What is a soil test?
Before starting any garden or landscaping, it’s important to have a soil test performed. A soil test will give you a snapshot of the pH of your soil and the level of nutrients available. This is critical for plant health. Too much or too little of any nutrient can be the difference between success or failure. Before you go out and spend money on fertilizer that you may or may not need, call your local extension office and request a soil test kit.
Why Should You Use a Professional Soil Testing Laboratory?
You should always use the soil test kits and soil-testing laboratory recommended by your local extension office rather than the cheap soil test kits you see on store shelves. Store-bought soil test kits are not always accurate and the soil samples used are too small to get a clear picture of your entire yard or garden. It is worth it to pay more for a soil lab to do the testing. A larger sample will be tested under laboratory conditions resulting in more accurate results. The lab will also send you a written report of the results along with recommendations for any amendments needed to optimize your soil. You don’t get that from a store-bought kit!
What Tools are Needed to Collect Your Soil Sample?
The tools you use to take your soil samples are important. You can use any kind of digging tool such as a shovel or a garden trowel as long as it is not made of brass, bronze or galvanized metal. These metals contain copper or zinc which can contaminate your samples. Use a plastic rather than metal bucket to mix your samples for the same reason. Clean the bucket before using especially if it has previously been filled with fertilizer or other chemicals to avoid contaminating your samples.
How To Correctly Take Soil Samples
You will need to dig 10 to 12 small holes for a large area such as a lawn or 6 to 8 holes for a smaller area such as a vegetable garden. If you are testing your vegetable garden, take samples from every part of the garden. If you are testing your lawn, make sure you sample the lawn in your front yard, back yard and side yards.
The soil samples should be taken at the depth of the roots of the plants that will be growing in that area. For a lawn, that means holes 3 inches deep. For a garden, either vegetable or flower, you will need to dig 6 to 8 inches. Mix the soil from all of your samples, keeping the lawn and garden samples separate, in your bucket to get a good representative example of the soil in your yard. Then place the soil in the container provided with the kit, fill out the enclosed forms and send it off with a check in the specified amount to the local laboratory.
My Experience With Soil Testing
I had the soil in my vegetable garden tested because I noticed that the plants were large and lush, but my harvest was small. This usually indicates too much nitrogen which encourages foliage growth and too little phosphorous which is critical for vegetable and fruit production. The soil test report confirmed my suspicions and suggested I add bone meal, a source of phosphorous, to my garden. I chose Jobe’s Organics Bone Meal because it is organic and high quality. I applied it at the rate suggested by the report in the fall so that it would have all winter to be incorporated into my soil. Sure enough, the following summer my garden was producing many more vegetables than the previous year.
You Should Test Your Soil Every Three Years
You should repeat your soil test every three years to make sure that your soil remains at the correct pH and the nutrients are at the correct levels for your lawn and garden. Fall is the best time to take your soil test because the amendments you add will have all winter to be incorporated into your soil. In the spring, your lawn and garden will be ready for a successful growing season.
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