The Good Life Soil Test Kit

Just what I wanted

The service from the supplier was top-notch but the kit was very expensive for something that didn't really do the job very well. I liked the colour-coding idea and there was a lot of useful information in the instructions - such as the pH requirements of various plants - although not the ones I was interested in - ha ha. It was not a quick and easy process and took me well over 24 hours. The soil has to be dried and cleaned up, then shaken-up in water and left to stand a long time to settle. I tried to do the test after a couple of hours but that didn't work. You have to separate capsules and tip the contents into a small opening and then fill the capsule with soil for the pH test, soil-solution for the others but it is extremely difficult and I am quite dexterous. -- I couldn't imagine my elderly mother managing this at all. In the end I just couldn't see a colour-change at all which I initially took to mean that my soil was depleted in all nutrients. I found this hard to believe as the local farmers are always telling me how my soil is the best patch in the area. I put the test containers to one side and they ended up left for another 24 hours and when I went to clear them away, I noticed that the settled soil on the bottom or the floating matter on the top of the liquid was 'glowing' with the colour for the highest concentration for each nutrient. I concluded that the tests had kind of worked and that my soil was probably very high in all the right elements but I am not fully confident that it is so. I thought this test pack was very expensive for what it was (and I bought from the cheapest supplier I could find) and I feel very disappointed in it and that it was a waste of money. I wonder if the kit was old and so the chemicals had aged and were less effective. I don't know, I am not prepared to pay out any more money to try again.

Order received in under 48 hours. Easy to use and I now have a full view of areas of depleted minerals in my raised beds.

Next order will be fertilisers (much cheaper than any local retailers)

I am pleased with the little kit