On 2007-03-06, wrote:

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.

Seems reasonable-- I figured the $10 meters were likely crap -- especially the
ones that don't take any batteries and appear to work off of microvoltage in
the soil

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

Ok.. Can you point me to a respectable brand you've been able to get good
results with? Our local home centers carry one brand that's like this and
I'm not sure if it's any good or not -- it's only about $5 or so.. If my
memory serves me, it's the RapidTest PH Soil Tester which can be seen at
the following site :

http://homeharvest.com/soiltesting.htm

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.

Yup.. That's me more or less.. Been that way all my life although I never
knew it until I looked at one of those DMV hidden number books when I was
in high school and couldn't see the hidden numbers on the green pages..

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.

Good to know.. Thanks!