Citrus Growers Forum

Sven_limoen · Posted: Fri 12 Aug, 2011 11:56 am

Hey,
I just messured the moist in the lemoncontainer and it gives me between 1 and 2 (When it says 3 I normally pour them). I messured all the way around the container and every part is as dry as a bone, even the bottom seems to be pretty dry. The meter never reaches 3. :s
I also checked with my fingers and the soil really is dry.
Strangely enough the lemontree looks very happy :s.
I always thought that the center was dry the first because the roots and the outer regions would dry out slower what would mean that the rooted parts have to be as dry as the desert? :s

I'm try to get my head around why this could be. Maybe because the temperature has been dropping the last 5 weeks, a lot less of sunlight to, more fall weather rather then summer, so that the plant starts to use less and less water?
Or could this mean I should try to lessen the amount of watering? Just to check how far they can go before actually needing water?

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growing (at least trying): C. sinensis, C. latifolia, C. limon, C. mitis

stormlight · Joined: 14 Sep 2010 Posts: 23 Location: Portland, Oregon

Sven,
Would you please post some pictures? I am curious of what citrus dry soil is like. It seems I cannot get my citrus soil ever to be dried and I am using CHC mix.

pagnr · Posted: Fri 12 Aug, 2011 7:48 pm

How reliable is you meter??
How does it read for a glass of water, a glass of damp sand, a glass of dry sand?? Do you get consistent results ? Note it may not be accurate, but it may be consistent. You would expect water=wet , damp sand =moist, dry sand =dry. A meter may not be calibrated correctly, but still be consistent, ie wet =dry3, damp =dry2, dry=dry1.
Apart from that does the probe get excited or retain moisture between readings?
Cheap meters give readings, but are easily confused, and not consistent. When you test,the results jump around all over the place.
Better quality meters still need to be used with consideration.

Millet · Posted: Fri 12 Aug, 2011 10:28 pm

Water meters have killed many a tree. A growers finger, or just the weight of the container, is the standard as far as I care. - Millet (522-)

Sven_limoen · Posted: Sat 13 Aug, 2011 6:15 am

pagnr wrote:

How reliable is you meter??
How does it read for a glass of water, a glass of damp sand, a glass of dry sand?? Do you get consistent results ? Note it may not be accurate, but it may be consistent. You would expect water=wet , damp sand =moist, dry sand =dry. A meter may not be calibrated correctly, but still be consistent, ie wet =dry3, damp =dry2, dry=dry1.
Apart from that does the probe get excited or retain moisture between readings?
Cheap meters give readings, but are easily confused, and not consistent. When you test,the results jump around all over the place.
Better quality meters still need to be used with consideration.

I tested it a couple of times and it is consistent every time. (though it is a cheap meter). Varying form sticking it in the pond to dusty soil.

@Millet: I always heard that a moistmeter is a 'must' for every citrusgrower. Strange:). I try to rely on my meter as wel as the fingers from time to time.

Anyways, my fingers as well as the meter told me the soil is dry. Maybe the container is holding water in the bottom center because of its conical shape rather then cilindrical? I'll just keep a close eye on it. Which I will do right now. Wink

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growing (at least trying): C. sinensis, C. latifolia, C. limon, C. mitis

Stoddo2k11 · Posted: Sun 14 Aug, 2011 12:14 am

There are different quality moisture meters but the low end one without a battery is hit or miss. I find that, depending on the medium, it may or may not be accurate. In CHC medium the low-quality moisture meter is useless as the reading is false (maybe due to air pockets). If you had a garden with all the same type of soil a moisture meter could be useful.

I figured out a problem with one plant with a moisture meter (cheap one).

Before watering this potted lavender it said it was dry in multiple spots, multiple depths. Then after watering it was wet on outside and very deep but dry towards middle. I pulled the plant out of the pot and found a very tight rootball and compacted soil in most of middle so water was likely going around outside only.

But, again my caveat is that moisture meters work very different for different mediums - I do like mine for soil planted containers but useless for CHC planted citrus.

BTW pH meters are also similar - cheap ones suck and it is very different to measure pH of a liquid and pH of soil.

stormlight · Joined: 14 Sep 2010 Posts: 23 Location: Portland, Oregon

So what is the recommendation if the pot is dry up unevenly? Should the grower wait for it to complete dry or just keep the medium moist as possible?

Stoddo2k11 · Posted: Tue 16 Aug, 2011 9:34 pm

stormlight wrote:

So what is the recommendation if the pot is dry up unevenly? Should the grower wait for it to complete dry or just keep the medium moist as possible?

The general gardening rule is that if its dry in top 2 inches then it needs watering - the logic being that if the top is dry roots aren't getting enough moisture. I'm not entirely sure what the rule is if part of the pot is wet and part is dry but I have found in other potted plants it can indicate a problem with lack of aeration or lack of drainage (and in example above water was going around tight root ball and missing most of roots).

Sven_limoen · Posted: Wed 17 Aug, 2011 1:41 pm

Stoddo2k11 wrote:

stormlight wrote:

So what is the recommendation if the pot is dry up unevenly? Should the grower wait for it to complete dry or just keep the medium moist as possible?

The general gardening rule is that if its dry in top 2 inches then it needs watering - the logic being that if the top is dry roots aren't getting enough moisture. I'm not entirely sure what the rule is if part of the pot is wet and part is dry but I have found in other potted plants it can indicate a problem with lack of aeration or lack of drainage (and in example above water was going around tight root ball and missing most of roots).

In my case it could be the container shape which is slightly conical.
Could be concentrating the water down below but still, I can reach the bottom with the meter.
I'm still not watering the plant but the weather turned today, again warm and they are predicting very warm weather the next couple of days and I'm sure it will need some water then. :p

I think I'll buy a very good moistmeter to get me through the winter.

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growing (at least trying): C. sinensis, C. latifolia, C. limon, C. mitis