Testing soil ph/

I have little test tube and liquid which came with my nute kit for testing PH, not a PH meter. How would I go about properly checking the ph of my soil? Would testing the water drained from the bottom after watering be accurate?

With that kit you have,the water that comes out of the drain holes in the pot will read different than if you tested the soil. You will have 2 different ph readings. The run off is not the concern. It's what the soil has stored,that will give you the ph your looking for.Or reading.You really need a wand. Test the water you use before giving to the plant.5.4 to 5.8.Mine have gone a bit higher than that. I just water with plain ole' ph'd water from the tap that stood with the top off,to evaporate the chlorine.Hope this helped ya!

Ga Grown!

for soil you want a ph range of 6.7-6.9
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go to streaming videos link at top right of page then watch video on ph its very helpful

I have been told by several people that the water run off method is more accurate than the soil PH test kits. I hope they are right because that's what I've been going by. I have one of those test kits so perhaps I can test the two methods against each other.

For the run off method PH some water to 7 and flood your plant with it. Capture the first run off and check that with your liquid test kit. And buy a damn meter for $25. You cannot grow without it. Are you going to use the strips every time you water your plant?

Hydro: 5.55
Soil: 6.66
Real simple.

Opie Yutts it almost seems I offended you. But anyway, I bought a meter and it seems to work fine testing light and moisture but it reads between 7-8 from my plants. I water them with water fixed to 5.5-6 (yellow) tested with the liquid drops. Not sure which to believe. I'm going to try testing the run off during tomorrows watering. One other thing I did was stick the meter in the vial I used to test my water, which I added PH Up to for testing. The water was orange so around 4-5 or so and the meter still read around 7. I am not sure if this is because it is not meant for testing water or its faulty or what. I spent 10 bucks on the meter so this could be the problem. Let me know if anyone has any more input. This is my first grow and I kinda got off to a rough start having some trouble getting the watering right and light positioned. The plants are now doing pretty well and I want to tackle this PH issue before something happens.

Algag, sorry for sounding so rough. You didn't offend me. I just get perturbed when I see people constantly saying that they can't afford a PH meter. PH is the single most important consideration. If it is off a little, your plants can easily die. That's not nearly as likely to happen if your lights or ventilation or moisture quantity is off a little.

I got a great deal on a 600W digital ballast and cool tube, and my aeroponics set up is coming in the mail as we speak. The bad news is I can't afford to spend money on something as insignificant as a PH meter, so I hope you guys are really willing to spend a bunch of time helping me diagnose my problems when they come up.

I've been told several times that the $10 PH meters that you stick in the soil are not very accurate. There are some that are, but these are around $90. I almost bought one awhile back. I would get an inexpensive (or expensive) PH pen and test your solution each time you water, and the run off every month or two. Once you get it down a little and you know what materials will do what, then you don't have to check as often.