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Soil PH testing kits
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Posted by nemo NSW (My Page) on Sat, Dec 16, 06 at 23:40
| What do you think of them. I used one for the first time today.One result was a muddy orange colour after the required 10 mins,so I gauged it as being 5.5 acid. Looked at it again about an hour later and it is more a green tinge,Alkaline.Would like to no if anyone has had success with these kits. |
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RE: Soil PH testing kits
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Nemo
If you are talking about the kits commonly found in nurseries where you make a paste of the soil and then sprinkle on the powder, yes they are fine for most gardening needs. The one I use is made by Manutec but they are all similar. Soil laboratories use much more expensive electronic ones but you don't need those for general use. Bit confused about your colours though. You only need to wait 1 minute on the one I use. The colour ranges from red (almost pure acid) to yellow - 4.5 (very acid) to yellowish green (acid, 5 - 5.5) to blue green ( 6, 6.5 to 7(neutral)) and then to purple (moving to very alkaline) as you move up the scale. Between 5.5 to 6 is where it changes from yellow green to blue green and at neutral 7.0, it starts changing from blue green to purple. I f you want to know what alkaline looks like, test some mushrom compost and it should go purple. |
RE: Soil PH testing kits
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| Mine was crap-- I was advised on the forums not to trust them. |
RE: Soil PH testing kits
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| I've owned and used a nifty little compact Ph/Moisture probe for, oh... must be more than 30 years. It has a round needle indication dial in the top is about 50mm diameter and tapers to a very sturdy point that has two dissimilar metal plates set in opposite each other. There is a large push on switch on the side that activates the process. Presumably it uses the electrical current generated by the soil acidity ( or lack of it)on the plates. . It seems to work well as the soil in our area is pretty neutral at 6.5 -7.0.. and readings taken around the gardens only vary as much as you would expect ( which also means, I guess, that I've never needed to adjust it much.. ). There is also a moisture reading but I've never bothered to check that out other than you do require moist soil for the meter to operate at all. All you do afterwards is to wipe the probe with a dry cloth.. It even came with a cloth and a great sturdy moulded leather container. I wouldn't bother you with all this other than I recently saw the exact same thing advertised somewhere in my Cyber wandering. If anyone is interested I'll track down the supplier.. Sure beats the chemical process.. |
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