Best recommendations for measuring soil PH?

[dustydundee]

I've gotten some good recommendations in the past here, so I'm looking for one more. What is the best tool you use for measuring the PH of your soil? Say its the day after watering and you are concerned about where your PH is heading, and you don't want to wait several more days until you water the next time to measure the runoff with a standard water PH meter, is there any tool or process you recommend to measure your soil ph? I also have several pots that are sitting on screens that drain into a common pan, so measuring the runoff on a particular plant is a little difficult for me. I see lots of soil probes on Amazon in wide ranges of price, I'm not sure if any of them are any good, so I'm wondering if anyone can recommend the best tool that they always use that is their "go to"?

[Rwise]

Mine is from blue labs, has a probe for soil or liquids, it was a bit pricey but has been great for my grow.

[Smallgrow]

I’ve found the soil ph meters from the hardware store or Amazon to be pretty much worthless. If you want to measure accurately I’m afraid you gotta whip out the wallet for the Bluelab or similar, like Rwise said.

[3Berries]

You make a slurry of half soil half distilled/RO water by weight then you can measure the pH with a bulb probe type.

[Phlash]

I do a slurry test, take a tablespoon of soil and a tablespoon of the same water I feed with, mix it, and put my ph probe in. Probe I’m using is a Hanna HI98129 but any decent ph probe should work fine, just be sure to rinse well afterwards.

There seems to be two schools of thought as far as feed water vs distilled/RO, using the water that you feed with will give you what the soil is during feeding which is what I’m most interested in as that is what uptake will be at.

[dustydundee]

Thanks for the ideas. So the blue lab one, I'm assuming is this guy:

https://www.amazon.com/Bluelab-Pensoilph-Soil-Tester-Pen/dp/B00CJIDFAS/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=3P4F5H2WQ1878&keywords=blue%2Blabs%2Bsoil%2Bph&qid=1686422183&sprefix=blue%2Blabs%2Bsoil%2Bph%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-3-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1

Has anyone tried the Apera?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGQFTMMY/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B0BGQFTMMY&pd_rd_w=Pw7FJ&content-id=amzn1.sym.0d1092dc-81bb-493f-8769-d5c802257e94&pf_rd_p=0d1092dc-81bb-493f-8769-d5c802257e94&pf_rd_r=V50M59R77EQGZG196NE7&pd_rd_wg=5Pn1y&pd_rd_r=18d469fb-2571-4151-b5e8-63d3477f45ff&s=lawn-garden&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWwy&th=1

I have used Apera ph water meters for my watering for a few years now and have been very happy with them.

[Rwise]

I went with this one, it does more.

https://www.amazon.com/Bluelab-METCOMPLUS-Temperature-Conductivity-Calibration/dp/B084KYY17Y/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3IJHZ4KGSZSPU&keywords=blue+labs+combo+meter&qid=1686424402&sprefix=blue%2Blabs%2Bcomb%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-4

[Rwise]

Also costs more,

[dustydundee]

dang Rwise, so you happy with that one? How long have you used it? how often do you use it? I'd consider that price, if the thing lasts... Do you use it primarily for soil, or everything? I guess my main interest is in measuring the soil ph as its sitting in the pot, are the results consistent and repeatable?

[Rwise]

I like it, I use it on the soil and solutions applied (other than rain water), I did get all the chems to maintain it calibrate etc. I do calibrate it at least 1 time a year though it has never been very far off when done, something like 0.1. If you want to go hydro in the future it would be a great investment. I needed a good PH test for soil as my soil was dropping PH to ~4.0 in flower. I also make my own nutes to add and wanted to test them with the same unit. The probe does eventually wear out and will someday need to be replaced. It also has lots of functions I dont use, yet. I picked it up about 2 years ago, should think about changing the batteries before they start leaking.