Unless you pay big bucks for a professional model, pH meters are notably inaccurate. You can send soil samples out to a testing lab - your extension office will refer one if they no longer do it themselves. Better yet, the little home test kits you can buy at garden centers and box stores for a few dollars are remarkably accurate as long as you use with distilled water.

A local garden center nearby does offer free soil ph tests

Make sure you use with distilled water. Tap or well water - even rain water - can affect the reading. Distilled water should have a neutral pH.

Also, we have lots of native acid loving plants growing near my home. Lots of native blueberry and azalea populations nearby

You can buy PH testers in the $35 to $90 range that are accurate for your intentions of testing soil PH. Procedures must be followed such as the amounts of soil and water mixed together and time, and the water. the water must be distilled which generally has a PH of 7 but once in contact with air CO2 dissolves in it and forms small amounts of carbonic acid and slightly drops the waters PH but not enough to matter testing soils.

Do not buy the junk rectangle meters on amazon for $15 to $20, all these brands are the same junk. Usually $35 to $50 will get you a good meter with a PH resolution to the tenth 0.1 (tenth) and $50 to $100 meters will get you a PH resolution to the 0.01 (hundredth). Look to ones with 3 point calibration, the electrode tips wear out so with 3 point calibration it won't calibrate and you'll know it's shot.

I have a high buck PH tester (oakton PH testr 50S - $375.00) and my second one because the first would not calibrate after 4 or 5 years. Life span is low for these meters and I sure want to know because my main intention is checking the PH of my tomato products to determine the need for citric acid. I don't like it tomato product below ph 4 and want a PH of 4.2, and certainty don't want anything above 4.5 so for me it's critical.

It doesn't sound like much but a ph difference of 1.0 isn't 1 but 10 times more acidic or alkaline and a big difference. This is where paper or cheap meters will get you.

It's very unlikely your native Ohio soil is alkaline. Alkaline soils are rare. They typically only occur in soils made from ocean sediments like limestone. Any limestone in your soil likely dissolved away millions of years ago. Of course, there's always a possibility someone dumped some limestone or similar in your yard. I would guess your ph is around 6.3 give or take.

I doubt so too, we have many azaleas and rhododendrons growing in my area and are amazingly healthy

My pH is 7.2. There are places around here where it is over 8.

Generalization don't always work.

"It's very unlikely your native Ohio soil is alkaline. Alkaline soils are rare."

This is not the slightest bit accurate and is just a WAG guess at best. Alkaline soils are NOT rare - in fact they constitute the bulk of the soil pH anywhere west of the Rockies with the exception of the PNW. Alkaline soils occur where bedrock consisting of limestone, dolomite and limy shale occur and where rainfall is not plentiful at all times of year. This describes at least 6 out of the 12 soil types present in OH so at least 50% of the state is potentially working with a high - or alkaline - soil pH.

Facts, people, facts....not wild conjecture!!

Our area of the state is known for having some of the most acidity, while the northwest has very alkaline soil

If you don't want to spring for a soil test or buy a $50 meter you can always taste the dirt. Have you ever heard an old farmer say "This soil's sour, it ain't no damn good". Yep, saw it in an old movie, but acidic soil will have a sour taste, and alkaline soil will have a taste and texture like chalk and some call it Sweet soil. A good noise can smell the difference.

you can also take a cup of soil and dump 1/2 as much vinegar on it. If it fizzes it's alkaline and above 7. If no fizz take another cup of soil and mix in some distilled water and dump in 1/2 cup baking soda. If it fizzes it's acidic, but if you don't get a fizz from either test the soil in neutral and between 6 and 7. You could take a Sniff and taste before the fizz test and see if you tell and if you swallow some it won't hurt you....... I think.

Alkaline soils cover about 25% of the earths surface. And are found in areas where there's little rain. Not enough rain to have yet dissolved the limestone in the soil. Places where people tend not to live because it's very hard to grow crops. So, I would say it's rare for people to live in a location that has alkaline soil. Not sure how that is not the slightest bit accurate or a wild guess.

I live in a densely populated area with ample rain and alkaline soil. I cannot grow blueberries in the ground here. The majority of arable land in the England is on slightly alkaline soil. It's not rare.

I wonder if there is confusion between alkaline soil, and alkali soil.

I believe there is also a lot of alkaline soil in France as well as England. I have alkaline soil, as I've already said, in an area that gets about 50" of rainfall a year. There are also places with real caliche about 25 miles away. Geology at work.

Basically, when you are discussing soils that spent a few millenium being battered around by glaciers, anything can happen.

Ample rain with a pH of 7+ here. Normally considered an area of acidic soil, the Niagara Escarpment has left pockets of limestone which keeps the pH higher.

tj

It can take eons for rain or groundwater to dissolve limestone, especially when it forms the underlying bedrock of an area. Just to clarify, alkaline soil conditions are not at all uncommon.

btw, the weathering of limestone is not at all the same as dissolving limestone. Weathering of any underlying rock/mineral material is the essence of what forms a soil's pH.

Big long list of testers here. There's more than just pH that should be tested for. Test, don't guess. https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1132