Ken -

I always suspicious of something that so universal that it irons your shirts, plays music and measures your blood sugar. Usually it does everything in a very mediocre way.

Your best moisture meter is your index finger. Cannot beat this fine device for our purposes.

Light meter alone should cost about $35.

pH meters. They should be based on mixing a certain amount of soil with a distilled water, letting it sit for lets say 30 min, and then measuring the pH of the solution. They shoud be calibrated on distilled water to be precise.

pH meters that you stick in a pot of soil are useless and the best they can show the difference between a bottle of vinegar and a bottle water. . I tried and that's about how precise they are.

If you mix your soil yourself from scratch- you mix your components, moisten it up and wait for 2 weeks. Dolomite lime that is usually applied to correct the pH in 2 weeks will react with the humic acid of the peat - and settle down enough so you will see the final result. If you are using store bought mixes - Promix, Fafard etc -they are balanced to close to neutral at the factory. If you add perlite - it is neutral, if you add vermiculiate - it is slighty alkaline - which is not bad because natural peat acididty will take care of it in time. Peat moss in wet conditions slowly desintegrates producing humic acid.

Good Luck

I.

Thanks Irina. Glad I only spent $8 on the thing. Drats! That's two violets! I finally found dolomitic lime. It's hard to find here because we live in an area with alkaline soil. Will look for a oh test kit. Sound like that is what you're recommending. Have a friend with a light meter and I've got watering down pat.

Nice plants and photos ... Ken.

I don't know minis, but the second plant is definitely Hiroshige, and I'd guess Anika in the last photo ...

I think that knowing the pH of your water is the most important consideration. You build your soil mix around your water conditions. It would be counter productive to add much lime to a mix when your water pH is already on the alkaline side. Just my two cents.

Terri

Thanks for your input aegis. I was leaning towards that too. Good point about the hard water too Terri. Just want to do it right.

Terri - You Scored!

Awwwww, such pretty plants Ken ! I have a couple babies of Opt. Hiroshige. I am sure someday they will bloom for me. Always loved Gleeful Elf and Opt. Anika AND Millennia. Don't think I have them though. Rosie

Thanks Rosie. I know I don't have too exciting of a life but I was introduced to kcups today, which u have mentioned before. Must get some minis started! I have a few but this definitely opens up a whole new world!

Ken, remember you can start ANY size leaf in the Kcups! I have Myakka Trail that I put 3 leaves in one kcup. She is a mini trailer. And, Brass Band,,,,,well she is pretty large so only one per kcup. I generally use one leaf (standard to semi mini) per cup but if the leaves are little,,,,well, I will put more than one in it! And since I use the baggie method of rooting, I put the kcup in the baggie so the kcup sits on the short end then I zip it up ! So it sits upright.

And when I clean out the coffee grounds, I spread them under my trees outside ! No wasting here !!!! Or you can just throw them onto your grass. Good luck! Rosie

Thanks Rosie! We compost all of our coffee grounds for the garden. Just haven't used k cups. Looking forward to it.

You are welcome Ken, but allow me to go one step further. Coffee grounds are acidic. If you have azaleas, rhododendrens or any other plant that requires acidic soil then dump, dump and dump some more! But if you don't have specific acid loving plants then save the grounds in an OPEN container (cool whip or even a ziploc baggie). Stir them every now and then because you want the grounds to dry out and stay dry. Then when you go out into the winter weather,,,,,,,just broadcast them onto the grass. Or under your acid lovers if you have them. Actually google "uses for used coffee grounds". You are gonna be shocked at all of the practical uses for them including pest repellent!!!!!!! Rosie

You can start your own vermicompost farm. Worms love coffee grounds, plants love worm castings.

Solo cups work too. And you do not need to drink THAT much coffee.

Irina very true! Grandma used to put her trimmings in all kind of containers in the lower shelf of the refrigerator. Came in handy when we wanted to go fishing! Everyone knew right where to find the very large nightcrawlers ! Rosie

I've been using coffee grounds for a long time! One of my favorite things to do with them is sprinkle them on our banks of snow in the spring. They act as a solar collector and melt the snow fast. Yay!

Wow,,,I never knew that ! Boy the things ya learn !! Thanks Ken ! Rosie

You're welcome Rosie! We had our first snow this am - gotta get started on saving them coffee grounds!

Brrrrrr. We have had flakes and small ones at that. BUT luckily nothing on the ground! Rosie

ken, and you can make yellow grid marks, or letters, in the snow, and sprinkle the grounds … between the sprinkles … IYKWIM ...

omg bragu,,,,,,,,hhahahahahaahah did you mean what I THINK you meant??? lololololololol. I think that is funny!!!!! Yep! I know exactly what you mean!!! roflmbo !!!!!!!! Rosie

PS, Seriously,,,,,I needed that laugh! Thanks!!!!!

I'm not that talented.

LOL !!!!! No comment! Rosie