[fredhogg]

Whats a good ph tester to buy

[savbo]

type pH test into the search facility and you'll find lots of answers!

but the answer is -  a wet kit

[Jamie Butterworth]

The cheap ones, which you can use and then just throw away, they sell them at most garden centres

[AndyRVTR]

Try Aldi, theyre on offer this week... thats if they have any left 

[Gizzy]

I recommed this one:
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/pages/product/product.asp?prod=GRE-514&cookie%5Ftest=1

I prefer the ones you just stick into the soil, rather than the ones you mix with water. PH can vary from end of a plot to another so it makes it so much easier to test each bed rather than taking a lot of soil samples to mix with water (and then forgetting which sample was from which bed ha ha)

[Yorkie]

I have no direct experience of either type - and certainly the probe type are easier to use - but I have consistently heard that they produce far less reliable results.

[Gizzy]

I have no direct experience of either type - and certainly the probe type are easier to use - but I have consistently heard that they produce far less reliable results.

Really? Oh dear. I rely on mine.
I think they can be unreliable if the ph is only tested in one spot, as ph can be different every couple of feet. Thats what I've found anyone, i might get an alkali reading and then check next to it and get an acid one. Once I've checked all over, I can determine that the alkali reading was just a freak spot in that bed. But it would be the same for any ph reader really?