Soil testing

After all these years of gardening I finally got around to testing the soil. It comes after semi-watching Carol Klein showing the science of gardening on a Gardeners World episode I’d recorded back in march. Also,  a plot holder had a load of soil conditioner delivered and there was a question over it’s quality. It’s not that I haven’t had good intentions of testing my soil. I gave bought the probe type ph meters in the past. The last one I bought was from wilkinsons that had a terrible meter. The helpful customer services did contact the manufacturer and emailed me to explain how to use it but I’m always wary of the accuracy. I might try again with it (when I find it) now that I’m armed with the results of the following test.

Back on topic, and I went off to the lotty armed with 3 plastic bags and got a sample of the conditioner plus one from two different locations on my plot. At home, I put soil from the two samples into seperate glass jars and filled with water and a tiny drop of fairy washing up liquid then gave them a shake. I’ll leave them a few days and have a look then.

Then I tested the ph of all the samples using a B&Q chemical test. I bought the ph and nutrition test a while ago and found out upon opening that it doesn’t contain the further information inside that it says on the back the pack . A quick google revealed that I’m not the only person to have found this out recently. Though, as I have no longer got a receipt, I don’t think I can expect a refund. I continued the test anyhow and tried to conclude my results using the muddy liquid.

Using these results it seems that the conditioner is alkaline and my plot is acidic. Someone else on our site tested the conditioner and found it to be acidic so I dont know how accurate the test is.

The results are:

soil conditioner

 

soil sample one