Spring Water, Milk, Orange Juice, and Pickle Brine. These are what i put in soil and tested. look at the results for yourself. I added a dash of neutral vermiculite to the mix of soil in the cup as to mimic my growing medium. I followed directions precisely as if i was really testing my plants' soil ph. COMPARE THE METER READING! this was a real test... The First picture is of Natural Poland Spring Water. The Second picture is of Hood 2% reduced fat Milk. The Third picture is Florida's Natural Orange Juice High Calcium. The Fourth picture is of Pickle Brine from the Vlasic Zesty Dill Spears. The Fifth picture is of all the testing mediums. the conclusion. the needle really only moves a significant amount when im shaking it with my hand. as soon as it's perfectly still the needle goes straight back to 7. ALWAYS! it's bullshit. If your going to buy something as simple as a soil-stick ph meter get a digital one. they can tell you what the pH is to the one-hundreths of a percent in a matter of seconds. it's totally worth it if you plan on growing more than one plant for more than one season. I have yet to find a store in the area that sells one... and im broke. but if you can afford buy a digital. I paid just over 20 dollars for this piece of crap. I am writting the company, sending them the pictures, and hopefully i will recieve a refund or a free functional one. anything to reimburse me if the store wont cooperate. Here's a link to my grow journal page that has pictures of the soil and vermiculite i used: http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-journals/145046-1st-time-serious-grower-please-comment-3.html Here's a link to the whole reason why i bought a pH tester... (also has a pic of the actual tester "out-of-soil" with some packaging) LEAVES ARE TWISTING! HELP!: http://forum.grasscity.com/general-...wisting-curling-corkscrewing.html#post1554394 Here's a link to a thread i started about the type of plant food i just recently purchased: http://forum.grasscity.com/general-...racycle-all-natural-worm-poop-plant-food.html ok i hope my experience helps someone else out there save time and money. E
I have the same one. it aint great..but it does work mediocre... ON mine i have to be sure that the wire is in the right place/positon. If its not it wont read...and make sure your soil is wet like it says. Its really finicky, but does work for somebody who doesnt have much money... but, not recommended if you can get a better model
I also have the same one and it generally works well for me. I noticed in your pictures that the whole rod wasn't down in the soil, I always put mine the whole way in. Don't know if that makes any difference as I would imagine most of the testing is done on the tip. Anyway, I've definitely seen mine go down and stay down (or up). Maybe it's like bassfishingboy said, try playing around with the wire.
i will retry my plants tomorrow to acquire a pH reading. I've emailed the company. maybe i got a faulty one. they will either send me a new one or my money back im sure. sooo i'll update that as well. E
i have that one also and it works adequetly for me... oh and besides the things said already, make sure you are leaving the probe in the soil for 1 minute before taking the reading. it will slowly adjust.