Any recommendations for a 'good' moisture meter?

Ok boys and girls, I just ordered a million chopo's. This better work!
 
August said:
The weight test is hard to manage. I come from the garden center world where the wait test is our bread and butter. I find bonsai soil and pots (and trees) tend to always feel heavy to me. Certainly heavier when wet but usually the weight test works by surprise; if I find myself surprised by the weight, over or under, when I pick it up, that helps me decide when to water. Bonsai never "surprise" me... they always feel heavier than they look.

With my smaller pots I often find myself lifting them up above my head and taking a look at the drainage holes and the soil through the mesh. If it's wet and I can see the cohesion or a lot of dew, thats a sign it's good. If it looks damp but theres no standing water, Ill water if I know the species is thirsty (most tropicals, deciduous from cooler, wetter parts of the world, etc.). For succulents and dryland species I water when it looks dry. Still who wants to lift their whole collection over their head on watering day?

Im new to the chopstick method but finding it helps. Sometimes if I cant tell if its wet or dry, ill stick the chopstick in another spot for a couple hours and come back. The "wood" of the chopstick holds more moisture than the soil I think. I use bamboo skewers as opposed to chopsticks so im not cramming a rod in the soil all the time. Hope this helps.
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If you do it long enough, it becomes second nature to notice dry soil ON SIGHT--which is the aim of good watering practices. Lift test becomes secondary. I do this with all my trees, even the 125 lb one.
 
I have never damaged my bonsai with over or under watering, but i still consider myself in the learning stage where watering is concerned. It reminds me of learning how much to feed the fish in the aquarium. It's common to overfeed the fish and pollute the tank. With experience you develop a "feel" for exactly how much food the fish require. I will say that I’m surprised you could overwater a bonsai, with the soil being so free to drain.
 
rockm said:
If you do it long enough, it becomes second nature to notice dry soil ON SIGHT--which is the aim of good watering practices. Lift test becomes secondary. I do this with all my trees, even the 125 lb one.
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Heres my personal cognitive dissonance on the matter. How am I supposed to tell if a whole pot is dry when I'm looking at the top inch of the soil to determine? Just because the surface looks dry doesnt mean there isn't plenty of water in the pot.

I do use sight in so far as what I said with looking at the drainage holes (another nursery trick) and digging an inch down to see whats going on lower. I dont know what kind of superman vision yall have but I'd like a better explanation ;)
 
August said:
Heres my personal cognitive dissonance on the matter. How am I supposed to tell if a whole pot is dry when I'm looking at the top inch of the soil to determine? Just because the surface looks dry doesnt mean there isn't plenty of water in the pot.

I do use sight in so far as what I said with looking at the drainage holes (another nursery trick) and digging an inch down to see whats going on lower. I dont know what kind of superman vision yall have but I'd like a better explanation ;)
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which is why you LIFT THE POT to test the weight. Heavier means there's still moisture deeper in the soil mass...
 
rockm said:
which is why you LIFT THE POT to test the weight. Heavier means there's still moisture deeper in the soil mass...
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Im not sure that you read my whole original post good sir! I talk at length about the difficulty of measuring bonsai pots by weight... but I digress :) . I understand that experience is the best teacher in this case! Thank you for the response
 
August said:
Im not sure that you read my whole original post good sir! I talk at length about the difficulty of measuring bonsai pots by weight... but I digress :) . I understand that experience is the best teacher in this case! Thank you for the response
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I did read your post. TBH, sounded like a lot of rationalization. yeah, bonsai pots are heavy... If you want to learn to water, lifting them, or even one side of them, is extremely helpful. It is what it is. Don't want to do it?, find another way that's useful to you.
 
rockm said:
I did read your post. TBH, sounded like a lot of rationalization. yeah, bonsai pots are heavy... If you want to learn to water, lifting them, or even one side of them, is extremely helpful. It is what it is. Don't want to do it?, find another way that's useful to you.
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Its not about the pots being heavy. Im a young guy, I could lift my pots till the cows come home. I spoke on the difficulty involved in distinguishing heavy, from heavier. I lift bonsai pots all the time and glean no information about the water content within. As opposed to plastic nursery pots with light soil, where lifting pots is a very reliable metric. Like I mentioned before, experience will make it easier to determine the nuance between heavy, and heavier. Or so I presume!
 
August44 said:
Rockm...I appreciate you answer and the help. You make this sound very simple and easy. You said this..."Stop making things so complicated...--yes, if the end of the chopstick isn't wettish, it needs water." Again I know not if the chop stick is left in all the time, how deep it is in the pot, or how I detect moisture on the stick. It will obviously not be dripping wet so do I just feel it and am looking for what. Also, I asked a question about the finger testing method that was not answered. Come on now. Help the old folks out here pls.
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What do you mean you dont know hot to detect moisture in the stick? You pull it out. If it is wet, you will see it. That's it. Why do some people overthjnk everything?
 
bonsaichile said:
What do you mean you dont know hot to detect moisture in the stick? You pull it out. If it is wet, you will see it. That's it. Why do some people overthjnk everything?
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Look man... nothing is simple in life. And this was an interesting forum for discussion about how we individually check the water needs on our bonsai. I really dont get this dissonance of "watering is the hardest part of bonsai" alongside "just look at the stick are you dumb?". Can we at least be civil?
 
I go by guesswork. Dry weather=multiple waters per day.
Iffy sorta cloudy but not raining=add what I ....think... will help add SOME water.
Hot and dry=Make SURE the bottom of pot runs out.
 
To a large part it is experience and knowing your local climate.

I know *before* I enter my garden whether there is a need for watering. I can tell by looking at the weather of the last 48 hours and knowing what whether is expected when *roughly* I should water. Next to this, I have 2 plants that I know go dry most quicly. Once one of these shows signs of underwatering (Dull foliage or worse, drooping foliage) I know I should have watered earlier. This helps you understand your local microclimate.

Using a modern coarse substrate also makes life A LOT easier, as it is really hard to overwater those, and you take the guessing out. Yes, some species (notably, pines) do need to stay very dry for the best results. Most species however love a good drink and as long as they get a chance to dry a bit every few days, water away.
 
August said:
How am I supposed to tell if a whole pot is dry when I'm looking at the top inch of the soil to determine? Just because the surface looks dry doesnt mean there isn't plenty of water in the pot.
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I find that the surface is a good indicator. If your first 2-3 cm go dry and the plant is well-established, it normally means the tree has dried out enough to warrant watering, certainly if you have a little cohesion between the particles.
 
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