Best Soil PH tester

Basic Growing Info
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Thinking of getting one, grow in soil both indoor and outdoor. What’s the consensus on the best Soil PH tester Overgrow? I’m looking at Rittenhouse or Gain or Apera, but suggestions are welcome.

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I use sonkir 4 in one works good but I don’t think it’s the best.

I see @Northern_Loki is about to post, he’ll know for sure! :sunglasses:

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I don’t. More on the opinion side. :wink:

My thoughts on direct soil PH probes are that they’d probably be good for indicating acidic / basic / neutral but not great for reproducible and accurate results. Sort-of the hand grenade approach.

The more accurate soil PH probes have a set-up procedure to obtain results that would be in the semi-accurate range where you’d employ some distilled water to saturate the soil near the probe. I believe you’d gain a bit more accuracy through the use of a slurry and with the typical (quality) PH probe. Kind-of the same idea but the latter is more controlled … sort of. Each is sort of like the measuring run-off but in place.

Admittedly, I don’t run soil samples often but when I have it’s been the slurry method and, even then, it’s a close enough / not-close enough / nuclear wasteland type of analysis.

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Thanks @Heliosphear & @Northern_Loki . I’ve made it this far without testing soil, but my wife keeps asking what I want for Christmas and I keep saying I don’t need anything…but I thought maybe a tester would be a nice gift…for me. :laughing:

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Same here. Or, the stuff I’m into is in the WTF category and not easy to deal with. :laughing:

Hun, been thinking about a 10 foot copper rod with surface roughness below 10 microns. ???

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@Northern_Loki don’t know I am at a loss… :sunglasses:

I like my sonkir because it can be switch to light and moisture to nutrient and pH. Soil pH changes with temperature and moisture. The price i good too, my wife gave it to me for my birthday. :rofl:

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@CanuckistanPete ask your wife if you can get a new ugly holiday sweater. :rofl: you know… not pizza.

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The pizza was from my daughter…so I HAVE to wear it!

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I am such a Cheap shit when it comes to PH testers bought a bluelab that cost some $$ wasnt too thrilled with it got bummed i spent so much went to those Vivosun generic PHtesters but didnt like having to Ph buffer test it with that powder everytime so i just went to this stuff and i havent had a problem like ever again.This stuff is pretty cheap and its dead on every time i used it to check my water for spray with Dr Zymes to PHIng grodan blocks for cutss to 5.0 for 24 hours it always works Dont appear to have an experation day either .These bottles last forever too ive had this one for two years now and i havent even used up a third of it yet.So easy just fill up the test tube with water to check add 5 drops shake tube and compare color to chart on bottle no buffer powder ,No oh shit did i get water in the probe buffering it so all it does is flash a number no batteries to worry about either.Might be worth a look for you

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:+1: I understand, haven’t posted my ugly holiday long sleeve shirt (it’s FL we don’t wear sweaters) yet that my daughter gave me. It’s coming tho!

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Come on @Heliosphear…I’ve been in FLA. in October, wearing shorts and tshirts, the some locals had parkas on!
“You must be Canadian, right?”

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Thanks Capn!

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:rofl: FL native buuuuut I lived in Alaska, Michigan, Wisconsin and New Hampshire so I’m acclimated to all weather environments. I agree with the parkas in October, like 5 years ago, now it don’t get below 60F till December! :sunglasses: Gonna be 75F today, gotta put on the speedo and go body surfing.

And uhhhh I don’t use my soil tester for my plant’s. Ask your wife for a Christmas present you’re actually gonna use… maybe a Bong Hat! What? it’s a @Pigeonman idea that sounds great to me.

Have a great Saturday. :smiley:

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Ya, this was way more than 5 years ago.

Bong hat you say? Hmmm… :thinking:

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I’d go with Apera personally. I used to own a bluelab combo with the leap probe and never really liked it even though it was pretty pricey. I got a cheap apera and it works better than the bluelab ever did. PH60 is the cheapo one I use now and it is much more accurate and reliable. It reads faster too.

I took the pH probe out of the bluelab and just use it as an overpriced EC meter now. One of these days when I have money (maybe in a million years :stuck_out_tongue: ) I’d like the buy the PC8500.

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:sunglasses:

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I like the Apera ph60 you can replace the probe on them, there’s replacement solution and soil probes available for much less than a new pH meter £30

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IMHO the best PH meter for growing in soil is the plant itself.
If you are growing in soil with bottles , test the PH of your solution , and runoff.
If you are growing in premix soil , a proper mix should handle the PH just fine of most tap water. No need to test the soils PH.

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I agree…but my wife wants to know what I want for Christmas and a tester was all I could come up with. I’ve never used one.

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Could get some nice seeds , or a replacement for something else you actually use in your grow , that will wear out.
Just hate to see people spend money on useless gadgets. My two life long hobbies ( fly fishing and growing ) are two of the worst for it lol

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