soil test meter

19 years ago

Hey, has anyone ever used those soil meters sold at Lowe's? I picked up one today.. it measures pH, moisture, and light (big deal). I mainly bought it for the moisture and pH because I was not sure my new trees are getting the correct amount of water. Some of my new 8 ft. Nigra arbs have some brown patches that could either be transplant shock or water-related. Anyway, so I test it today and it registers DRY 6 inches down around the Nigras (after several days of heavy soaking rains the past week)! I was very surprised. I thought it would at least show moist -- if not wet! However, these arbs are bermed up (in our typical clay soil), so could that be keeping them on the dry side??

The pH indicated Alkaline, which I am not sure what to do about that. Maybe the arbs will be fine with that?

But I know the meter is working correctly because I tested it on other things that I knew what the results would be. I just wondered if anyone else had any experience with those type of meters.

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Comments (5)

nuconiferlvr
19 years ago
What are Nigra arbs?
nemoooo
Original Author
19 years ago
They are also known as Black Arborvitae or I believe American Arborvitae, Thuja Occidentalis 'Nigra'. They are a darker green and retain their dark green color (supposedly) all winter. I guess I will find out soon enough though. They are supposed to get 25-30 ft. tall and about 5-6 ft. wide. I can take a pic and post it when I get time. They are very nice looking, I just love them! The only thing I do notice, however, that I don't like is they have masses of small brown cones all over them right now which seem to actually be weighing some of the branches down and breaking some of the foliage. Not sure if that is normal or not.
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nuconiferlvr
19 years ago
Thank you. They sound nice......especially the dark green color. Ruth
conifers
19 years ago
Interesting. All the years I worked at a nursery I never used one, but I did sell a few.

I think it's fair to assume that you know gardening well enough if you could test the meter in other locations so I'll easily agree that "clay soil" should retain moisture longer than other soil types. My questions that formed as I read were:
'I wonder if the berm soil mixture had top soil/potting soil, "dumped" on top of clay but was not ammended with the clay'
and...
The answer to your alkaline problem and the best product to acidify your soil is pelleted Sulphur. Pelleted - because it releases the Sulphur slowly and requires less applications, and frankly, does better work. You will need to scratch the product into the top 2" of the soil.

Maybe I'll buy a meter now. My boss used to tell me they were "bunk" but he wasn't any expert either.

Dax
nemoooo
Original Author
19 years ago
Hey Dax, Thanks for the suggestion on the suphur pellets. Where would I find them? I've never seen them before.

The berm actually is all the original clay soil that the landscaper dug out from the tree holes (the rootballs were about 30 in. wide). So it's probably not optimum soil for them since it was not amended. There were actually even chunks of the shale that is in our soil, that were included, as he did not remove it all or haul any away. So it's ALL "original" soil, just bermed up about 6-8 inches. So I don't know why it would be dry though after heavy rains last week. I am still scratching my head on that one. But yes, the meter seems to be accurate everywhere I am testing it. How long it will remain accurate is the question. haha