I am so confused! IF my soil (outdoors) is at 8, do I use a PH up, or a PH down. I know this sounds stupid, but I have people giving opposing advice.
Thanks in advance
You would use ph down to lower the ph of your water which in turn will lower the ph of the soil the water is applied to.
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Watering in at about 6.2 pH over the next couple waterings should help to get you down to The Sweet Spot of 6.5. Good luck 
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I find it hard to believe your soil is at 8.0. How are you measuring it? With one of these?
https://www.amazon.com/Sonkir-MS01-Moisture-Gardening-Outdoor/dp/B07BRDV7L8/?tag=greenrel-20
If so then you need to pitch it in the nearest garbage can and buy a decent digital meter. Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Apera-Instruments-AI209-Waterproof-Accuracy/dp/B01ENFOHN8/?tag=greenrel-20
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I have a digital ph meter, but I thought that was just for testing water PH.
Nope! You can do a slurry test on your soil with a digital ph pen. I have to ask, is this soil in the garden? Or soil from a bag? Or home made built up soil?
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My soil is a combination of existing garden soil mixed with Fox Farms Soil, perlite, fish emulsion, Vermiculite and one other I cannot remember right now.
Slurry test - how do you ensure you’re measuring soil and not the water in the soil that makes the slurry effect?
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Use RO or even better distilled water, its cheap at our store.
It would give you a ball park figure anyway, after all, tge OP is using a combo of the soil and the water anyway right?
Like even if he used his normal water, the combo would suggest the EC / Ph using that water and that soil. Personally, I never do a slurry test ever. Maybe Im lucky? My soil has never given me issues, I feed it material and it grows me food and weed in return.
I wonder if the soils the rest if the world has access too is really that bad? Terrifying to think about.
You could also adjust your input water to the target ph and flush with it and test the runoff for increase or decrease in ph? Maybe not acurate but an indicator of which way its swinging.
Seems like it would be a fast way to test?
Honestly, I think if I were to have a systemic problem with my soil I would take a couple bulk samples to the local Ag agency and have an analysis done on it, because all my soils are treated the same way. Thats the only real way to get an accurate account of bulk soils.
Ehen my farmer buddy cuts a new ditch, I fill my dumptruck with it. That gets spread on the gardens and ammended with compost. Works wicked!
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come to think of it I havent seen you around much? Is life good for you?
Looking much better, used some PH down. On another note, trying something different / new, trying to grow a cola hedge…Never heard of it, but WTF I’m gonna try it…