ph meter for christmas

So I got a soil ph meter from my sister for christmas. It also has a moisture and light meter. my first question is are all moisture meters on the same scale of 1-10 if so now that I have one is there a perfect point to water my plants? and my second question is, is it true you can use lime or lemon juice to bring down ph without damaging your plants?

I think so. my moisture meter has a scale reading 1-3 being dry, 3.1-8 being moist, and 8.1-10 being wet. I water when it goes below 2.

I have heard of people using vinegar to make their water more acidic, i don't know if it's a good idea or not.

Do not use anything other than ph up or down to alter the ph level. It can be a diaster.

ive been useing vinegar to drop my ph for 2 months now. i havent noticed anything bad happening from useing it.
mogie is there anything i should be looking out for?

Well, if you pour some Canola Oil in with it, you would have salad dressing.

LOL...Vinegar is a homemade trick that people who don't know or don't have the money for the correct product tend to use. It is not intended for that. You can have unintended results and not desirable ones.

"You can have unintended results and not desirable ones." such as? i cant find anything on vinegar being a bad way of lowering pH. i have a bottle of pH up and down, but for less than 2.00 for a gallon of vinegar it far and way cheaper, and all i could find about the uses of vinegar in hydroponics were good. if you have you have any links to info otherwise please let me know. thanx

Okay I got my ph up and down and im waiting for the soil to dry out so i can water with it. how much ph down should I use in 2L of water if I want to bring the ph from about 7.3 to about 6.5?

Using vinegar to alter your ph level is not an exact science. I know people that have done this to save money and have damaged their plants as a result. You have apparently been fortunate.

cmon mogie ur all over the forums I know you know how much ph down to add in a soil grow.

Be sure to check that your meter is accurate. I bought a ph meter for soil for $17 and the stupid thing didn't register anything.

Duh charbroiled I was talking about people who use vinegar instead of ph up and down.

"LOL...Vinegar is a homemade trick that people who don't know or don't have the money for the correct product tend to use. It is not intended for that. You can have unintended results and not desirable ones.Using vinegar to alter your ph level is not an exact science. I know people that have done this to save money and have damaged their plants as a result."
my question is what are the unintened or undesirable results of useing it? im not saying its what is intended to be used for lowering the pH of water, but it does work. alot of stuff that isnt intended to be used to grow plants works very well.( hydrogen peroxide, air pumps, marijuana growing in water)
ive googeled it looking for negative side effects but cant find anything. im new to indoor hydro growing but not to growing pot. ive used vinegar for more than 12 years on outdoor soil crops with no negative effect noticed.
as for it not being an exact science. it takes .5ml of Ph down per gallon to drop my waters pH one point.(1 gallon [email protected] +.5ml of pH down =6.0pH water) while vinegar uses 1.0ml per gallon to drop the pH 1 point.(1 gallon of water @7.0pH + 1.0ml vinegar = 6.0pH water) it takes 50% more vinegar to achieve the same result, but at 1/10 the cost of name brand pH down its far more cost effective.
im not trying to flame or call one1 out, but i would love to see some kind of evidence or at bare minimum i would like to know what the unintended or undesirable effects are.
thanx

What I understand is that vinegar is a weak acid, and while it will lower pH as you've noticed, it will not stabilize the pH. IOW you will have more of a rebound, and faster, than a stronger acid. So we use nitric, or phosphoric acid, and since the pH is affected by the absorbtion of cations in relation to anions of nitrogen, this helps to keep the pH good for the plant, besides the plant can use the extra P.

HTH

but thats for a hydro grow and im growing in soil. I am using pure concentrate ph down by advanced nutrients and I still need still need some help with this. as for the ph meter looks kinda cheap to me I got it for christmas from my sister so the readings are probly off on it too whats the cost of a decent soil ph meter?I saw a used professional digital one in a hydroponics store i think was for soil for 60 bucks I think. is that about the price I will have to spend?

what i did was spirnkle some iron over the soil (half a teaspoon ) then watered, and its staying just under 7