SOIL ANALYSIS
BY GEORGE EDGAR
Did you have trouble
with a particular area of your lawn and/or garden the past year? Are
some of your plants just now growing the way they should? Are you
planning to plant a new flower garden or vegetable garden? Are you going
to put in a new lawn and/or shrub or tree this fall and wonder if the
soil needs to be amended or improved so that it will grow to its
maximum? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, now is a
good time to get your soil analyzed so you get the results back as soon
as possible. Fall is the best time to amend your soil so it is ready for
planting next spring or possibly later this fall.
I suggested you
get a soil analysis as this is more than just a test for pH and maybe a
few other chemicals. A complete soil analysis could include: Organic
matter, exchangeable Potassium, calcium, Soil pH, Cation
Exchange Capacity (
There are five
soil testing labs in
You will want a
separate test for your lawn, for your vegetable garden, for your flower
garden, and for planting your fruit trees, and other trees. The lab will
ask you what you are going to grow. It maybe stated as asking for your
“crop” as they primarily do soil testing for agricultural products. When
you collect and send in soil samples do NOT use a metal container
as the metal will contaminate the sample. A plastic bag or glass
container works best. Most also have a “Soil Test Kit” available that
you can order. One other suggestion: take samples from different parts
of your garden and/or lawn. Remove any organic matter such as such as
grass or weeds, and mix the samples together. The lab will need only
about 1 pint of soil from each location.
One test many
may not understand is the SOIL CATION EXCHANGE CAPACITY (
Simply, “The
Cation Exchange Capacity of your soil could be likened to a bucket: some
soils are like a big bucket (high Copyright 2016 Resources: (1) March 2011,
Sarah Browning, Extension Educator, University of Nebraska-Lincoln in (2) The Ideal Soil:A
Handbook for the New Agriculture, 2014 Edition, from SoilMinerals.com by
Michael Astera, Chapter 2. |