If I Take a probe of my soil mix, put it in distilled Water and then measure the ph with a ph-pen do I get a good estimate of the soil ph? Has anybody compared this method with the measurements of a soil-ph-pen. Thanks.
Should be fine. You could even use pool test strips if you have any. Just mix a bit of soil and distilled water up, let it settle a bit, and you should be good.
Let us know the results ![]()
I have seen it done this way and was asking my self why nobody seems to do it with a ph-pen instead of a test strip.
I did a Test with Biobizz light mix which should have an PH of 6,2. Took some soil and mixed it in ratio of about 1:4 with distilled Water. PH measurement after 30 minutes was 6,6 with a bluelab PH-Pen. After recalibrating the PH-Pen (it was measuring 7,6 with the distilled Water alone) the reading went down to 6,1 for the biobizz light mix. This is pretty close to 6,2 on the packaging. I guess you can measure soil ph with a ph pen.
Important: Never use RO (reverse osmosis), deionised, or distilled water, as they can cause permanent damage to the probe. Learn more about RO water.
If you do it this way, just make sure you try to always do it the same way. Same ratio of water and soil mixed together, same quality of water (ideally your irrigation water), same amount of agitation and time elapsed before measuring. You’ll be better able to pick up trends at least, even if the exact number you get is just a ballpark relative to the actual soil pH. I wouldn’t put too much stock in the result.
not distilled thou just use what ever water you water with PH’ed to 6.5 ish and water till you get enough water to measure with your meter its how you fix ph in soil by putting 6.5 in until only 6.5 comes out. in short yes its the first thing i do when i see something in a plant that looks off check the ph