Do soil pH meters really work? Are these normal readings?

First off I’m a noob, so please forgive me if I don’t know what I’m doing. This is my second grow. I’m growing in a stealth cabinet which you can see on my grow diary here: The year of making do

Yes the plant has had a few rather odd symptoms (light sensitivity, signs of maybe calcium deficiency, clawing tips with yellowed leaves, some edge burning) — the complete story of which you can see on the diary page, and overall the plant has been a bit of a slow grower, like my first grow attempts last year.

Fortunately I got a pack of pH test strips today and have deduced that my fundamental problem is that my electronic pH meter that I’ve been using for my water is inaccurate despite my best attempt to correctly calibrated it, and therefore I’ve been adding pH-up unnecessarily to the plant which has probably resulted in alkaline soil. I think this is my fundamental problem which I’ll address going forward.

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