How to Test Your Soil Properly
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- čas přidán 21. 12. 2019
- The key to getting a good soil analysis is getting a good soil test. Here are my tips--feel free to add your own!
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For the probiotic farmers out there focused on building soil biology along with the chemistry, look for labs that offer TB/AB (total bacteria and active bacteria) and TF/AF (total and active fungi)
I just started this year and after amending my soil with compost for 1 year I am planing to do a soil test next spring. Thank you for this video now I know what I can expect when doing the soil sampling.
Thank you for explaining this in pretty good detail, I'm going to be relocating this spring and knowing about this and what to do is helping me to do it right the first time🤗😊
Good timing and information before the ground freezes.
Thanks to you all ...
Best Wishes and Happiness!
I'm so sorry for your loss! We have clay soil here too and I've just been adding organic matter to try to build soil fertility.
Merry Christmas to you and your family ! Wishing you all of the best for the new year Jesse!
Thanks for all you do. Sorry to hear about Wendell
yeah, shoutout to Logan Labs.. This year I took a good sample, halved it and sent one have to Logan, one to the University of AR Extension service, to compare the results. Essentially one was like 10% higher on pretty much everything.. across the board. Our extension service one will do the organic material only as an add on and fee (basic test is free, at least one test per farmer / homeowner). Everything I've seen really emphasizes having vertical sides, not a plug where it's wider on the top than the bottom (bottom comes to a point). If you have sloped sides, you're getting more from top inch or two which often can have a different percentage of various nutrients, organic material than say at the 4 inch level. Having as perfectly a straight side as possible means the sample has just as much from the 2 inch level, as the 3 inch level, 4 inch level etc and thus more representative of the "root zone" (whatever that is for your farming method / types of plants). That's where the soil plug device really makes it easy and more accurate.
As to mulch / compost.. At least for the Univ of Arkansas.. they specifically say - not - to allow any of the mulch or compost in the sample as it alters the results and can mess up the calibration of their equipment. They may have a way to do compost as compost.. but not in the typical soil test. The following is from the website:
"Soils NOT Tested at Marianna Soil Testing Laboratory
If the native soils have been heavily amended with compost, bagged garden soils, mulch, etc the Marianna Soil Test Laboratory will not analyze the samples. Samples containing or comprised of mulch, potting soil, perlite, and vermiculite, and/or compost are not lab friendly and may contaminate laboratory equipment. Routine soil analysis is not an appropriate assessment of the suitability of these products for plant growth."
So, I still use them, if for no other reason than I can get at least one basic test, for free per year, but moving to the Logan Labs more. Both are supposedly Albrech methods. but I still have sooo much to learn. Also noticed, and thinking back to growing up on a row crop farm, I don't think I've ever ever seen a soil test that didn't suggest adding nitrogen.. ever. (makes one wonder).
Oh, and.. remember, try not to use iron or plain steel for the sample gathering, unless you can be absolutely sure it's rust and contaminate free. (imagine a bit of rust in the sample getting picked up and skewing the Fe (Iron) numbers way high. Clean stainless steel is usually suggested I believe. You can get like 2-3 cups of sample, mix well then send the amount the lab requests, in the container suggested. For Arkansas.. the extension service has pre-printed little boxes, with numbered bar codes. You can pick them up, then have to go online, create an account on their system and submit the details, then you can track progress and download reports, or if a homeowner doing just one sample the extension agent may do it for you. Just ask them.
All great info! Thanks!
Been waiting for this vid! Nice hat ;)
The Albrecht Method soil test is called the Mehlich III test. It is a multi-nutrient analysis. But it not only extracts just the plant available nutrients but some of the reserves as well
Farmer Jessie, this is great! Thank you for sharing such detailed info on how to perform a soil test as well as the different types of conventional tests. I'm curious why you don't perform any test during the season?
Also have you heard much of the ion-exchange resin method for detection bio-available plant nutrients? It can be used during critical growth stages and is sensitive enough to monitor the effects of biologicals and humics.
Thanks for the great content!
Great Video..just sent samples to Logan from Hawaii!
Check into the Haney Test, many of the Regen Ag farmers are using it with very good success. Also the Elaine Ingam microscope work (find a garage sale microscope that can do 350=400x) and compare the fence row soil to what is in your field for bacteria and fungal components. Last test is my astute teenager's advice after we looked at a bunch of microscope slides "why don't we just look at how the plants are doing in these different spots and we know what is good/bad, instead of the microscope" -- and he's right, the plants will tell us in detail if we look because the microscope work just confirmed what the plants told us. Dig up the weeds and look at their roots compared to the cash crop -- crab grass has awesome exudate activity.
Thank u very much From India
Great tips. We really need to get our soil tested, and this provides some great ideas for how to get an accurate sample. I imagine the coring tool is pretty cheap, so I'll look into one!
Oak Knob Farm UNH does a standard soil test for $20. I’ll be using them in the spring.
@@joshtosh6058 I was planning the same! Hi neighbor, fancy meeting you here! Merry Christmas.
You should check into the Haney test
Ah man, I hate to hear that about the big pup. He was my best friend when I was cleaning the fish! Thanks for the video, I want to start doing a bunch of preliminary testing on my place in Alabama because I want to see how much I can boost my organic matter once I get rolling. Curious if you have seen improvement in the pastures with the sheep grazing.
I till my ground, however, I would like to grow no-till in a hight tunnel for winter growing also for seed plant starts. What sort of covered hoop house would you recommend?
If you do your extension office test in October they do the first five or so for free. At least they do in Frankfort but I think it's all through uk so should be the same. It's only like $2 per sample but a penny saved is a penny earned.
Whoa! Nice
Good stuff Jesse, we're amending our soils in the same way this Spring after watching Dan Kittridge's series and reading The Intelligent Gardener - what mineral targets do you adhere to when calculating your applications? Do you top-dress or rake/till into the top 6 inches, or otherwise?
Inoculate char with organic teas. Deeper down apply a char with ammonia rich char
what up Jesse ! great informative video a lot of good information in there! I always wanted to get my soil tested just never got around to it I'm in PA pretty lucky where I'm at our soils black and full of life!!
I'd love to know what amenities or minerals were required from the lab results!
I know one thing being a home Gardener for years...imo MINERALS ARE THE KEY to nutrient dense fruit and vegetables and amazing flavor! Keep up the farming i hoping 2 be there sooner then later!
Bk
Hi ! Jesse I'm a fan from Thailand. Do you recommend using the cardboards for vegetable garden.
Yes and no. I like cardboard if it’s clean and in large sheets. It can dry out easily and blow away so make sure you have a good source of water to keep it held down then cover it with compost or some other mulch.
I haven’t had a test done since I tilled. In my area all that’s normally recommended is nitrogen. In a deep compost no till situation how is a deep sample in native soil needed when most all roots don’t go no more than 3-4”?
To be clear, that far down is not a necessity to test. It’s just my curiosity-I want to know if I’m building any organic matter at 6” to 8”. That should happen in a healthy soil
Fungus and bacteria plays a roll in why plants uptake nutrients. What is the effect of round up on this process ?
what do you think about nutrient leaching in no till soils? Higher nutrient levels compared to standard organic soils have the potential to not be held during winter rains even if cover crops are used. Spoke to a no till grower the other day and she thought compost did not leach in the same way animal manures do. Not sure I agree with that and wondered what you think/ do over winter.
It’s a great question and I do hope some agronomists pour some energy into it at some point. I think a lot depends on the compost you’re using and high phos composts should be followed by low phos mulches for instance. It all needs more research but it shouldn’t be ignored. For sure.
@@notillgrowers so what do you do then? Do you ever leave ground uncovered over winter and whats it like in the spring? Do you think its less of a concern in no dig systems?
we're in the middle of converting to no till as there seems to be loads of great benefits to the commercial grower but we do have concerns over the leaching issues and high nutrient loading of the soil. I've brought this topic up with a few prominent growers and it seems a bit of a hot potato.
I wonder if the cation exchange numbers for Albrecht and the county exchange service use the same definition. They didn't back in the day. It was the way the chemistry set discredited Albrecht. They used Albrecht's ideal ratio of Ca to Mg and tested it using the wrong definition. As expected the plant growth was proven substandard.
Great question. I’m not sure. I’ll have to get an Agronomist on the podcast soon to talk about that
@@notillgrowers that could be very beneficial to many growers!
There is no such distinction at the end of the day base saturation just base saturation.
They're different soil tests I'll give you different cations different levels which will compute differently then if you are to use the Mehlich III. Which is the one that Albrecht used.
But the Ammonium Acetate test does work better for calcareous soils. Soils that contains a lot of free lime. Which would dissolve under the acidity of the
Mehlich III. Giving it a higher number; giving it a false reading. Which the Ammonium Acetate test doesn't do being mildly alkaline. And with soils with free lime use the Oslen Bicarbonate test for the phosphorus. As some of the acidity from Mehlich III extractant will weaken as it reacts with the free lime. Reducing its extraction potential for phosphorus.
A cheap good way to test for free lime is to use 50
Now for the Albrecht ratios...
Ca 70%-60% BS
Mg 10%-20% BS
K should equal Mg in weight
but not >5% BS
Na .5%-5% BS
Calcium is great flocculator of soils especially the heavy clays. Calcium loosens(increases pore space) while magnesium does the opposite.
For sandy soil you want 60%Ca 20%Mg
For a clayey soil you want 70%Ca 10%Mg and maybe more then just 70% up to 75% even if you soil is still not friable enough. But normally you want the total BS of Ca and Mg to equal 80%
Boron should be 1/1000th of Calcium on a weight per weight basis.
Elemental phosphorus should be equal to elemental potassium. Not to be confused with phosphate and potash.
Sulfur should be half of potassium
Iron should be one-third to one half of phosphorus. Fe=1/3 - 1/2 ×P
Manganese should be one-third to one half iron. Mn=1/3 - 1/2 ×Fe
Zinc should be one-tenth of phosphorus. Zn=1/10 ×P
Copper should be half of zinc.
Cu=1/2 ×Zn
How healthy is your soil compared to your neighbors that practice harmful methods? Just finished reading Gabe Brown’s book “Dirt to Soil” and the difference is incredible after only a few years of no-till, organic practices.
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Out here in Canada, backyard gardeners have to pay exorbitant costs to get soil tests. It's around $150 for a very basic test. Another $150 for testing for metals. $350-450 for a 'full test. And that's per sample.
It would be nice if there was an affordable basic lab test for Canadians.
Is it really $5 from your 'extension offices' (no such thing out here)? I think I'm going to be sick :D
So I guess a more accurate title would be “how to collect soil samples accurately “
5:09 actually any organic matter that isn't broken down, and especially organic matter that just got torn off the plant isn't soil organic matter. It isn't part of the soil.
Hope this helps.
-Leo
I want to know the old way of testing soil not bfore modern way
Too bad we don't all live in Iowa.
Dr Elaine Ingham is worth a look if you are into this.
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