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#1
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How to make a soil test kit???
I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still
alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. any help appreciated, seems all the 'experts' want to sell you their personal kit or service. Monte |
#2
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How to make a soil test kit???
On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 00:19:52 -0000, Monte wrote:
I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. Litmus is useless for soil testing. You don't want to know if a soil is acid or alkaline so much as how acid or alkaline it is. |
#3
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How to make a soil test kit???
Just a little bit wrote in
: On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 00:19:52 -0000, Monte wrote: I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. Litmus is useless for soil testing. You don't want to know if a soil is acid or alkaline so much as how acid or alkaline it is. Come on, you wasted a posting! Jeez didn't you see the little smiley icon behind the litmus sentence. NOW provide me some clues or answers too my question! Monte |
#4
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How to make a soil test kit???
"Monte" wrote in message ... I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. any help appreciated, seems all the 'experts' want to sell you their personal kit or service. Monte Do you have a degree or equivalent in chemistry? This will be a very long hard road if you don't. Are you prepared to do hours (days) of research and then spend days buying, measuring and testing laboratory reagents to work out a practical test? Do you have the required equipment to weigh out, measure and store this stuff? Do you expect this one-off to be cheaper than a mass produced store-bought kit? If you want to try your hand start with just the pH test which would be the simplest to set up but even then I doubt that you will save time or money and come up with an accurate and reprducible test. Or were you expecting somebody who has the skills and the gear and the time to work this out to just give away free recipe books on the internet? This is possible but it does not seem probable to me. Go ahead and google - I would love to be proved wrong as I could then use the same material. I doubt that this will happen. David |
#5
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How to make a soil test kit???
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in news:3e876bb6$0$5551
: "Monte" wrote in message ... I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. any help appreciated, seems all the 'experts' want to sell you their personal kit or service. Monte Do you have a degree or equivalent in chemistry? This will be a very long hard road if you don't. Are you prepared to do hours (days) of research and then spend days buying, measuring and testing laboratory reagents to work out a practical test? Do you have the required equipment to weigh out, measure and store this stuff? Do you expect this one-off to be cheaper than a mass produced store-bought kit? If you want to try your hand start with just the pH test which would be the simplest to set up but even then I doubt that you will save time or money and come up with an accurate and reprducible test. Or were you expecting somebody who has the skills and the gear and the time to work this out to just give away free recipe books on the internet? This is possible but it does not seem probable to me. Go ahead and google - I would love to be proved wrong as I could then use the same material. I doubt that this will happen. David Well David old chap, First off you best remove your head from your arss and get some oxygen. You need it. Yes, I have a couple of semesters of chem, long ago. Enough not to blow myself up with kitchen chemicals. Now to the problem I asked about. One you are a complete dolt and do not even understand the question. there are relatively simple qualitative indicator tests which are made for NPK sufficient for the average gardener and even a farmer. You can buy these at almost any garden center. THESE my troll-like friend are what I referred too exactly what are the chemicals used. They do not list them exactly on the labels. At least not the ones I've seen. So go crawl back under the rocks and wait for a crippled 'roo to passby so you can fill your gullet and leave gardening folk to tending the better foodstuffs. Monte |
#6
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How to make a soil test kit???
"Monte" wrote in message .. . "David Hare-Scott" wrote in news:3e876bb6$0$5551 : "Monte" wrote in message ... I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. any help appreciated, seems all the 'experts' want to sell you their personal kit or service. Monte Do you have a degree or equivalent in chemistry? This will be a very long hard road if you don't. Are you prepared to do hours (days) of research and then spend days buying, measuring and testing laboratory reagents to work out a practical test? Do you have the required equipment to weigh out, measure and store this stuff? Do you expect this one-off to be cheaper than a mass produced store-bought kit? If you want to try your hand start with just the pH test which would be the simplest to set up but even then I doubt that you will save time or money and come up with an accurate and reprducible test. Or were you expecting somebody who has the skills and the gear and the time to work this out to just give away free recipe books on the internet? This is possible but it does not seem probable to me. Go ahead and google - I would love to be proved wrong as I could then use the same material. I doubt that this will happen. David Well David old chap, First off you best remove your head from your arss and get some oxygen. You need it. Yes, I have a couple of semesters of chem, long ago. Enough not to blow myself up with kitchen chemicals. Now to the problem I asked about. One you are a complete dolt and do not even understand the question. there are relatively simple qualitative indicator tests which are made for NPK sufficient for the average gardener and even a farmer. You can buy these at almost any garden center. THESE my troll-like friend are what I referred too exactly what are the chemicals used. They do not list them exactly on the labels. At least not the ones I've seen. So go crawl back under the rocks and wait for a crippled 'roo to passby so you can fill your gullet and leave gardening folk to tending the better foodstuffs. Monte With the attitude that being offensive to strangers is fun, which will no doubt get you lots of help, combined with the view that this task must be really simple I can see you will fix this little problem up in a few ticks. Let me know when you have it licked. David |
#7
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How to make a soil test kit???
Pool pH meters do tell you how acid, or how alkaline a soil is. This is a
wee bit more useful than something just telling if it is acid or alkaline. My dad has a electronic pH meter that I use in the garden, has been very helpful so far. -- Anna Merchant http://www.thecotfactory.co.nz If electricity comes from electrons, does that mean that morality comes from morons? "Monte" wrote in message .. . Just a little bit wrote in : On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 00:19:52 -0000, Monte wrote: I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. Litmus is useless for soil testing. You don't want to know if a soil is acid or alkaline so much as how acid or alkaline it is. Come on, you wasted a posting! Jeez didn't you see the little smiley icon behind the litmus sentence. NOW provide me some clues or answers too my question! Monte |
#8
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How to make a soil test kit???
"Monte" wrote in message
... I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. any help appreciated, seems all the 'experts' want to sell you their personal kit or service. Monte To be honest I have never seen a EASILY available NPK checking kit. I know in Hydroponics there is a thing called a truncheon(sp??) meter which will simply check the nutrient level. It gives a readout of a number, that's all. Different veges require a different level of nutrient to grow in. I have no idea what chemicals are used in soil NPK tests. But, did you know different pH unlocks/allows different nutrients in the soil? So if your soil reads 7.5, it will have different nutrients available then the same soil at 6.5, and so on. So getting pH test kit that gives you a number figure, rather than just telling you if it's acid or akaline, then getting hold of a chart telling you what nutrients are available at what levels of pH would be the easiest and cheapest. IIRC even the yates garden guide book had such a chart. Yup, I know this is useless if the soil is lacking a nutrient. This only tells you if a nutrient would be available, but the nutrient has to be there in the first place. But can be corrected with good use of fertiliser and organic matter. As I said Ive never seen such a easily available kit, but of course they would exist. Failing that, I'd be finding another NG, something dealing with chemistry or biology perhaps. -- Remove "not" from start of email address to reply |
#9
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How to make a soil test kit???
NPK kits are produced by a number of companies although you
may have to search around for them. They are similar to the test kits used for aquariums. The problem I see is that while these kits are expensive they contain quite low amounts of chemicals. To reproduce such reliable titration solutions you'll need to make up a comparably large volume of stock solution. If done correctly, you'll end up with more solution than you could imagine using. It will also cost you far more than a quality kit, which will last you ages anyway. There is no way you'll be able to economically reproduce the solutions in these kits on the small scale. If it was possible, there'd be DIY instructions on every aquarium website. Andrew Andrew G wrote: To be honest I have never seen a EASILY available NPK checking kit. I know in Hydroponics there is a thing called a truncheon(sp??) meter which will simply check the nutrient level. It gives a readout of a number, that's all. Different veges require a different level of nutrient to grow in. I have no idea what chemicals are used in soil NPK tests. But, did you know different pH unlocks/allows different nutrients in the soil? So if your soil reads 7.5, it will have different nutrients available then the same soil at 6.5, and so on. So getting pH test kit that gives you a number figure, rather than just telling you if it's acid or akaline, then getting hold of a chart telling you what nutrients are available at what levels of pH would be the easiest and cheapest. IIRC even the yates garden guide book had such a chart. Yup, I know this is useless if the soil is lacking a nutrient. This only tells you if a nutrient would be available, but the nutrient has to be there in the first place. But can be corrected with good use of fertiliser and organic matter. As I said Ive never seen such a easily available kit, but of course they would exist. Failing that, I'd be finding another NG, something dealing with chemistry or biology perhaps. "Monte" wrote in message ... I know you can buy the things, but I'm stubborn and curious.(and still alive to tell about it) heh What I am looking for is what reagents etc are used for the standard tests for NPK? hey, even I can use litmus so the Ph thing is whipped. any help appreciated, seems all the 'experts' want to sell you their personal kit or service. Monte |
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