Terrazilla - weird PPM

[420Cactus]

Hey... I have discovered something weird with the soil based medium I'm using called Terrazilla...
Terrazilla is a "premium bio active growing medium, with superior blend of organic materials and bio stimulants for vigorous growth. Apparently it is also free from gnats, thistles and chemicals harmful to plants (I'm surprised the last one is a selling point, I thought that would be expected).

After repotting on the first water using nutes at 500ppm I discovered the runoff was at 2000ppm.... I was somewhat concerned... I watered until I got the PPM down to something sensible (approx 500ppm) and then left it...

Next watering when mix was dry enough to need it same thing! 2000ppm again.

So I tried running some water straight from tap (50ppm) through some mix staight out of the bag and got 2000ppm!

I wondered if my meter (TDS-3) was inaccurate (it is a cheap one)..

I went to the hydro store to talk to the guy there... He didn't think what I was saying sounded right so opened a bag from the latest pallet load and ran water through it (70ppm) and it came out at about 2.7EC ... That blew him away as as far as he knew it wasn't or shouldn't be anywhere near that... I think e used a Blue Labs  EC meter much more expensive than mine.

 

Another sample of Terrazilla tested at another store tested almost 3000ppm...

The weird thing is the plants haven't really shown any signs of nute burn, nor have they (the retailer which is a national chain in Aus and NZ) had complaints on mass that they're admitting too. I have a friend whos plants got nute burn from the Terrazilla without adding nutes. I know someone else who puts seeds straight into the mix once they've cracked after soaking in water and he reports no issues.

The chap at the shop didn't really have the answer so has contacted someone else at the company or supplier for answers.... Apparently the company don't want to know about this situation....

 

Any one got any insight?

Edited December 8, 2018 by 420Cactus