Rapitest Soil Test Kit for Gardens, Vegetables, Flowers and Lawns. USA designed and assembled soil tester completely, quickly and accurately measures/analyzes soil pH acidity and garden nutrients.

Nice & Easy Soil test
This is my first time using a product like this. I have a small garden and it wasn’t producing as much as it did in the past so I thought I would see if the soil needed additives, also called amendments. This test was somewhat easy after I got the hang of it, you have to really read the instructions as one test is slightly different than the other tests. The 20 tests turns out to be really just 5, you use all 4 testing units, which requires one of each of the capsules mixed with water and soil. I don’t know why you would just test for 1 of the 4 components, common sense says you test for all 4 each time you test. All in all an easy test once you get the hang of it. I found that getting the small capsules open was a problem until I took a small sharp knife, (I used an X-Acto) to just cut the outer shell so it would open easier and I opened it over a piece of paper in case I spilled any. As with any test that uses color as the basis of degrees of component, you have to interpret the colors on the plastic tester. I would up holding mine up to a window that had good north light so it wasn’t too bright and did my best to interpret the results. This was far cheaper than buying a professional test and sending it away, but I don’t know if the results were better or worse. Time will tell as I amended my soils and planted some herbs. You need to know what you’re going to plant in an area to make this work as different types of plants require different types of soils. I deducted 1 star for 2 reasons, first it seemed like there would be 20 different tests when instead it is a 4 part test you run so there are really only 5. And the instructions are not the easiest to follow in the beginning. Whether this is better than a professional test I don’t know.

save your money on the digital reader, get the manual strips
So the digital reader says this dirt is low ph, but the color strip for manual reading says that would be the highest possible ph. So that’s confusing and less than helpful.I just did a test with food color and the green is indeed high ph, and orange read as extremely low. Since the digital reader is literally just reading the color for you, I would recommend getting the manual reading strips and save your money. Do you trust your ability to tell the difference between green and yellow or red? Unless you’re colorblind you can probably do a better job than the little cheap machine. I’m guessing the reader in the device didn’t like how opaque my samples were and defaulted to low.For the difficulty of opening the capsules I just used scissors at one end over the directional pamphlet and any that spilled I tipped into the tube using the crease of the paper.

I don’t trust the results- updated to one star
I downgraded this from three stars to one star after further testing. I followed the directions perfectly and carefully, and I let the water sit for 24 hours to be extra careful.Each one of the results was on the most extreme side of the perspectrum. It said that my soil was a 7.5, which means lacking acid. It also said that it was in surplus of nitrogen phosphate and potassium. Forgive me if I have my doubts, but I just ordered this soil delivery and I want to understand it’s nutrient content so that I can fertilize it properly. The results tell me I don’t even need to touch it other than mixing in something to add acidity.I will be testing the soil on my property to see if the results come out differently, and I will also be testing homemade compost.The nail in the coffin was when I researched how to validate the device. I used lemon juice and poured it into the same soil solution, and follow the directions and then tested it again. The pH didn’t change, and it still read 7.5… which would tell me that there’s no acid. That’s obviously false in this test kit is complete garbage. Don’t waste your time and money.

It needs capsules.Product comes only with 3 sets of 5 capsules.U need one capsule for each type of test.1 for potassium 1 for phosphorous, 1 for ph.Product detail must include this information.

I was very keen on using this test to test my soil here in Australia.Unfortunately only the K one triggered a result. Tried it twice (once with really cloudy and once with less cloudy water.)I find it hard to believe that my luscious well maintained and well fertilised lawn is completely devoid of N+P.