I'm confused about ph. I've been putting off buying a tester, but it looks like ima have to now cause I getting some stuff that looks like I might have a ph problem. My question is do I buy one that tests the run off or the soil? I would prefer a soil tester cause they seem a lil cheaper, but what ph range should it be in in the soil? I know runoff should hover around 6.5, but what about the soil itself?
the PH of the soil is whatever the runoff is give or take a percentage point. personally i've never had luck with those soil probe things.. maybe i was using it wrong. I highly recommend hitting up ebay and getting whatever digital pen you can afford. I think hannah has one in the $30.00 range. assuming you are feeding and watering properly with the proper PH and the plant hasn't been sitting in the same pot forever, your soil PH should be pretty much the same as the mix that you add. usually soil PH problems occur when you overfeed and salts build up in the soil. good luck man
update: Tim, I was getting issues with my plant that looked like nitrogen deficiency. I was getting yellow on the lower new leaves. But I gave a dose of nutes and then got a minor minor case of nute burn. So, I bought one of those cheap ph meters at lowe's for 6 bucks, the type you stick in the soil. Fuck beans! One of my plants was down to 6.0 and my others were down to 6.2! I bought some ph increase and some chlorine remover for my water and its all good. I got all my plants up to 6.5, don't want to push it anymore tonight. Just wanted to pass the word along that these things (cheapy ph meters) work.