I always see these when I search for ph meters, do they actually work for soil ph? I mean all the other functions I see on them are pointless, but the soil ph looks handy. My thought is its just going to tell you the ph of whatever your watering with…
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I personally don’t trust them at all. I bought a couple years ago, they are sitting in the useless stuff box now.
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My simple reply
NO
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The light meter is basically a sad joke.
The pH… well, the numbers I got were erratic. Did not inspire confidence.
The moisture meter is somewhat useful for nubes but as soon as you can ‘read’ the plants - it’s as DD said “in the useless stuff box”. I did use it to get an idea of moisture zones in smart pots at the beginning.
Cheers
G
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What I expected to hear. I just wish there was a better way to check your soil ph than watching run off, or checking new soil mixes to see what way they need to be amended…
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It’s actually tho only function I used on the old 3-in-1 probe thingie I have, (broken now). Tho the numbers don’t give you any useful meaning it’s great for finding the low/high light areas your plants are sitting in.
I also used it to see how intense my various bulbs were in comparison to others at different distances from the bulbs. Like at 1, 2 and 3ft.
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You are right, A vs B comparisons would be reasonable.
Maybe comparing old bulbs to new to get a rough idea of relative intensities.
Cheers
G
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There are scientific PH probes for measuring soil, etc but they tend to be a bit pricey. I’ve never tried one of those style probes myself so I don’t really no how well those work either.
You should be able to get a good idea without doing the run-off test simply by stealing a small amount of soil and adding it to distilled/RO water in a small container, mixing it, then testing the PH of the resultant slurry.
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My experience … they have been useless. Testing the runoff has been my go to. I’m sure they make high priced ones that will give an accurate reading but was never anything I was up for spending the cash on.
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Yeah, I saw some in the 170+ dollar range that looked legit, but hundreds of these little junk looking things for $7-20. Ive wondered for years and thought I’d actually ask.
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I have one of these and it has been accurate.
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i bought a rapid, it always read 7.0. the needle would go to zero and move to 7.0 when inserted in soil, didnt matter what soil was the problem even raw peat read 7.0 my vote is no it didnt work, actually i returned it and got my ten bucks back
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I have a RapiTest brand probe, take the measurements with a grain of salt most times but it has been helpful measuring base soil versus ammended/mixed soil. Been holding out for this, it is something that I would use regularly and trust
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No.
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And what about the 20 characters? 
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