Tracy,
I have a cheap fertility/PH meter that works pretty fair at reading the PH and fertility of the soil. I also have another cheap PH/moisture meter that works too(good for comparing the two meters). I have found that I need to buff the probes each time before I check the soil for an accurate reading.

I lower my soil PH by mixing a solution called Green Light Iron and soil acidifier(got mine a Lowes) in the watering pail. I also use acid fertilizer (Miracle-Gro for acid loving plant) to lower the PH. It works good and will keep the soil acid by following the ferilizing schedule stated on the box. If I find I've lowered the PH too much I just mix some garden lime(got mine online) in the watering pail to raise it back up.

The electronic PH meters work but are very touchy and need cleaned and buffed before every reading.

You can also buy those chemical mix test that ya compare the color of the solution to a color chart to determine the PH too.

This all works for me, but I am a newbe too.

Why do you want to?

Al

I know my azalea and a couple saplings I have like acidic soil, so I am wondering how to keep the soil slightly acidic.

Trace, I found using peat and standard potting soil helped w/my Azaleas. The vinager works, plus using an acid type fertilizer. I think Shutlz makes acidic type. Toni

Commercially produced container media tends toward the acidic right out of the bag. For the hobby grower, chasing a particular media pH level is an exercise in futility. Generally speaking, the biggest concern is not the initial pH of your soil, but what happens to it as a result of how you water. If you use a soil that drains slowly, watering in sips tends to cause a gradual pH increase due to accumulating carbonates from irrigation water. Media that drains quickly and allows you to water copiously, tends to remain on the acidic pH side.

Use of acid forming fertilizers like Miracle-Gro Azalea, Camellia, Rhododendron Plant Food will help keep pH on the acidic side, as will vinegar at 1 oz per gallon or citric acid (buy at drug store) mixed into irrigation water. Elemental (agricultural) sulfur added to the soil, if you want to go that far, will also insure lower pH levels.

The highly organic soils we use for our containerized plants hold nutrients very loosely when compared to the mineral soils in our gardens and beds. Additionally, the fertilizers we use supply nutrients in a solution that is close to ideal in pH and electrical conductivity. These things combine to make media pH much less a concern in containers than in in situ soils.

Al

Hi Trace,

I've seen lots of yr. questions around recently. May I suggest you might want to take some time now & read some basic gardening books to become familiar w/ a lot of the basic involved in indoor gardening? It would give you a good foundation of general knowledge abt some of this stuff including the priority of what to be concerned w/ first.

I would personally recommend Reader's Digest Success With Houseplants, which does a wonderful & comprehensive job w/ the basics (mixes, light, watering, fertilizers, pests, etc). Also, it has a great area of plants & care recommendations of most every plant one would want to grow indoors.