You're probably using a bad soil sample or a bad pH meter.

Most of those sold in garden centers and big-box stores are useless.

An unbalanced/not-well-mixed soil sample can throw off a measurement, too.

Yes, pH certainly can change during the season and cheap meters will give inconsistent results as will differing soil sampling methods.

Michael

I can see what you mean by cheap testers giving wrong meaning because it seems to be the moister areas are giving even some as low as 5.5.

This is good that I didn't put down any lime or sulfur until I got an accurate reading. I'm not going to even attempt at changing ph balance. I'll just get better watering schedules.

I watered this morning, but areas without ground cover are dry as a bone, but those shaded by their own plant and above ground cover are doing fine.

I tested my potted soil dirt with this tester when I got it before I tested my yard, I tested yesterday and again today, both potted dirt and my dirt, the potted dirt still says it's 6.0. There was a variation in the number until I put it in deep enough, but then steadily it read 6.0. My potted soil is moist, so I wonder if a dry patch will be higher in ph balance?

I'll have to read the back of the directions or write the manufacturer to see if there are rules as to when to check the dirt to get better accuracy in ph numbers.

That is why so many people by the test strips instead. I'm starting to think ph isn't my problem.

Would a dying tree put the ph balance off? We have a big one in they yard, and it's decomposing could be throwing the dirt off. The more it dies, the better everything grows. It's one of those trees with white bark or almost no bark, but light colored, Beech or Birch? I can't remember.

There is a walnut tree in the yard that is definitely trouble for my plants and it did not do well this year, but my garden did a little better. I think it's poisoning the dirt.

I grow blueberry shrubs here in Madison, Wisconsin. Blueberries need acid soil, so I have to check soil pH every year, and make additions of sulfur when needed. Most plants, like garden vegetables, and most trees used for landscaping are able to grow in soil with pH between 6 and 8, a pretty wide range. I know of two ways to get an accurate pH reading, either by using a calibrated pH meter, the kind with a glass bulb, or by using an indicator dye solution. Indicator dye tests are accurate to within 0.5 unit, which is close enough for blueberries. In order to be considered reliable, accurate, and useful, a pH meter has to be calibrated using a test solution, before you use it to measure an unknown sample. You can use grocery store vinegar, 5%, for calibration. It has a pH around 3.

http://www.frostproof.com/catalog/t82.html

This one is a hundred dollars! More than I want to pay, but it says it's within .2 of accuracy, but does not use calibration.

It also says to make sure soil is moist enough to take a reading, so that explains the difference in my reading anyways. In some places in the garden it was too dry.

Hanna Instruments sells a small, handheld pH meter for about $35.00. Its battery powered, and it can be calibrated with a solution of known pH. I have used one of these for 5 years, and it still gives accurate results. However, I recently bought an "aquarium water test kit," for about $8.00, at a local pet supply store. The solution covers the range of 6.0 to 7.5, pH. It works fine, at 6.0 the solution is yellow, and at 7.5, the solution is blue. I have to dig up about a tablespoon of soil, mix it with distilled water, and filter the muddy water with a paper coffee filter. The clear filtrate is then treated with a few drops of test indicator, and the solution then turns color. This kit has enough indicator solution for several hundred tests.

When I start my garden in May, then I'll start out with the better ph tester. It's almost worthless right now. I'm waiting for my garden to die out, but it's no where near it's time.

As soon as it does, the whole garden becomes piles of above ground compost piles. Maybe this will guarantee a good year for this sorry soil.

I definitely will be getting the tester you are talking about.

Thanks!! I got really worried when some of the soil tested 5.5! When the whole yard tested 7.5 the first day I got the tester.

PH (potential Hydrogen)meters works on a simple scientific principle they senses the hyrogen ions concentration which translates to acidity. It is the same science and technology that every manufacturer of(cheap tester or expensive ones) employ.
But some of those "cheap" testers have a fetilizer test mode too, that I would not trust. But PH, I do. You have to get a correct soil sample, without chunky maters ( I sift it sometimes), Then you have to add correct amount of water, possibly distilled water. Also, you have to keep that sensing element perfectly clean of any stain, that may not be visible.
Some testers might not be better than,say 95% accurate due to incorrect factory caliberation , but that is fine and good enough for me.
cyrus

It isn't clear to me if participants on all forums fully understand that pH is a property of solutions. When professionals talk of "soil pH" they are talking of the "pH of the soil solution". A participant "ericwi" above describes the procedure we were taught at university laboratory.

I guess if I tested the moisture level, seen it was not too dry, not too wet, the tester would be somewhere near accurate. It does not require a battery, has two long prongs to stick into the ground, and gave the correct ph balance of potting soil, at 6, so that is some calibration.

My soil is bad, dries to quickly, and needs other kinds of work, not sulfur or lime, which is what I had assumed. The chemical breakdown probably was read correctly at a normal reading of moist soil, even though the potting soil tested 6 when dry. Wet or Dry soil, must throw the tester off.

I tested the vinegar, my ph tester only goes as low as 3.5, but the needle popped below 3.5, so I will guess it's near a 3.

I'm not going to say this is totally worthless, but I will say a soil professionally tested would be the best option and they would tell me if it's my walnut tree poisoning my soil. The test strips will tell me how much phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, and lime, so they still might not be the better option.

I am just not going to worry about ph, and worry about building the soil up with manure and compost.

Thanks for the help.