Testing Your Soil

It is important to test your soil every two to three years. This ensures that your garden plants have the healthiest environment. A soil test checks for available nutrients and the pH level.

Every square foot of soil can be different. Soil acidity and nutrients vary across the surface of the soil and with the depth of the soil. Therefore, it is important that you take a composite sample of the area to be tested.

Taking a Sample

A composite sample is a collection of 15 to 20 uniform cores or slices of soil taken from random spots in a garden, lawn, or shrub bed. Mix these cores together and place about 1 pint of the mixture into a soil sample box. Soil sample boxes, information sheets, and other supplies for soil testing are available from your county Extension office.

For each sample box, sample a garden area specific to a single type plant - turf, vegetables, trees and shrubs, etc. The following recommendations should help you collect the proper soil samples.

Gardens, new lawns, and other cultivated areas - Take a uniform core or slice of the soil to the depth that the soil was tilled. Use a zig-zag pattern of sampling as shown in Figure 3. Mix 15 to 20 of these cores or slices for the composite sample.

Lawns and established turf - Take a uniform core or slice 2 to 3 inches deep from 15 to 20 spots in the lawn. Take separate samples for the front lawn, back lawn, and other areas where soil may differ or where a different type of grass is grown.

Trees and shrubs - Take uniform cores or slices 6 inches deep from around the drip-line of plants (outer edge of branches). Mix individual cores into a composite sample.

Information and Mailing

Remember to fill in the information on the soil sample box and accompanying information sheet as completely as possible. You must also indicate which plants are to be grown so that fertilizer recommendations will be accurate to the plants in that area. Vegetable garden - Home orchard - Lawn - Shrubs - Perennial flowers - Roses.

When mailing your samples, enclose the filled soil box(es), the information sheet, and a check or money order to cover service charges in a cardboard shipping box. This is all found on the Information sheet, or ask your local County Extension Office for further assistance. The following webpages gives additional information: http://www.ag.auburn.edu/agronomy/soiltest.htm
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0006-A/

Posted by smithkp at April 20, 2005 03:42 PM