Soil testing in garden - ph test strips/vials vs electronic meters?

Hi,

Am planning a lot of planting in a new garden, have been advised to test the ph levels to help me narrow down plant choices.

There seem to be various potions - kits with ph strips or little vials, or electronic probes. I'm leaning towards the electronic probes, as can reuse and test in as many locations as I like - plus might also be useful for testing water levels of houseplants?

Don't need super accurate readings, just a good idea of how acidic or alkaline the soil is.

Any recommendations for which type is best?

Thanks!

 

I bought an Electronic probe some years ago, it works fine for me.
My garden is quite long and the readings change as I go to the top.

 

For anybody wishing to choose a location, or to understand the conditions they have, much information can be found here:
About BGS - British Geological Survey
Of course if the plot you have has been cultivated in previous years, the inherent soils may have been modified a little, but the overall conditions will rarely change significantly; it provides the default, to which it will likely return.

 

pH strips or solution give more accurate answers than any probe from a garden centre or Amazon.
Take a sample of soil, in a jam jar or similar, add water and shake, allow to settle and then use either pH paper or pH solution.
Have a look at your your neighbours garden and see what they are growing, if you spot rhododendrons, camellias, heathers etc then the soil is on the acid side of neutral.

 

I use pH papers, but I was given a fancy meter for Christmas. It came with packets of salts to make up calibration solutions, so it's a bit serious. I'll calibrate it, then compare with the pH paper.

 

Remember to take several samples in each area because you can get spots that are different due to for instance when someone has emptied a pot in a spot or where lime has been used.I like the old fashioned kits with test tubes and a dropper bottle of solution, the range is narrower.You can tell a lot from what weeds are growing and what the neighbours have in their gardens. If everyone has Rhododendrons and Camellias it indicates the soil is acid for instance.

 

If you use a probe don't forget to rinse with distilled water between measurements.

 

Exactly - I've had to buy some deionised water (from Tesco) to ensure my fancy new meter behaves consistently. For me, the only reason it's worth it is because I'm trying to get an agar medium to sit in a very narrow range. In the garden, looking at which plants do well is usually enough. It can fool you through - the base sand in people's gardens a couple of miles from me (on coast) is meant to be alkaline from the shells ground up in it. But it only takes a few years of plant waste rotting in it to make it acidic.

 

I pefer peace of mind and spend a little more on tests carried out under lab conditions at the RHS. You get a complete analysis for grass, fruit, veg and the pH value of samples taken across the area your targeted soil. Late again but someone might read it.

 

If you use test strips/a solution that requires water to be added, use distilled water unless you are sure that your tap water is pH-neutral. Hard water is limy/alkaline and it can skew the results. Apparently tap water can also be slightly acidic but I think that's less common (in the UK anyway). This site says "The UK drinking water quality regulations include pH as an indicator parameter and specify a minimum pH of 6.5 and a maximum pH of 9.0". 6.5 is mildly acidic, 7.0 is neutral, 9.0 is quite alkaline.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about using tap water as it is a very dilute solution with little buffering capacity, whereas the soil that you add to it and then shake has a good deal more buffering capacity so the pH indicated is that of the soil not the water.
Buffering capacity is the resistance of a solution to changing it's pH when another solution or material is added and roughly if a solution is very dilute such as tap water it has little buffering capacity.
Ignore this if you live in a hard water area.

 

I have to probe a few of my customers gardens and I have had an electronic tester for the past couple of months bought from B&Q. The readings lately have been all over the place and not consistent. I am thinking of trying the strips in the future.

 

I had one of those probe things, admittedly a few years ago.
Just never got a consistent reading from it.
I often think knowing the soil ph is pointless unless it's very much one way or the other.
Most plants seem fairly adaptive.

 

I'm not convinced. I once had a test kit that showed soil (from the same trowelful) as slightly acid when I used distilled water, but alkaline when I used tap water. Slightly acid sand is correct according to soilscapes (which ties in with what plants do well), and we have moderately hard tap water according to Yorkshire Water (and my kettle etc!).

 

@JennyJB with that much calcium in your water I'm not surprised. I have got too used to having virtually calcium free water and I spent nearly 40 years in Lincolnshire and Essex so I should have though it through better.
Just ignore what I said and carry on with the distilled water or rain water.