Add lime to raise the pH.

No it's not, Dave, get it tested properly. Unless you are gardening on contaminated soil then your pH is possibly 6, at the worst 5. 3 or 4 is very acidic and most unlikely.

You can get testing kits quite cheaply at garden centres. Even gardens on chalk or limestone aren't that alkaline.

A pH of 3-4 would be a peat bog… if this is what you have growing veg is not possibility in the ground but you could create raised beds.

Excuse me I was talking without my brain in gear there - ignore me. The bit about testing kits was right though.

:-))))), Steragram, we all fall off the perch sometimes.

Yers...I've had a lot of practice...

This was answered previously for you.

Davie I would like to know what you are using at the moment to test your soil. If your readings are accurate I would phone your local council Environmental Health Dept. and see if they can give you advice. These readings are not normal in the UK in healthy soil. I have to agree with advice you were given on a previous question re Testing kits. I find the testing kits are fine but the meter I bought was rubbish.

What did your metre do wrong Scotsgran?
I have been trusting mine for years and I hope it hasn't been misleading me! It shows light intensity and soil moisture as well, which is useful for watering big pots when you can't be sure what they're like under the top layer.

There are pH meters, and there are pH meter, you get what you pay for. I got a (very) cheap fridge thermometer, it's been showing a temperature reading for inside my fridge of +16c for months.

Just thought I'd copy and paste this which I found on another forum...

"I got a cheap ph meter just for giggles, and did a test, it said 8.0ph for a cup of water, I then proceeded to add enough "ph down" to kill anything living and it went down to 7.5".

Stera I think I must have bought the same version as the one mentioned by Myron above. It was consigned to the bin. When I bought it it was not that cheap. I bought a separate moisture meter at the same time. It too was a waste of time.

Crumbs. Just tested it with lemon juice and then with bicarbonate of soda and it registered the bicarb as being lower pH than the acid! I'm sure it used to work though but I've had it for a long time. The moisture bit still works properly though. Thanks for the warning folks, its off the the garden centre.

I've had the same problems with these meters and I don't think it matters too much how expensive they are. The problem is that they are electronic based and rely on ion readings that are converted to electrical signals.

The way I see it is that there could be some other chemicals in the soil that could give a false reading. I'm not a chemist, but are ions present in other chemical compounds apart from very acid/alkaline?

I would recommend that you use the type of soil testing kits that rely solely on chemistry. I know it entails mixing some soil and water, etc, but they are more accurate and are very cheap.

Been and bought one, but not tried it yet.