My pH meter lied for 2 months and my fiddle leaf almost died

I bought a cheap pH meter off Amazon back in March and trusted it blindly, so I kept dosing my monstera with acidifier when the reading said 7.5, turns out the thing was off by 1.8 the whole time and my soil dropped to 4.9, which is why the leaves were browning no matter what I did. Finally got a proper liquid test kit from a nursery in Portland and caught the problem in one afternoon, but now I'm wondering if I should repot everything or just flush the soil with plain water for a few weeks. Has anyone else had a digital meter go bad without showing any signs on the screen, or is that just my luck?

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the_jenny10d ago

Ugh, that is such a nightmare! I once had a $10 moisture meter tell me my fern was bone dry for two months and I was drowning it like crazy, so I totally get the blind trust thing. Honestly, cheap meters are basically gambling at this point, they either work forever or betray you at the worst time. For your soil, I would start with a good flush with plain water for a week or two before doing a full repot, repotting stresses plants out so much and you just fixed one problem, no need to create another. If the leaves keep browning after a few good waterings, then I would repot, but give the roots a chance to bounce back first. Also, congrats on catching it with the liquid kit, I swear those are the only way to go now.