[Lardman]

My cheap and nasty pH meter arrived from Wilkos last week and today I've been playing.

The scale is worse than useless but having inserted my probe   into various mediums this is what I've come up with.

Westland West Ericaceous : 4
Been and Queued Growbags : 5
West+ Peat Free : 7
My garden sand soil : 8
My blueberry bed (treated with sulphur) : 6

I'll stuff it in a bag of multipurp later.

Whats bothering me in the need to drop the blueberry bed more.  I can always add more sulphur but I don't want to over do it. Would it be better to mulch or to dig in some compost or even growbags before the plants get too established ?

I knew my soil was alkaline but I was rather surprised by just how much, it certainly explains the scab problems on the spuds.

[Goosegirl]

I've never used a pH probe so if, as you say, it is cheap and nasty, how reliable is it?? What I would do is to let your plants tell you if the pH isn't right. Ericaceous plants will show yellowing of the leaves and you can buy a magnesium tonic to help with their uptake of iron which they need. I would mulch these blueberry plants in ericaceous compost. Potatoes - well, your sulphur helped to decrease the alkalinity so try it and see what happens.

[Lardman]

I've never used a pH probe so if, as you say, it is cheap and nasty, how reliable is it??

Im pretty sure that the scale is wildly inaccurate ... but it is consistent and therefore I think its safe to say comparatively accurate.

I initially bought blueberries because my weeds told me the soil was acidic - I don't trust plants and more, they tell bigger lies than politicians 

[johnfh]

I too have a ph probe and recently purchased Arthur Bowyers Ericasceous compost to re-pot my bleuberries. I was surprised to see that the ph of this was about 6.5, i was expecting it to be lower but it could be the probe that is wrong. It was not that chep about £10 I think. I will buy a conventional kit and see if the results are different,  What do you think the ph of the bought compost should be?  Will post results later.

[Lardman]

I too have a ph probe and recently purchased Arthur Bowyers Ericasceous compost to re-pot my bleuberries. I was surprised to see that the ph of this was about 6.5, i was expecting it to be lower but it could be the probe that is wrong.

Have you got anything to do a comparison with? If you put it in normal compost and it read 8 or 9 so, Id say the meter was 'off' a bit.

The bag of B&Q multipurp I have is 7, same as the west + peat free. Im a little surprised at the growbag compost being so low too.

[viettaclark]

I tried a cheap meter but it was rubbish!! Haven't got round to using the chemistry set yet but it would be more reliable......
The soil where I recently planted blueberries MUST be acidic...it's under a huge conifer. The growing instructions said use sulphate of ammonia to acidify soil and sulphate of potash to promote flowers/fruit in the planting hole. Then mulch thickly with ericaceous compost, bark or wood shavings.
I skipped the ammonia and used a thick mulch of fir detritus swept up from under the tree.
You're supposed to use plenty of rainwater for watering because tapwater is too limey. Also they need a cross pollinator of a different type so I had to invest in ANOTHER bush (shame... )
Didn't realise they were so faddy!
As someone earlier said...you'll soon know if they're not happy and can top dress accordingly.