My whole garden died after I trusted a pH meter from a discount store

Bought one for $8 last spring and it kept reading 6.5 no matter what. Ended up overshooting the lime and killed my tomatoes and peppers in a month. Anybody have a cheap pH method that actually works?

3 comments

3 Comments

felixfisher11d ago

My buddy had the same problem with those cheap meters. He switched to the vinegar and baking soda test for soil pH, just mix a little soil with each and watch for bubbles. Been using that method myself and it works way better than any cheap gadget.

mark36111d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of when I tried the cabbage water pH test. Boiled up some red cabbage and poured the juice on my soil, turned a weird purple color. I still have no idea what that meant but it was fun.

daniel59310d ago

Hang on, isn't the vinegar and baking soda test more about checking for lime or acid in the soil rather than the actual pH number? I thought the bubble test just tells you if your soil is super basic or super acidic, not the specific level like a meter would. I've used that test before and it's okay for a rough guess, but it's not really a replacement for a good meter or a lab test. The cabbage juice test is actually pretty neat because it changes color across a wider range, so you can at least see if you're in the ballpark of acidic or alkaline. Did the purple look more like a reddish purple or a bluish purple? That can tell you a lot more about where your pH sits.