PDF Fall is a good time for soil sampling … especially for organic gardeners who will be using rock powders to amend their soil (if, indeed, it needs amending at all).
Many of the changes needed to release these slow-acting nutrients happen slowly and can benefit from being in the soil during times when plant needs are low … that is; late fall and early spring.
So, here’s how to take soil samples.
Go to 4-6 different locations in the garden or lawn. We are looking for an average soil sample so, if you have wide variations in your actual soil (say, one end of the garden is sandy and the other is clay), you may want to collect multiple testing samples. At each location, remove the top 6 inches of soil and then remove 1/2 cup from below that level. Mix these 4-6 samples together so as to obtain one uniform sample of 2-3 cups volume.
If the mixed sample is wet, spread out on newspapers to dry. Do NOT dry it in the oven.
Place two cups of the sample in a non-metallic container and bring or ship it to a soil testing station. I recommend the use of a heavy plastic freezer bag with a tight seal placed in a sturdy container for shipping. Mark the sample clearly with your name, etc. and also the intended use, such as “flower garden”, “vegetable garden” or “lawn”. If you KNOW what you are going to grow in that space next year, you might also mention that with a note of “garlic only” “hydrangea only”. Thus there would be a chance that the specific nutrient needs of that plant would be taken into consideration in the recommendations.
Agricultural colleges such as Michigan State and Ohio State University will usually provide such testing for a very nominal fee of about $10 for a basic NPK Calcium check and also provide fertilizing suggestions. When submitting the sample, make certain to ask for organic recommendations if you need them or you will get those designed for chemical gardeners. If available, ask for the organic matter ratio*. Generally speaking, anywhere north of 3% is good up to around 10%. This ratio decreases naturally with the passage of time and needs to be renewed regularly with compost or other organic material worked in to a depth of several inches.
This test can be beneficially done as often as twice a year, but an alternate year schedule will serve nearly as well since soil in not likely to change radically in that time frame. Before you apply fertilizers or soil amendments, (and spend big bucks!) why not find out what your soil actually needs and apply that, instead?
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*This is a simple test that you can conduct at home. The next post tells how.
