what is your method for testing soil ph your cooking

currently cooking my main soil, it's been about 2 weeks so far

I have been making about 6 gallons (since I have 3 gal pots to plant in later)


Fox Farms Happy Frog mixed with Black Gold, 50/50 mix of the two (about 4 -5 gal worth)
Perlite (one bag of these http://www.hydroponics.net/i/140105)
Dolimite ( 2 cups)
Worm Castings (about 30%)
Charcoal (horticulture kind) about 3 cups
Bone Meal (1 cup)
Blood Meal (1 cup)
Epsom Salts (1/2 cup)
Bat Guano (1/2 cup)
Mykos (1/4 cup)
Molasses ( 3 tbs )
Azomite (1/2 cup)
Sphagnum peat moss ( a half of bag of this )
lava rack for the bottom

I got one of those ph meters like this an it's reading over 8 ???

any suggestions?? I have a bag of epsoma soil acidifier that I added a cup of......

I have about 2-3 weeks until I am ready to use the soil and am worried how to get it down to 6.5-7 when I am ready to transplant my seedlings I just started

everything sound fine just not the ph meter so maby buy a digital ph meter they work fine. do you test your run off water's ph/ec/pmm ect ?

I haven't ran any water through it because it's still "cooking"

[h=2]'what is your method for testing soil ph your cooking'
[/h]Check to see if the worms are still present and wiggling...

anyone else? Or should I post this is a different forum?

So you have not got it wet yet?? When I mix my soil I mix molasses and fish emulsion into some warm water and wet the soil mix with it then let it cook. I also have a similar ph meter and poke it in the soil in many spots. It always shows a big swing in ph from spot to spot for a few weeks. You will need to mix it up a lot in order to get your ingredients mixed well and get rid of HOT spots. Also, those meters suck ass!! they are not accurate...

i don't ever check ph. ph-ing has no place with doing pure natural organics. Everything in there keeps a buffer going

I agree with hyroot, a good soil will have a neutral soil ph due to your microbe life making it that way because it's their home and when they are happy theywill take over. Just focus on microbes. Check out the book teaming with microbes, also teaming with nutrients and then read true living organics. With those books you won need to ask any questions. With organics it's all about your rhizosphere, when you feed plants with organics you better have everything in the soil healthy in order to get a fast breakdown and a fast uptake. I studied ph a few months back religiously and if you plan to use ph up or down I would stay away from chemical versions, molasses is a natural ph down and dolomite will raise ph, you are not doing organism any good by adjusting ph chemically. If it's not omri listed then toss it because you can trust a shaky a salesman. When I came to a conclusion after testing daily for months, I said fuck it because even when I would adjust ph the next day I would come back and check and my teas would be way off that number I would try to achieve. With organics ph mysteriously goes up and down as it pleases, it's really no mystery though but just buy good for for your ladies and they will get huge trust me. My 2nd run with bc blueberry looks incredible and I have not checked the ph at all since clone.

yes I have added water to it, about every 3-5 days I add some ph'd water and give it a real good mix around

And yes, I think I have a nice mixture for microbe growth, maybe it just needs another few weeks (which is exactly when I will need it ready)

No need to worry about ph. If your worm castings are of good quality then your microbial buddies will buffer the ph just fine. Give it some time. IMO there is no need to add epsom salts to your mix. Mg "hungry" marijuana plants is a myth. Also, the mycorrhizae is best applied directly to the root zone when you plug your clones in to their bucket, and when you transplant.

edit: If you're worried about an alkaline soil, you do not want to add any liming ingredients.

Here's a good explanation of how soil labs test pH. This will be about the most accurate you can accomplish at home. Just make sure you use distilled water.

That said, I VERY rarely check pH of water, soil, or anything else. That's one of the biggest selling points for organic growing...

EDIT: I guess it would help to post the link I was talking about...

http://www.clemson.edu/sera6/SoilpHFinal081910.doc