On Mar 6, 9:17 am, "Rick F." wrote:
I've been looking over the digital PH meters that are available for soil
analysis and perhaps for use in an aqua culture setting as well (double
duty) -- however soil is prime use. Anyway, I see models from Hanna,
Oakton, LaMotte and perhaps a few others. I'm skipping the cheapie color
chart versions since I gather they're difficult to interpret the results
-- particularly if you're a bit colorblind (which I am). Anyway I just
thought I'd ping you all to see if any of you have tried any of these
portable models and see what you thought of them and if there's any pitfalls
I should be aware of.. I gather they've got some interesting cleaning/care
requirements which is fine..

If you know of a meter that works as good as the $100 models but is a fraction
of the cost, I'd like to hear about it as well.. I also know that I could send
out samples to my local AG extension but I've got a lot of samples to check
and don't think it would be cost effective..

MTIA

Comparing retail products in an international forum is very hard as we
don't necessarily see the same brands or models. FWIW the cheap
electronic probe pH meters that I have seen or heard about are not
very reliable. The problem seems to be related to inconsistency due
to variation in moisture content. The accurate ones have a "glass
electrode" but these models are quite expensive and somewhat fragile.

OTOH the dye indicator system I have used and that are used by
experienced gardeners of my acquaintance are quite accurate enough and
reliable.

Like some 4% of the male population I suffer from a degree of colour
blindness but I don't find it a problem in this case. [Matching socks
on dark winter mornings is another matter] The usual male colour
blindness is red/green, we confuse shades of green/orange/brown/red
especially of low intensity.

The dye system that I have does not require you to separate those
colours as they are not adjacent in the spread and you are comparing
to a reference card in bright light. I may not see what you see (or
my wife sees) but we will probably agree on which colour on the card
matches the sample. These systems are cheap (here) for a few dollars
you get enough reagent to do hundreds of tests. As always YMMV.

David