TESTER SOIL FOR N-P-K-PH

I use these with middle and high school students for soil testing. They seem to work well and provide reasonable results. The blue capsules deteriorate over time, so they are not great for storage for more than maybe 6 months.

I don't have any experience with chemical testing, and my soil is extremely clay-like and difficult to work with, so I should start with that. The pH is fairly easy to measure (soil in bottom, water and tablet on top) if you avoid the water getting clouded, but there are just sensors you can put in the ground to give better readings. But the other 3 tests require the preparation of a 1:5 soil-water solution, that was quite difficult to get right, and even after 24 hours of settling, did not yield acceptable or consistent test results. The instructions are totally incomprehensible, and affirmatively misleading in places (for instance, how much soil you need). If you're not good at picking through various shades of off-white at the paint store, interpreting the results will be quite difficult, if not impossible. There's a digital sensor kit available, which presumably is visually comparing the colors for you, but the reviews for it were not very good.

aven't used it yet, but nice kit - - complete with everything average gardener would need.

Something definitely wrong with these tests kits. I keep my lawn well fertilized.I was concerned that I had put too much fertilizer down. To my surprise this tester shows that there is zero nitrogen. I tested several times all exactly as described in the directions and all said zero nitrogen from several parts of my lawn. The picture attached is when I tested pure fertilizer. obviously the results should be off the charts if you test pure fertilizer but according to this even pure fertilizer high nitrogen fertilizer 29-0-3 tested zero. I also tested pure Milorganite it also tested zero. These results are obviously wrong.

Work perfectly

No colors ever showed up in the testers. Just looked like dirty water. When cleaning them, I noticed the blue had clumps of blue down at the bottom that did NOT rinse out. So it didn't mix with the water but it melded onto the plastic??? waste of money.

Very easy to use.. for best results follow directions explicitly.. always use distilled water

I tested soil from 9 areas in several garden beds. All pH readings were 6.6-7.0. All chemical readings were zero (deficient) though I amend the soil yearly with composted kitchen waste.So with my 10th and final test, I mixed a teaspoon of Miracle-Gro with 1/2 cup of purchased, composted leaf humus and 2.5 cups water (1:5). Still zero for N, K, and P. The kit had no positive control that I could use to see that the kit still works. I just bought it last month but maybe it was sitting in the store for years. There was no expiration date on the package.The blue capsules wouldn't open but shattered when I tried to pull the two halves apart.