UGLY PLANTS? Fix Your Soil – How to Test Soil pH and PPM at Home Without Kit – Slurry 95% Accuracy
Knowing your soil plays a major role in what nutrients you need to add, so understanding it will help you get off to a great start.
This is one of the most common mistakes people fail to think about as the root of all problems.
In this video, we show you how to test your soil’s ph and ppm without any kit and at home using a soil slurry test.
Although I recommend Fox Farm’s Happy frog, it is often really low in pH and out of the grow zone.
This is why I recommend to do this test and amend the soil to grow friendly levels before starting.
If the pH is out of the grow zone range, you may experience lockout which in turn will make you think you have nutrient issues that you try to improperly fix.
This soil test can be performed without any kit using a simple pH meter:
3-in-1 TDS pH EC Meter(all time favorite)
[lasso sitestripe=”true” id=”11713″ ref=”amzn-pmoyoko-digital-ph-tds-meter-with-atc-ph-tester-3-in-1-ph-tds-temp-0-01-resolution-high-accuracy-ph-tester-with-lcd-backlit-tds-meter-ph-meter-for-water-wine-pool-hydroponics-and-aquariums” link_id=”2954″]Apera Instruments AI311
[lasso sitestripe=”true” id=”11553″ ref=”amzn-apera-instruments-ai311-premium-series-ph60-waterproof-ph-pocket-tester-kit-replaceable-probe-%c2%b10-01-ph-accuracy-lcd-display” link_id=”2100″]Cheapest Fish Net Strain
[lasso sitestripe=”true” id=”11487″ ref=”amzn-penn-plax-qn4-quick-net-aquarium-fish-net-durable-strong-and-safe-color-may-vary-blue-red-or-green-4-x-3-net-10-handle” link_id=”2101″]This method has proven to be more accurate than the at home soil testing kits and based on a experiment with 7 different soils, the average discrepancy 5.4% when compared to lab results from the University of Delaware.
The Rapitest pH had a discrepancy of 5.9% so why bother with these tests. Now the ideal pH of your soil should be from 5.8-7.0 (perfect is 6.5)
The rules to fix are simple after you get your reading.
Here is what I do when I have abnormal ph’s.
For low ph’s under 5.5, I just ph balance my feed water to 7.0 and water to slight runoff and test the ph.
When the ph of the runoff is within the grow range of 5.8-6.5, I just feed using a normal ph on the next feeding.
If it is still low, then on the next feeding, I repeat this process.
For pH’s above 7.5, I just ph balance my feed water to 5.8 and water to slight runoff and test the ph.
When the ph of the runoff is within the grow range of 5.8-6.5, I just feed using a normal ph on the next feeding.
If it is still high, then on the next feeding, I repeat this process.
Hey bro I slurry’d my happy frog and I came up with a ph of 5.36 and a ppm of 2840. The water I used to test was ph’d to 6.7 with 10 ppm. How is my ppm so high and wwyd? is there an easy way to bring the PPM down like Coco or something? I am going to make another slurry test today and I will let you know what that is. Thanks for all your hard work.
Take that slurry and add ph up and half a gallon of water until it hits 6.5, then mix all of that slush with 5 gallons (a fabric pots worth) of soil. Follow that same ratio of add ons to each 5 gallons of soil.