Anyone?

I would just ask the neighbors who garden if your soil is acidic, or maybe at a Local nursery. If they say it is I would just add some lime. And you'll have to repeat this every few years or so. If my tomatoes have black spots on the bottom, called blossom end rot, I add some lime. Don't let the lime set on plants, hose it off.

The expert will tell you that lime won't cure that problem and that water will. How ever when I see the problem it's in the spring and we get the same amount of rain as you do.....A lot!

You could probably get a soil test, and if you do you won't be able to read or understand it. It will tell you how many tons per acre to add. Or do it my way.

pH meters, unless of laboratory grade, are very inaccurate. And multipurpose meters are pretty much just a waste of money. However, the home test kits are remarkably accurate for their cost as long as you use with distilled water.

And if the soil tests acidic, just don't throw lime on it!! The vast majority of plants - and that includes most veggies - prefer to grow in slightly acidic soil as that is where the soil nutrients are most readily available and accessible. Liming is rarely necessary unless the soil pH is more than just slightly acidic...anything below 5.5 (and disregard even that if growing acid loving or ericaceous plants).

Blossom end rot on tomatoes is a more complex problem than many believe and just applying lime or a calcium supplement may or may not cure it. If the watering is uneven, even plenty of lime or calcium may not fix, as this nutrient becomes 'fixed' in the lower portions of the plant and may never reach the flowering portions. Moisture availability should be uniform and consistent. Excessive fertilization, especially with nitrogen, can also bind calcium and make it unavailable.

And not being able to read or understand a professional soil test is nonsense!! It implies that most gardeners are stupid, lack a basic high school chemistry education or are unable to think for themselves and do basic research!

Yes, a soil test would be smart, but reading and comprehension ability will be assumed. Those cheap DIY pH meters really don't work very well. You'll find lots of complaints about them in this forum.

I knew I could get someone to respond to his questions!!!!! And we found out who the "Expert" is.

By the way are your interests a lawn, landscaping or veggie gardening? My example was intended to show that you can watch what is happening in your garden, and successfully grow your veggies, flowers, or lawn.

ph meters measure the conductivity of the soil. They need to be calibrated. They probably work best for hydroponics.

Digital PH Meter, PH Meter 0.01 PH High Accuracy Water Quality Tester with 0-14 PH Measurement Range for Household Drinking, Pool and Aquarium Water PH Tester Design with ATC (yellow) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLWV73Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_AdINEbMWEN52M

Thanks! I am looking specifically for blueberries. I ordered some ph soil test strips.

When I planted my blueberries in my acid soil I ignored any concern with the PH. Since blueberries like acid soil and I was planting in what had been lawn and I hadn't applied any lime to raise the PH I just amended the soil with some peat, sand and mushroom manure and nothing else except for wood chips for mulch. They do say that blueberries don't like manure, but mine have done well.

If you have a need to know the soil PH don't waste your money on that garbage. Spend $30 to $60 for good digital probe that has a 0.1 pH resolution and accuracy of at least +/- 0.2 pH. Go for a name brand like Oakton and not junk made in china under 200 different names.

The PH between 6.0 and 7.0 is TEN times more alkaline just as the PH between 7.0 and 6.0 is TEN times more acidic, not just 1. But your needs will determine the quality and price you'll pay and if you want to adjust the soil PH a $14 toy will only screw up the dirt so nothing will grow.

I started working a new strip of ground for potatoes last year and wanted to drop the pH to 6.2. from 6.94 so I knew I had to add about 8/10th of a pound of sulfur per every 100 sq. ft. because I had accurate PH numbers. The POS you linked to might be accurate to +/- 1.2 pH for example and I would be screwed dumping 2 pounds of sulfur per 100sq. in my soil. That meter is worthless.

I can a lot of tomato sauce and juice but do not like the taste of adding lemon juice or citric acid So I bought a PH meter I can calibrate to buffer solutions, with a resolution of 0.01 pH and accuracy of +/- 0.01 with a price tag of $250, it was worth it. I know my Juice/sauce is safe and I know the PH, but if I added citric acid as the USDA tells us to do the PH would be 3.9 to 4 but I prefer the juice to taste like a fresh tomato. A 0.3 to 0.4 difference in PH is 3 to 4 times more acidic as I mention earlier, so what is your need for the Tester?

For critical testing $250 minimum.

For soil testing $30 to $60 will do.

To use as a toy? About $14.

I'm not at all sure that one needs to be very specific about soil pH. Most plants will grow happily in a pretty wide range of pH so the need to pinpoint it to a specific decimal point is rather unnecessary. And for that, home test kits with distilled water will get you plenty close enough....within .50. And they can be purchased at home improvement stores and nurseries and garden centers for less than 10 bucks.

It is far more important to know what pH range your plants prefer and the vast majority will prefer the slightly acidic side of the scale (6.0-7.0) as that is the condition where the soil nutrients and most easily accessible. Some, especially those in the Ericaceae family, are acid lovers and will prefer even more acidic soil conditions but you will not be far off from optimum if your soil pH tests out or can be reduced to 5.5-6.0. Comments that remark on the difficulty of lowering pH to any significant degree are valid and any pH changes will be temporary at best.

Where I live, indigenous soils tend to have a pH in the 6.0 to 6.5 range. And that is perfectly fine for just about everything, even including the acid lovers like rhododendrons and camellias, hydrangeas, heaths and heathers and yes, blueberries. Blueberries do not require the very low pH most sources cite. WA state is the largest commercial blueberry producing state in the US and berry farms abound here an virtually all with pH unaltered soils!!

ETA: Dan, we were typing at the same time :-) Your comment was just very concise and to the point!!

Again, an investment in a soil test would be smart. That being done, pH testing really only matters if you're trying hard to change the pH. As noted, you gotta try pretty hard to do that effectively.

Strips are fine if you're not worried about errors ranging from .5 to 1, and as long as they are fresh strips and stored under optimal conditions, but the next year your 95 of the 100 you got for $10 will have degraded to unacceptable and inaccurate levels. toy meters will get you the same results, worthless. $50 for a .01 resolution digital meter are ten times more accurate and will still work if stored right for years to come.

You store them in a cool, dry environment, and they're rated for three years. I keep mine in a plastic bag in my fridge with my seeds with a packet of dessicant. They've given the same reading on my soil for at least five years. Of course, you only rely on them for an accuracy of one pH unit. Again, unless you're tracking a change, that's completely adequate for gardening. I've got better things to do with $50.

Been doing this in a classroom setting for the past 20 years or so and in a garden setting for going on 50 and I have not found the above comments (Kevin) to be even slightly accurate.

And you can get home test kits with strips or those with tablets. I find the ones with tablets (like Luster Leaf Rapitest pH kit) offer greater accuracy and they do not get 'stale'. Each kit is good for at least 10 tests.

btw, a result with an error factor of +/- 0.5 is completely acceptable in 99% of situations.

Oh, with test strips, better not be color blind!

Sorry gardengal but I guess you've spent years in a classroom never learning and 50 years of gardening almost right.

For argument sake the accuracy of the soil pH is a big deal and +/- 0.50 swing means a lot to myself and others who strive for perfection not to mention the farmers who grow the food you eat. Your close enough method doesn't cut mustard and here are a few examples.

Do I want scab infested, bad skins and nutrient deficient potatoes or bad tasting low yielding potato plants? A +/- 0.50 and a close enough mentality will certainly give up potatoes with one or more problems and unthinkable. Below 6 and limited phosphorus and poor yield, above 6.5 and a good chance of scab so 6.2 is the target and pH is critical. (some data condensed from the potato growers association) Liars too?

Who doesn't like blossom end rot on tomatoes. I prefer high 6's if not 7 as a buffer to fertilizing tomato plants with nitrogen to protect from BER, but not a tenth above 7. Confused? 20 years in a classroom, really?

Dosing most plants with nitrogen will drop the root zone pH down 1, even 2 full units for 1 to 3 days while bacteria converts ammonium to nitrate. (this is from Cornell university if you'd like to call them liars) So for those couple of days if I had used the not so accurate pH strip, but close enough method, any tomato flowers setting fruit at the time would miss their Calcium fix causing BER. All because the strip showed 6.5 but was really 6 and with a little to much fertilizer the pH can drop to 3 and stay there, Nitrogen toxicity, (Cornell again) good bye plant.

Lets say Your unreliable PH strip showed 7 but the soil really was 7.5, no big deal you say with such authority, OR the strip shows 6 but it's really only 5.5, well then you are so screwed when your plants start showing signs of Phosphorus deficiency. No lie, if so the liar is the national resources conservation service of the USDA. Sweet spot for phosphorus is between 6 and 7 because of fixation and backed up by George Silva, author of "peaks and valleys of phosphorus fixation" of the Michigan State University extension. George states an Accurate pH test is critical and thinks you're a phony, well the last part was me saying that, but the point is get a meter, look at the calendar to see we're not in the 20th century, and if you throw stones get ready to be stoned back.

good night.

Luster leaf rapitest pH kit, good gosh.

Geeze, Kevin....chill out!!

I was not "throwing any stones" but merely making the observation that your degree of precision with soil pH is unnecessary. And I will continue to stand by that observation.

If achieving and maintaining such a fine degree of accuracy was all that necessary, then plants would not be naturally adapted to grow in range of soil pH. Some do prefer a pretty narrow range but most can thrive and be productive in a much wider range.....as much as 2-3 full scale points. So yeah, plus or minus .05 is no big deal!

Do you have any idea how many home gardeners have never tested their soil pH? A good many don't even know what 'soil pH' is and yet oddly, they are still able to garden and grow and harvest rather successfully with this abysmal lack of knowledge!! Moreover, if they did know their soil pH, few would have the desire or the skill/knowledge to alter it to a specific decimal point.......because it is just not necessary to be that precise!

Most who post here are not farmers or agronomists or scientists but just hobby or home gardeners. They want to know the best types of plants to grow for their needs and how to provide the best growing conditions and aftercare. Investing in $200 scientific implements and carrying out chemistry experiments in their gardens before even attempting to plant something is not on their agenda. The do not want or need that degree of finesse. And for them, the accuracy of test strips or tablets is more than adequate.

btw, in 30+ years of growing tomatoes, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have encountered BER in my garden with my flagrant disregard of precise pH growing conditions. What in the world am I doing wrong??

You can be rude, make personal attacks and flout your assumed superior knowledge all you want but it does not alter the fact that your approach is by no means necessary or the only path to follow. Thousands of home gardeners have been gardening without benefit of your sort of dogmatic input for decades with a high degree of success. The proof is in the pudding.

Yes, a pH sweet spot for P is between pH 6 and 7. But mine is 7.9, and I have zero problems. My soil tests all come back with P at "high", with no P fertilizer recommended, and no P fertilizer ever added (I do throw on some N once in a while). That test is done with Mehlich III, and specifically measures plant-available P. But P availability isn't all about pH. Note also that organic matter in the soil strongly increases P availability, because the P in that organic matter gets effectively mineralized. So you can make up for non-optimal pH by just having plenty of compost in your soil. But if you know your pH to half a unit, you can easily decide the risk of P fixation. The peaks of fixation are about one pH unit wide.