Soil Testing

I have a soil testing kit but have lost the instructions and can't remember how much of the powder and/or liquid I need to use. Can anyone help please ?

The kit I have is the 60 test kit from TestWest. It has little pots of powder AND little dropper bottles of liquid to test the PH, N, P and K. Do I use both and how much of each ?

I need to test the PH of the soil in my front garden so that I know what I can plant there. Plants already there, thriving and flowering well every year are - a cherry laurel, a photinia "Red Robin", a buddleia davidii (lilac flowers), a holly, a pieris "Forest Flame" (flowering now), a eucalyptus gunnii, crocosmia "Lucifer", campanula persicifolia, a deep red peony, a clump of day lilies and some spring bulbs (snowdrop, crocus, daffodil).

I've tried, to see what happens, adding one scoop of the powder (ph test) and one drop of the liquid (ph test) to a test tube each of - A, white vinegar (turned red). B, tap water (turned yellowish green). C, lemon juice (turned red). D, bottled Scottish spring water ( turned green ). E, boiled tap water (turned lighter green than the bottled water) and F, distilled water (turned peachy/orange).
I have brought in soil samples from my front garden but haven't tested it yet because I'm not sure how much of the ph testing powder or liquid I need to add

Photo 1 - A,white vinegar, B,tap water, C,lemon juice



Photo 2 - D,bottled spring water, E,boiled tap water, F, distilled water (has been opened & kept in a cool dark cupboard).


Photo 3 - All 6 test tubes together.


Thanks in advance

 

I had a look round the internet for you, but it's not looking good:

http://selfsufficientish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29148

 

If you can't get the instructions at least you should have a vague idea on whether your soil is acidic or alkaline from what you have done. Red indicating very acidic (vinegar and lemon) yellow being slightly acidic(distilled) and green being neutral. I would do the same with an alkaline liquid and see what colour indicates alkaline. You could use a mix of water and bread soda.


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Thank you @TMAK , I'll do a control test of bicarbonate of soda for alkaline then