Review on 🌱 REOTEMP Garden Moisture Meter with 15 Inch Stem: Perfect Tool for Soil, Plant, Farm, and Lawn Moisture Testing by Rick Rogers

Other reviews of this moisture meter are everywhere but I think some of the more negative ones come from people with unrealistic expectations of what the device can do in its price range can. I have a Vegetronix manual soil moisture meter (vegetronix.com) that will tell you your moisture to soil ratio to within 1%. (10% is usually ideal for most common plants.) But this device costs $150 and the probe only goes about 4 inches into the soil, while the 18-inch probe goes a foot and a half. So my protocol each time is to (a) take a moisture reading with my very accurate Vegetronix meter. Then (b) when I find the 10% point I stick the 18 inch gauge in the same spot and at the same depth. At this point I then calibrate the 18" gauge to "5" (midscale) (using the screw on the back). I can then use a longer gauge anywhere up to 18" below the surface and it will tell me whether there is more or less moisture than the level I've chosen. Yes, it would be nice to have an 18" or longer probe that would give me % accurate readings, but (a) I don't know that such a device exists, and (b) if I could find one, I'm sure it would cost $500 or more, so I'm happy with my little workaround with my $30 18" meter. You can do that Use your own 18" gauge and calibrate as directed. In fact, any cheap gauge will only give you approximate readings, but it's not rocket science: you really just need to know if you're overfilling or not, and this gauge gives you the power to do it find out.