Hey... I have discovered something weird with the soil based medium I'm using called Terrazilla...
Terrazilla is a "premium bio active growing medium, with superior blend of organic materials and bio stimulants for vigorous growth. Apparently it is also free from gnats, thistles and chemicals harmful to plants (I'm surprised the last one is a selling point, I thought that would be expected).
After repotting on the first water using nutes at 500ppm I discovered the runoff was at 2000ppm.... I was somewhat concerned... I watered until I got the PPM down to something sensible (approx 500ppm) and then left it...
Next watering when mix was dry enough to need it same thing! 2000ppm again.
So I tried running some water straight from tap (50ppm) through some mix staight out of the bag and got 2000ppm!
I wondered if my meter (TDS-3) was inaccurate (it is a cheap one)..
I went to the hydro store to talk to the guy there... He didn't think what I was saying sounded right so opened a bag from the latest pallet load and ran water through it (70ppm) and it too came out at about 2000ppm... That blew him away as as far as he knew it wasn't or shouldn't be anywhere that... He used an expensive Blue something truncheon / PPM EC meter thing much more expensive than mine.
The weird thing is the plants haven't really shown any signs of nute burn, nor have they (the retailer which is a national chain in Aus and NZ) had complaints on mass. I do have a friend whos plants got nute burn from the same mix without adding nutes. I know someone else who puts seeds straight into the mix once they've cracked after soaking in water and he reports no issues.
The chap at the shop didn't really have the answer so has contacted someone else at the company or supplier for answers but at this stage I don't have any answer so wondered if anyone has any insight....
Terrazilla is a "premium bio active growing medium, with superior blend of organic materials and bio stimulants for vigorous growth. Apparently it is also free from gnats, thistles and chemicals harmful to plants (I'm surprised the last one is a selling point, I thought that would be expected).
After repotting on the first water using nutes at 500ppm I discovered the runoff was at 2000ppm.... I was somewhat concerned... I watered until I got the PPM down to something sensible (approx 500ppm) and then left it...
Next watering when mix was dry enough to need it same thing! 2000ppm again.
So I tried running some water straight from tap (50ppm) through some mix staight out of the bag and got 2000ppm!
I wondered if my meter (TDS-3) was inaccurate (it is a cheap one)..
I went to the hydro store to talk to the guy there... He didn't think what I was saying sounded right so opened a bag from the latest pallet load and ran water through it (70ppm) and it too came out at about 2000ppm... That blew him away as as far as he knew it wasn't or shouldn't be anywhere that... He used an expensive Blue something truncheon / PPM EC meter thing much more expensive than mine.
The weird thing is the plants haven't really shown any signs of nute burn, nor have they (the retailer which is a national chain in Aus and NZ) had complaints on mass. I do have a friend whos plants got nute burn from the same mix without adding nutes. I know someone else who puts seeds straight into the mix once they've cracked after soaking in water and he reports no issues.
The chap at the shop didn't really have the answer so has contacted someone else at the company or supplier for answers but at this stage I don't have any answer so wondered if anyone has any insight....