pH is an essential factor in your plant’s health. Keeping track of your pH is easy once you get a hold of a pH meter.
Picking out a pH pen is easy, and Cultivate makes it even easier with the BlueLab pH Pen. It’s a go to choice for Cultivate customers and employees in their gardens, and it’s a great option for your first pH meter or just a replacement.
The BlueLab pH Pen has a bunch of helpful features like an LCD screen and calibration reminders every 30 days. If you do decide to pick up a BlueLab pH Pen from Cultivate, here’s exactly what you need to know to start using it straight out of the box!
Using Your pH Meter
Before you use your pH pen or meter, you’re going to want to make sure it’s wet. If your probe does not come with a wetting solution, you’ll need to pick some up. The BlueLab pH pen has a little hole in the top of its cap for dropping in the solution. Doing this 3-5 times a week will help keep your probe wet and prevent damage.
After resting in your solution for 24 hours, rinse the probe in fresh water. Then you’ll need to calibrate the pH pen. If you get the BlueLab pH Kit from Cultivate you will also get the 4.0 and 7.0 pH solutions for calibration. Always calibrate in the 7.0 pH solution first.
Your pH meter should easily measure the 7.0 pH solution. Clean the probe after this and repeat the process with the 4.0 solution. Your BlueLab meter will display a checkmark on the screen once calibration is complete. The checkmark will disappear in 30 days as a reminder to calibrate again.
Testing Your pH
Now that your pH probe is clean and calibrated, you can use it to test your solution. The BlueLab pH Pen gives you the option to alternate your temperature units too, so you can measure temperature to your preference. After placing the pH meter in your solution the pH value will display.
This is your current pH level. If the number on your pH meter seems higher or lower than it should be, you may need to pH your solution again to stabilize it. After testing your pH, it is important to clean off your probe with fresh water, including the cap. Once cleaned, put the cap back on and drop in some of the KCI storage solution to maintain the health of your pH meter.
There is more to go into regarding caring for and maintaining your pH probe. However this guide is meant to focus on starting out with your new pH meter, and the basics of how to use it. Hopefully this guide helps you understand your pH meter a little better and how it works. Check out the BlueLab pH Pen on our Products page and get in touch with us with any questions, or if you want to order a pH meter for yourself.