Re: Soil Moisture Meter for compost piles required

[Met Instruments <metco@geeko.co.nz>]

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This has always proven to be a difficult problem for our
customers. It also depends what size pile you are talking.
A tensiometer like the Quickdraw will work, but because you
will get air pockets and different compositions, you need to
take several readings, discard the worst and average the
rest. Alternatively with fairly large piles you can add
gypsum blocks as you build the pile. They will take a while
to stabilise and probably wont last long due to the
corrosive materials.
For smaller piles we have found the Japanese made DM15 quite
good. This is a push in electrode with bands of dissimilar
metals. It reads moisture and pH on a fairly coarse scale.
it will only measure the top 15cm or so, but the pH reading
is also fairly critical for worm survival, so its a handy
indicator.
Its a difficult job, I wish I knew of a better solution.
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----- Original Message -----
From: <owner-sowacs@aqua.ccwr.ac.za>
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 1999 5:50 PM
Subject: Soil Moisture Meter for compost piles required


> I have searched Sowacs.com for a moisture meter that I can
use to test
> moisture content in my compost piles.  I want to introduce
earthworms
> and need this info.  Can you put me on to a source.  This
is not a
> commercial operation just a back yard project.
>
>                                        Thanks
>
>                                           Ray
>
> [Please post all replies through sowacs, thanks
> Bruce]
>