underthemagnolia
Full Member
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:54 pm
Location: Zone 7b, Cherokee County, GA

Electronic Soil Testing vs. Chemical/Traditional Testing

DH would like to know more about soil testing. Should we buy a home kit available at stores? These seem to be one use kits that are expensive. Perhaps we should take soil to our extensions service, but we understand they just send it out rather than do the testing there.

Are there electronic ph meters that are more cost effective and/or accurate? Do these negate the need for other soil tests?

Help!

Pixie

opabinia51
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 4659
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

Electronic pH meters are notoriously expensive. Dropping a soil sample off to a nursery or whatever other way this happens where you live is perfectly acceptable. The kits work well as well.

If the only thing that you are interested in is the pH of your soil, you can buy pH paper and liquid pH testers from Aquarium shops or from science distributors and just make a slurry of your soil in some distilled water (the pH of tapwater will already be either slighty basic or slighty acidic).



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