1/3rd of cloudy watter into a separate plastic pixie cup and did a TDS meeter test on it, i got a result of 150 PPM (parts per million) is this a bad result or acceptable i was debating on washing my peat silica mix to drop that result but I'm not sure its necessary, plants haven't been growing in it long enough to determine if its affecting them any advice would be helpful.
thx for reading
-Steve
 
Good question. Somewhere someone should have detection limits for DO, Ca, Mg, Na, and K for CP's.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ July 14 2004,7:13)]Good question. Somewhere someone should have detection limits for DO, Ca, Mg, Na, and K for CP's.
DO?
confused.gif
 
I meant TDS, Total Dissolved Solids. The other is Dissolved Oxygen. My bad.
 
TDS upper limits for CP is usually stated as 100 PPM. Runoff water from baled peat rinsed in RO ater gave readings between 300-1000 PPM. I am no chemist, but this says a lot to me, and is why I always rinse my peat.

My tap water reads 150 PPM. I do not use it on my plants generally, but for 2 seasons I grew an assortment of native CP in a tobogan plastic sled, using only this 150 PPM tap water. S. purpurea, D. rotundifolia and D. internedia all did fine, but you must factor in the frequent rains that flushed the growing medium.

Remember, whatever is in the water you are using will become concentrated over time into the substrate mix as evaporation draws the water to the surface by capillary action. At the surface, the mineral salts will concentrate, which is why regular leaching of the mix from above by a syringing of pure water will lead to good longterm CP health, especially so with Drosera species.

Understanding that these plants have evolved to fill very specific niches, and that such niches have a very narrow criteria as regards mineral levels, endemic fungal species, and the presence of certain bacterial forms it is easy to see how small variations in these tolerances are both easily realized within the substrate, and are major factor affecting plant health.

The pot is the world to your plant. Because the pot is isolated from the overall general habitat, where regular rains and oxygenation of the roots are the norm it is all the more essential to consider those qualities which are found in nature but are lacking in pot culture. Small improvements in issues like the TDS of your water and mix can lead to some real amazing improvement in plant vigor.
 
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