Week 5 (part 2a) - Soil Testing

Time in: 2pm
Time out: 3pm

Knowing that lab testing would take some serious dough, I decided to purchase a simple soil testing kit. These are available at any nursery, very affordable ($17.99 at Osh) extremely easy to use, and they give you enough equipment to use the kit multiple times. Of course, I'm not sure if I can count on any extreme sense of accuracy, however, this kit will at least give me an idea on how my soil is doing on general terms.

I first started off with the pH. The results looked quite neutral. This is no surprise since soil the our area consists primarily of clay, resulting in more alkalinity. It's good to know that there isn't overabundant alkalinity in the soil.


The results for the Nitrogen (N), Potash (K), and Phosphorus (P) tests:



I waited about 48 hours until I tested the N, K and P from the soil sample since the directions requested to only test the water. The water, in turn, has to be as clear as possible. Since my backyard is full of clay soil, it took quite a while for the soil to settle and even still, the water was quite murky. Does waiting 48 hours to test effect the soil? Does the still-murky soil effect the color of the results? These are questions I keep in mind when considering the findings.

Generally speaking, the first sample looks as though there is a sufficient amount of Nitrogen. What surprises me is the Potash (K) and the Phosphorus (P). I always thought that our soil in the valley is devoid of all nutrients. Is this just a myth? What should I do when there is a surplus involved?