Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am very sorry to report that this meter isn't very useful for my needs (growing succulents outdoors in containers in the Bay Area). The problem is that the sensors read the same unless conditions are truly extreme. For example, the light meter does show a high reading for bright sunlight directly on the sensor. But it can't tell the difference between bright shade and deeper shade. The moisture meter - which was my reason for buying the item - registers in the red, "Very Dry" region unless the meter is placed in soaking wet soil. Then it does go all the way to "very wet". So, the moisture meter is probably useful for soil that is usually quite moist, to warn you if it dries out. But it's not useful for succulent growers. (Maybe if you haven't figured out yet why all your succulents die...) Finally, the pH meter seems to be entirely useless. It reads highly alkaline (above pH 7) unless placed in soil soaked in vinegar. But this is *not* a problem with this specific plant sensor. It is a problem with affordable plant sensors in general. I did a lot of research on the topic after I got a second Vivosun meter that performed as described above. Basically, you have to spend $50-$100 to get a sensor that will probably work. The really good ones start at around $320. Soil sensors, it turns out, are a huge business. They are a crucial component of up-to-date agriculture. They allow automation - and save water, reduce chemical use, etc. Goals everyone can cheer for. Those sensors, placed permanently in the ground at many locations on a farm, are part of multi thousand $$$ systems. The $300-$1500 handheld sensor is for the person who goes around checking on actual conditions. Less expensive systems exist for gardening, but again, they're designed to be incorporated into irrigation systems and so on. There are also at least 4 fundamentally different technologies used in soil sensors. (I'm ignoring the light meter here. Also, some technologies can measure both pH and moisture content like this meter - I think they're both measuring electrical potential between the two sensor prongs. But the more accurate and expensive tech only measures moisture. I guess they have a different sensor for pH, or more likely, it's not incorporated into automated irrigation systems.) The more accurate tech is cumbersome and has been developed largely for permanent installation in agricultural settings. There are a couple of in-between levels that are also marketed for agriculture; these are the types that appear in garden systems. Finally, the technology used in inexpensive moisture meters is no longer used in serious equipment. I don't really understand why a $10 moisture meter can't work a bit better, though. Some tinkering with the probe materials and adjustment of the sensor readout range might well make this type of meter work considerably better. Leaving out the other sensors would reduce costs and confusion. There is a big consumer market for moisture meters that get the right basic answer. Everyone with a houseplant could use something like that. Never mind the enthusiasts who fuss over tricky plants from succulents and cacti to marsh living carnivorous plants! So, for now, succulent growers should just avoid these devices. (There's no reason to imagine another brand is better.) It would be interesting to know if people whose plants need moist soil find this type of meter more useful. And Vivosun (one of the top companies in the indoor horticulture area) should go back to the lab. Plants in containers don't allow for the expensive, high-tech systems I referred to above. Each container needs a sensor of its own. So, users need many separate inexpensive small sensors. Given the money in some forms of indoor horticulture, it seems worthwhile to develop a moisture sensor that's still inexpensive, but two or three times as accurate as this one.