Gifted A MOMET - Advice Pls

[jeffg]

Hi,
My M-I-L gave me a MOMET moisture meter (wish I got a gift cert to Nasser's, oh well...). Anyway, I was curious about the thing - how it might aid in the watering regime, then concerned about pushing the probe from plant to plant - potentially sharing media problems.

I wrote the company with my sterilization concern and here is their reply: "Most people do not sterilize between plants. You can just wipe the probes clean of soil with a wet cloth. One of the owners has an orchid retail operation and never sterilizes the probes while checking thousands of plants." Richard Duin JERMIC, LLC

Does this sound like appropriate hygiene?

I'm sticking with letting the plant inform me of when it needs water for now, but thought I'd check it out with ya'll.

[Cym Ladye]

<<"Most people do not sterilize between plants. You can just wipe the probes clean of soil with a wet cloth. One of the owners has an orchid retail operation and never sterilizes the probes while checking thousands of plants." Richard Duin JERMIC, LLC>>


No wonder we have such a high level of virus in the plants being sold today with practices like that above! No, do not go from plant to plant with the probe unless it can be sterilized with a clorox or similar virus killing solution after each plant. If I were you, I would stick to the "lifting the plant" option. You get to know how heavy a plant feels when wet and you will learn to judge as it gets lighter, just when to water. This is the method mechanically used by some of the largest growers in Holland.

CL

[trdyl]

One other thing to add from what I have read most moisture meters are not made to work with many of the medias used for growing orchids. I would suspect that they would work fine for peat moss base applications but when you go to a more airy medium such as bark based they would be lacking.