can someone explain to me why when all the soil is in the pot this moisture meter says wet , then with the soil out of the pot it says dry ? is it wet or is it dry
My guess is the probe hit a wet spot in compacted soil in the pot and when you shook out the soil it both loosened and mixed dry and wet soil enough to change the reading.
I have had trouble with the economy moisture probes. They seem to work for a few weeks for me and then the readings are all over. I have switched to this probe by Extech and Blumat tensiometers. My finger verifies the information that they say.