If you ask soil lab experts about the secret to raising healthy, nutritious vegetables and flowers, they will simply say – healthy soil. Now, what makes soil healthy? How you can determine if the soil is fit or unfit for growing seeds? A soil test can help in revealing the nutrients carried by your home soil. Soil testing reports provide you deep analysis of soil nutrients and you get to know about deficiencies.
You can assess your soil for more critical things with the help of advanced systems. You can test your soil for its structure, compaction, tilth, and plant residue every year. Detailed analysis will bring the accurate and reliable results!
When the soil has accurate moisture, dig a hole 6-10 inches deep. Separate an intact section (of a soup can size) and break it apart using your fingers. You can then find out whether the soil is powdery, cloudy, or granular. An ideal soil has different sized crumbs that will hold their shape under slight pressure. If the soil crumbs are hard to break apart, this means the soil is too hard.
Why this test is important?
When a soil is rich in organic matter, it tends to form round aggregates that result in porosity. Porous soil helps water and oxygen to freely move, which makes plant roots stronger and healthy.
2. Compaction
You can take a wire flag and plunge into the soil at different locations. Mark the depth on wire flag at which the wire bends. Sooner bending of the wire means more compaction in the soil.
Why this test is important?
Compaction in soil inhibits root growth and water availability. It keeps earthworms and other critical soil fauna from circulating easily and freely.
3. Workability
If tiling or digging the soil generates cloddy or platelike clumps, it means that workability of your soil is low. Experts determine workability of soil by monitoring the usage of tractor fuel to analyze the efforts required for preparing beds for planting.
Why this test is important?
More workability of soil allows water to reach roots efficiently. If you fail to do this test, your garden will give you only disappointment and not the results.
There are lot more tests that experts do at the soil lab using different equipments and tools. To know more about these tools, you can get in touch with the soil lab testing experts today.
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Soil health testing is done by experts in the facility of soil lab. The testing soil quality for sustainable productivity needs more than just testing for nutrients. It is widely accepted that such testing process should include a quality triangle of chemical, physical, and biological segment.