Any recommendations on a good digital soil PH tester?

name of the thread says it all! I bought one off amazon. Sucked. went to Home Depot, bought a luster leaf digital PH rapid tester (which they said would work since it’s name brand). Also sucked! The meter would not move off 7. I even tried to test it in some acidic soil and some alkaline soil. It wouldn’t move off 7, and the needle is not stuck. I’m willing to dish a little bit more money out this time to get one that actually works, so recommendations would be much appreciated since I’m still pretty new to this!
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Bluelab makes a good one, Apera PH60S (S = Spear Probe) works good but won't read as deep. I have both.

Take your pick They're all functional.
Those are for liquids only. A soil pen has a longer probe and will read soil / coco pH as well as liquids. With my apera I can measure the pH of a piece of meat.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member


If you bone up for an Apera I suggest getting it directly from them as Amazon stock is old and problematic.
 

Bukvičák

Well-Known Member
Likely Bluelab pH pensoil is what you are looking for. I was trying also cheapo and it is quite accurate but only in case that the soil has the same moisture inside (not saturated with added water) like it has immediatelly after it has been producted and is also preasured but not consolidated. Unfortunatelly this conditions are not presented in your pot, so cheapo is useless in this case. Bluelab pen is expensive and also you can gain 50 bucks more and buy combo plus Bluelab which can be use further also in hydro setup (if you will want to change by time)... It is all about money!
 
Likely Bluelab pH pensoil is what you are looking for. I was trying also cheapo and it is quite accurate but only in case that the soil has the same moisture inside (not saturated with added water) like it has immediatelly after it has been producted and is also preasured but not consolidated. Unfortunatelly this conditions are not presented in your pot, so cheapo is useless in this case. Bluelab pen is expensive and also you can gain 50 bucks more and buy combo plus Bluelab which can be use further also in hydro setup (if you will want to change by time)... It is all about money!
Thank you! I will most likely be purchasing the blue lab pen, maybe I will purchase apera a little down the road as it’s just a little out of my price range right now but seems like an awesome tool to have.
 

Gentlemencorpse

Well-Known Member
Any idea of another reliable to source to purchase it from? Amazon says it’s not available currently and that they don’t know when it will be.

3 left on eBay. Guess they're in high demand.
 
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