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Investing in Soil PH tester- what is going to be my best bet?

intotheunknown

intotheunknown

Active member
Veteran
im looking to be testing my soilless mixture's PH

can anybody give me some good recommendations as to what would be my best bet in getting accurate readings without spending a lot of money?

i have read that the meters are crap and give inaccurate readings.
and i dont have much money to spend on the really good ones.

i do have a ph tester for water and have read in some places that i would be able to test my soil with it as well?
the pen i have is a Milwaukee PH51

should i invest in some test strip papers? would those give me the desired accuracy?
 
lipsmcgee

lipsmcgee

Member
Your ph meter should be fine, just make sure it's calibrated. There are soil ph probes that you stick directly into the soil, but I haven't heard anything good about them. Just test the water you're putting in and then test the runoff form your soil. It will give you a general idea of the ph of your medium. I've read of people doing just fine with the ph strips too. Good luck!
 
intotheunknown

intotheunknown

Active member
Veteran
so i can check SOIL ph with what i do have?
its meant for water supposedly...
what kind of strips would work the best?
 
lipsmcgee

lipsmcgee

Member
Sorry to post again but I just read some pretty bad reviews of the ph pen you have, you might want try the strips, they're not as precise as a good(pricey) ph pen but after reading customer reviews of the ph51 it might be a good idea to get some strips just to see if your pen is getting close or is all over the place!
 
lipsmcgee

lipsmcgee

Member
If your pen is reading accurately, just test the water that flows out the bottom when you water, it's also good to know the ph of the water or nutrient solution before you run it through the medium. I've used the ph strips you get at pet smart in the aquarium section before, pretty cheap and last a long time, but if you're looking to get exactly 6.5 or 5.9 or whatever they won't tell you that exactly, but pretty close cause you use the color of the strip and compare it to a color chart that they give you in the test kit.
 
intotheunknown

intotheunknown

Active member
Veteran
im needing to check the ph of my soilless mix. i think it is off.
also im doing organics and i get a PH reading from my tap water of 7.5 and a 7.6 runoff
where that i have read it should be as close to 6 as possible.
i think im getting lockouts due to the ph of my soil and the ph of my water. so i need to check everything to see whats going on.
 
lipsmcgee

lipsmcgee

Member
intotheunknown said:
im needing to check the ph of my soilless mix. i think it is off.
also im doing organics and i get a PH reading from my tap water of 7.5 and a 7.6 runoff
where that i have read it should be as close to 6 as possible.
i think im getting lockouts due to the ph of my soil and the ph of my water. so i need to check everything to see whats going on.
Click to expand...




Yeah, your tap water is too high. You can get a bottle of ph down from any hydro store, online or even from the pet store. You need to put anywhere from a few drops to many drops into the water and mix, check ph until its at the ph number you need, then water. If your using any nutes, add them to your water, check ph and then adjust if needed. Some nutes are pretty acidic and change the water ph pretty drastically. A 7.6 ph runoff is too high also, probably because of the high ph water, get that down to where it needs to be and things should be looking green around your place. I'd keep the nute concentration down, very mild, if any at all, until you can get the soiless ph where it needs to be.
 
C

cracka magik

Member
I just picked a soil ph meter myself because I was thinking along similar lines with some deficiencies I'm having. I just grabbed an "active air" soil meter, it was 10 bucks at my local grow shop. It's a two prong meter that checks ph, moisture, and is a light meter as well. I also looked at the control wizard one because that's what my digital meter is, but went with this because I know it will be accurate enough to tell me if I'm having issues, it's consistent and haven't had any problems with it.

For ph down, I mixed up some sulfuric acid with distilled water in a 15 to 1 ratio. Theres a bunch of threads on this, it's a lot cheaper than buying ph down.
 
G

good drown

i use the oakton econo ph tester. costs me $60 from the local shop, they warrenty it for a year, works great. ph you water and nutes to the level you want it at, then feed. you can also check the ph of your run off water to see if something in you soiless mix is adjusting the ph. good luck mate
 
Doobie Nyce

Doobie Nyce

upsetting the setup
ICMag Donor
checking the Ph of your runoff doesnt tell you he PH of your medium... just how your medium effects the water as it runs through! Get the control wizard.. . testing your run off isn't really accurate plus its a PITA.

you said you're doing organics... definitely do NOT use ph up or down...will kill microlife obviously.

you balance the water versus your soilmix so the balance together around 6.5. You do this by knowing the ph/ppm of your water, and also your soilmix. If you have water 7.7 w/ 100 ppms or soemthing, you want your mix fairly acidic. If you have 0 ppms, you do all your buffering in your soilmix w/ lime, bonemeal and the like. What are you using for a soilmix recipe? Whats your water source? Using liquid nutes?? All important things to factor in. Hope this helps a little... peace!
 
SupraSPL

SupraSPL

Member
The PH of the water/ferts going in and the PH of the runoff coming out is good data to have. The freshwater aquarium test kits $5 at Walmart are reasonably accurate if used correctly. I agree it could be a PITA if you have large planters, but once you have your system figured out, you'll find that you rarely need to test runoff.

For ph down consider using plain peat mixed into R/O water. Unfortunately the smallest bag of plain peat I have ever seen was a 2 cu ft compressed bale, but it has lots of other uses at least.
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Active member
Veteran
I agree this type of ph meter for soil actually works....

One thing not mentioned it has a .2 ph resolution....

Resolution is not found on the 10- dollar meters....

It can be found for about 50 bucks....


Soil meters are pretty easy to test....if you have some peat around.....

I used it with some compost and it read about 6.8....

In peat it was smack on 5.0

And it never needs calibration....
 
darwinsbulldog

darwinsbulldog

Landrace Lover
Veteran
i've got a few electronic meters, spent maybe 20-30 bucks on them including postage. they seem to do the trick.
 
darwinsbulldog

darwinsbulldog

Landrace Lover
Veteran
ps in the end it is a weed, even if the mechanism you use is slightly out when reading pH it's not the end of the world, if it shows sign of nute lock out then just drop the pH if it's high or bring it up if it's low.
 
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