Ph Tester Question

[dragon49]

I have a PH tester that I use for liquids - to test my hot sauce. Will this be accurate for soil as well? Can I just stick the tip in and get an accurate result?

 

[PHB]

What kind of tester is it ? Electronic ?

It should work, but for soil I think you should put a piece of it into water purified by osmosis and shake before making the test. So it's not very easy.

 

[Nightshade]

If you are going to use that tester in food and in soil that can't be sanitary. I would just buy another tester specifically for soil

 

[dragon49]

This is the tester that have:

http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-Instruments-pH600AQ-Tester-Calibration/dp/B005H78ZI0

I do test it with food, but I always put a small sample in a container that I am going to eat from, so I'm not worried about contamination.

 

[PHB]

Okay, so pretty the same as mine.

So yes, you can do it : in a cup of tea put a tea spoon of your soil and osmosed water or demineralized water, stir and test.

 

[queequeg152]

yup. what he said will work. with one caveat.

ph electrodes are typically only designed for aqueous solutions. some ph electrodes clog easily IE single junction low flowing electrodes. some do not clog easily like the 30 dollar gel cell double junction electrodes i use, they however will not last more than a year.

if you have a "crummy" electrode i would advise that you do the pour through method. although i would consider the slurry method superior i really cant back that up at all.

make damn sure yo have some electrode cleaning solution if the soil you are measuring is rich in organic crap. you also will need storage solution which you should already have, and some means to rinse the electrode. a spray bottle or wash bottle works, barring those a sink faucet works too.

google "cornell pour through method" and "Slurry method soil Ph" or something like that, you can make up your own mind.