Simple Soil Test – Does it Work?

We all have seen it, the “simple soil test” that is going around on the Internet that claims that you can test the alkaline and acidic in your soil using vinegar and baking soda. It sounded to good to be true so I thought that I would test it to see if it really did work as it claimed it would. I also wanted to see if it was something that homesteaders could use to test their soil if commercial testing was not available in their area..

Short answer to "Does it Work?":

Yes and No

Longer answer to "Does it Work?":

Yes, in that it the soiled bubbled if it were alkaline or acidic as the claim said it would when the baking soda or vinegar was used.

No, in that it does not indicate what the pH actually was so you do not know how much of sulfur or lime to add to amend the soil.

How the test was conducted:

1. I had five different soil samples that I had previously had tested by a commercial company. So not to prejudice the outcome of this test, I covered the labeling that identified where the soil samples came from, and used numbered labels to identify each sample.
2. For each soil sample, I placed 40 ml of soil into two glass beakers, Into one beaker, I added one half cup of vinegar to test for alkaline. Into the the second beaker, I added one half cup bottled water and one half cup baking soda to test the acidic.
3. Beakers were cleaned with distilled water between each soil sample testing.

Test result:

The presence of alkaline and acidic matched up perfectly with the result from the commercial testing.

Conclusion:

If a person didn't have access to some kind of commercial soil testing, this would work in a pinch. However, it would leave the question of how much to add to correctly amend the soil. It is best to find what the existing pH and use an online garden calculator from the National Garden Association, and find out how much of what to use for your type of soil.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)