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?

Week 5 (part 2) - Soil Testing

Time in: 3pm
Time out: 4pm

Since I live in Pasadena, I wanted to find the closest soil testing lab to my place. Turns out there's one just a few blocks away, on N. Lake Ave called Sassan Geosciences Inc. I gave them a call and asked for a quote. Depending on what I wanted them to test for, the quote started off with a "few hundred to fifty thousand dollars".

The closest soil lab I found near Pierce is Brownfield Subs Lab. Here is the address: Pierce is Brownfield Subs Lab Canwood St.Agoura Hills, CA 91301 (818)597-1448

Of course, I'm sure there are also soil testing labs located in several universities in the California area. It was difficult, however, to figure out which ones tested for the public and at a reasonable rate.

Through an Eaton Canyon bird walk I took a few weeks back, I had the pleasure of meeting a very friendly woman who works for NASA. She helps with environmental restoration and clean up with land that dealt with rocket testing. I asked her if she can suggest any labs or sites she uses. "For environmental samples," She replied, "We are required to use laboratories approved by the California Department Public of Health (CDPH) and the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP). The website provides an Excel spreadsheet of approved laboratories."

Although the Univeristy of Rhode Island is nowhere near Pasadena, Ca, I came across a pdf file of theirs which was chalk full of information on their URI soil testing lab. It gave me a general idea on what labs do and it was very easy to understand.

And of course there was the National Sustainable Agriculture InforService (ATTRA) another slew of good information. Their labs focus on "a range of soil testing labs and supplies that support the special analytical needs of farmers using organic or sustainable production methods."

Fall Semester 2009: Objectives

As the title of this blog mentions, the project of this semester will focus on experimentations with green manuring. But since this 2 unit class consists of a 4 hour per week requirement, I would like to spread my curiosities out by doing other tasks. These include:

• Soil testing - This procedure may be as extensive as sending samples of my plot to a lab or as simple as purchasing a soil-testing kit at the local nursery. Frankly, because of time and financial restraints, I will probably end up doing the latter of the two options. Either way, I will document the sites I've researched, the locations I visited and the money involved. I will test the soil before and after the green manuring has taken place.

• Green manuring - Since fall is on its way, my teacher suggests that I find cool cover crops for my plot. Barley is one example. More on this later.

• Building a lath house - The frame of my lath house is set. Now I just need to devise a nice lay-out of tables, benches and other various pieces of equipment that will make my lath house fully functional.

• Volunteer work - I recently became a volunteer at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in the children's garden and teaching greenhouses. I have also been a member of the CNPS (California Native Plant Society) for quite some time. I don't have much experience in volunteer work, however, I very much enjoy the organizations I'm affiliated with and would love to learn more about them.

I may seem quite the ambitious gardener, with this long list of things to do. I am, in fact very excited to get into the different aspects of this project. However, I also plan to maintain a balanced weekly schedule by creating various combinations of the 4 listed.

With the plans all laid out, it's time to get things started!