November 21, 2024

VIDEO: How to Test and Measure Your Soil pH at Home


Testing your soil pH is vital to avoid nutrient lockout and other growing issues. It’s not hard to do and the test is quite cheap. So get it done!

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27 thoughts on “VIDEO: How to Test and Measure Your Soil pH at Home

  1. What's with the sunglasses? Just asking. Thank you, now I know why my plants don't do so well. What is sandy loamy soil? That ia what i have and planta seem to struggle or die.

  2. My tapwater was way too alkaline and made the soil alkaline so then I added some fish fertilizer which made it super acidic really fast and then it to counteract that I added baking soda and got It exactly to 6.5.They say you can use vinegar to make it more acidic or lemon but also if you need to add fertilizer you should see what that does to the pH before you start adding things and it doesnโ€™t really need (that was my thinking anyway youโ€™re a better gardener than I am)

  3. Another simple way to test soil ph

    Poke holes in a solo cup
    Add a ounce of soil in cup

    Run 4 ounces of water through cup of soil
    Let it dry out a bit for a few minutes

    Run another 4 ounces of water
    This time catch the run off and test the run off in a slurry test witg a ph pen like Apera instruments or Blue lab.

    Apera PH20 sells a complete lab grade tester for 50$ on Amazon.

    Its an amazingly accurate and professional grade pen.

  4. If you adjust the pH by adding lime or sulphate, etc., and you get it right, and then plant all your shrubs, does the soil eventually go back to it's natural pH? Do you have to add treatment every year, and will that burn your established plants?

  5. You have to take out the protons (H+/acid) and hydroxyl anions (OH-/base) from the water, so it's neutral (good ol' H2O can spontaneously dissociate under normal conditions giving some parts acid {H+} and some parts base {OH-}). That means distilled/deionized water is best. Otherwise, you're also measuring the water's pH. The quickest amendment to raise the pH (make it more alkaline/basic) is to add limestone, a carbonate compound (similar to the bicarbonate in your blood which works as a buffer to keep your pH fairly constant). The carbonate picks up all the acid (H+) and binds it, so it's inactive. Likewise, the quickest way to lower the soil pH (make it more acidic) is to add sulfur compounds. The bacteria in healthy soil will oxidize the sulfur and form sulfuric acid (H2SO4), which readily gives up an H+ to make the soil acidic.

  6. I just want to say, I've been watching for awhile, since you had raised beds in this house, but I don't think I ever went back THIS far. (2021 right now.)

    It's crazy to see the "you" then, and the "you" now….. let alone learning what your yard looked like before you had added all the raised beds in your previous home.

    You've come a long way and I'm happy for you! ๐Ÿ™‚

    I also have a new appreciation (I always appreciated how hard it was to garden,) BUT a NEW appreciation as I'm adding 11 new beds this year and man, is it hard work. I can't wait till they are established, next year will be minimal work compared to this year.

    Thanks for all your hard work in not only gardening for the earth, but videos for everyone! ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. I would personally use hydrated lime – Calcium hydroxide. (Re-hydrated quick lime – calcium oxide created by heating limestone to approx 900 degrees centigrade.) Its a tried and true process that has been used for centuries on acidic farmland. Quick lime used to be applied directly to the field to re-hydrate naturally since the chemical reaction with water changing it into calcium hydroxide produces an intense amount of heat energy that can cause combustible materials to burst into flame. These days it can be re-hydrated in a safe controlled manner to produce the calcium hydroxide. Both are nasty and can cause chemical burns, especially calcium oxide, as it will react with any moisture, including body sweat.

  8. Correct me if I'm wrong however I think you may have gone with the logical way of doing this rather than the method in the manual which says to mix the sample with the water, let it sit overnight, and then take a sample from that mix so that way all your soil combines rather than the chance of all the material you use coming from just 1 or 2 of your sample sites (given that you correctly mixed a number of samples in a few different spots throughout the area being measured. I only know all this because I too did it wrong the first time ๐Ÿ˜›

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