Soil Testing HELP?

[Dilly Girl]

Hi, I want to have my soil tested. Do I have to take a sample in someplace to have this done. Or can I buy some sort of testing strips that tell me the same thing?

I need to tests some trees I planted in tubs, as well as the soil I am putting into my raised beds.

Please help advise a newbie to all things dirt.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I THINK, but I don't KNOW--you can buy a kit at tsc or someplace. i think I hear that before.... Someone else have input??? (I have never tested my soil)

 

[patandchickens]

Hi, I want to have my soil tested. Do I have to take a sample in someplace to have this done. Or can I buy some sort of testing strips that tell me the same thing?

Well, you *can* have a lab do a full analysis of your soil. In many places there is a fee (for homeowners especially, as opposed to farmers); I expect there may still be some states where you can get it done free, I dunno. There are companies that do this, or contact your state ag extension agency (google it) for information.

HOWEVER. While it might be interesting and educational for you, you do NOT really need a full soil test at this point in your life and in fact it may either confuse you or lead you to do counterproductive things. What I'd recommend is that, if you want to test your soil at all (see below), you concentrate on just the basics.

The basics being: find out the relative humus/sand/silt+clay content; and find out the approximate pH (acidity or alkalinity). If you are really interested and/or are having unexplainable problems, you might also want to get some rough idea of the N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) and possibly K (potassium) content of the soil as well.

The first one is easy and free. Grab a handful of damp garden soil. Squish it into a ball in your fist. Open your fist. Does the ball crumble? You have really sandy soil. If not, try to roll the ball into a 'worm' like it was play-doh. If you can make a fairly long cylindar without it falling apart, you have very clayey soil. If it falls apart when it gets maybe twice as long as wide, you have a middle-of-the-road type soil.

Alternatively, get a clean glass jelly jar. Take a trowelful of soil, to the full depth of the trowel. Get the grass, weeds, roots, dead leaves etc out of it. Mix it up real good. Now put it in the jelly jar til the jar's about 2/3 full. Add water to almost hte top of the jar. Screw lid on. Shake it up REAL GOOD til everything is dissolved. Now put it down somewhere and leave it alone. After a day or two, look at it in good light (don't jiggle it!). You will see a layer of granular-looking sand at the bottom; with a layer of fine silt atop it, a layer of fine clay atop *that*, and some dark stuff on top that may have have recognizable bits of leaves, sticks etc (=humus). In a perfect world you would have roughly equal amounts of sand, clay+silt, and humus. In reality, you won't but at least you will have some idea where you stand.

For pH and for N, P and K you can buy kits at any garden center that have little test strips or dropper bottles that you use, carefully following the instructions EXACTLY. They're not exquisitely accurate, but will give you the general idea of what your soil's like.

I need to tests some trees I planted in tubs, as well as the soil I am putting into my raised beds.

If this soil comes from the ground, then yes you would be wise to test it. However, if it was bought in bags, then you probably already know pretty much what it is like. (BTW, I don't find that potted plants do all that well in straight natural soil -- if it's at all clayey, it tends to compact like rock, and if it's sandy it drains way too fast. For raised beds it is ok, with compost added of course, but for trees in tubs honestly I'd recommend cutting it about 1:1 with commercial potting mix.)

While there *is* some genuine use to soil testing, especially if there are any growing problems you're trying to solve, I have to say that with the possible exception of the squeeze-in-fist test and knowing the pH (to help make sensible plant choices), I think its value is mainly for entertainment Virtually ALL soils, be they clayey or sandy, acid or alkaline, nutrient-rich or nutrient-poor, balanced N:K or unbalanced, will benefit more than anything from simply digging in a bunch of good compost. And having lots of organic matter in the soil will give you a LARGE margin of error against problems that might otherwise arise from oddities of local soil.

JME,

Pat

 

[Dilly Girl]

Thanks Pat.

 

[Dilly Girl]

Okay Pat I grab a handful and made a ball it slightly crumbled but held shape. I then squeezed my hand shut and it did make a longer roll but as soon as I tried to roll it between my palms it crumbled.

So what would you make of that? Laughing you probably are thinking what a dirt dummy.

 

[patandchickens]

Oops, replied to your PM before I saw your post here.

Summary for anyone else who cares: you have fairly reasonable loamy soil, not too far in one direction nor the other. Makes life simpler


Pat

 

[S0rcy]

Pat has really great advice here!

I want to add that the best way to know if something is wrong with the soil without paying for extensive lab testing, is to grow something. The way it grows will tell you what it needs. Short and stunted, yellowing, not flowering, flowers don't have color, etc. The "Western Fertilizer Handbook" has some great pictures on what deficiencies look like and this site below has good descriptions of deficiencies.

http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1106.pdf


Your soil sounds like its loamy, which is good because plant roots will travel easily through it, and gain the nutrients they need easily. I do not always recommend chemical fertilizers, although many people just starting out gardening may find it much easier to use Miracle gro or similar fertilizer until they get a feel for what they are doing. Remember that the home improvement store gardening people may or may NOT be experts on what they are handling. If they recommend a specific fertilizer, ask them why.

I stopped using chemical fertilizers awhile back because I keep a certain level of organic matter in the soil, I use composted manure, and I have found, and learned, that adding chemical fertilizers constantly makes the soil more acidic over time, which most of my plants don't like, and I don't want to have to deal with liming and adding more nitrogen, liming and adding more nitrogen. I like the organic matter cycle I have going. As long as I add a certain amount of compost each year, the soil retains an equilibrium.

Plant away and enjoy your garden! Eventually you will get a feel and confidence for what your yard and soil can do. It's a learning experience.

 

[ams3651]

you can get a simple test kit at Lowes for like $4 or if you go the your county extension or ag office they will give you a test kit and tell you how to collect the soil, they send it off to be tested. I think its about $10 and its a thorough analysis. My dads a farmer and this is what he does.