March 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Welcome to the Good Growing Podcast! In this episode, horticulture educators Chris Enroth and Ken Johnson dive deep into the world of soil testing. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, understand how to unlock the secrets of your soil and boost your garden's productivity.
Watch us on YouTube https://youtu.be/vJKpTfJabKk
Skip to what you want to know:
0:27 Hey Ken! Soil test reports have lots of numbers, what do they all mean?
01:13 How do you collect a soil sample for testing? Do many gardeners test their soil in Illinois?
08:08 What do we do with our soil sample? Buy a home test kit? Use a soil lab?
08:56 How to find a soil lab.
11:27 Stick with Midwestern soil labs.
13:23 Showing our soil test results
14:01 Ken's soil test report from Lukeman Garden's Extension Demonstration Garden
17:11 Ken's soil test recommendations - corn, soybeans, grains, and legumes
19:12 Chris reads his soil test report (lawn)
31:08 Chris' soil test recommendations for lawn.
34:02 Thanks and coming up next week
Illinois Extension Soils Website https://extension.illinois.edu/soil
Soil Test Lab lists https://extension.illinois.edu/soil/soil-test-labs
Testing Your Soil w/ Duane Friend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv7iocI90os
Collecting Soil Samples with Chris Enroth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1G1tso_N40
Contact us!
Chris Enroth: cenroth@illinois.edu
Ken Johnson: kjohnso@illinois.edu
Check out the Good Growing Blog: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowing
Subscribe to the weekly Good Growing email: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowingsubscribe
Any products or companies mentioned during the podcast are in no way a promotion or endorsement of these products or companies.
Barnyard Bash: freesfx.co.uk
--
You can find us on most podcast platforms.
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-growing/id1446630377
Tunein - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Gardening/Good-Growing-p1187964/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/202u3siWExE1tTqrVgtmCR
Vurbl - https://vurbl.com/station/good-growing-4pljnNlUtyG/
Listen notes - https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/good-growing-chris-enroth-cHLPMWpvEOG/
Ivy - https://ivy.fm/podcast/good-growing-167902
Castbox - https://castbox.fm/channel/Good-Growing-id4302614?country=us
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:06):
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension coming at you fromMacomb , Illinois, and we have
got a great show for you today,soil test results. We are going
to dive into what happens whenyou get that report back, and
you have all these numbersstaring at you in the face.
(00:27):
Well, you know I am not doingthis by myself. We are joined as
always every single week byhorticulture educator Ken
Johnson in Jacksonville.
Hey, Ken.
Ken (00:35):
Hello, Chris. There's there's definitely a lot of
numbers on these tests. So ifyou get an analysis with them,
it makes a lot more sense.
Chris (00:43):
It it really does. You know, you could have, someone
from the soil lab just sort ofhold your hand through the whole
process here. That would begreat. But that doesn't always
happen. You know, we get do getquestions into the office,
people saying, I've got thissoil test report they sent to
me, and there's not muchinformation on here.
(01:03):
You know, what do I need toknow? What's the important
things about this? So we haveour soil test reports that we
have taken, that we're gonnashare with everyone today.
Ken (01:14):
Maybe we should before we get into the, I guess, the the
the meat of the the presentationor it's not a presentation, the
podcast today, we should do a, arecap on how to take a soil
test. So if you're inspiredafter listening to this, you
know how to go about doing it.
Chris (01:34):
You should be inspired after listening to this because
every time I am doing a class inperson, and, you know, the whole
topic of soil testing comes up,I always like surveying the
crowd to see, like, who's takena soil test. And it is very
infrequent, rare, not common foranyone to raise their hand and
(01:58):
say, oh, yeah. I've taken a soiltest. But a lot of these people
have been gardening, you know, along time. So it's interesting.
So how about you, Ken? Whenyou're doing presentations, do
you ever survey the crowd to seewho's done a soil test?
Ken (02:12):
Yep. And and similar results to you. And then, I
mean, we're doing a growinggreat vegetables class right now
and we did that poll and Iforgot to save the results, but
I think it was 70 plus percentof the people had not done one
before. Yeah. So it's it isusually I say, yeah, commonly
(02:33):
overlooked or not done.
I would say fortunately though,in Illinois, get myself in
trouble for saying this. It's Idon't think it's and and most of
our soils in Illinois, it's notas big of a deal, as in other
places in the in the world or inThe US. But it's still a good
idea to do it, because it canhelp help alleviate some
problems you may be having or orallow you to to address some
(02:57):
problems you may potentiallyhave.
Chris (03:00):
That that is true. Yeah. And many times, you know, I I
would say, you and I, we dealwith folks that are having
problems in their landscape. Ibet the vast majority of folks,
they don't contact us becausethings are going alright with
their soil or they they don'thave that need. But a lot of
(03:20):
times, it it it seems like, youknow, clients that we help and
the soil test would be useful toknow what might be causing these
issues with their plants or,yeah, why are you not getting as
good of a yield off of yourtomato plants this year?
Before we do that, Ken, the waythat I took my soil sampling and
(03:44):
and we can link to our soilswebpage. It's
Illinoisextension.edu sorry.It's
extension.illinois.edu/soil. Andon that web page, it describes
how to take a soil test. And andfor me, just following the
instructions on that that webpage, it is a lot about
(04:06):
randomization.
It is you don't necessarily wantto have a a good strategy for
collecting your soil samplesother than it being random and
maybe separating it by yourgrowing areas. If you have a
lawn, you would treat thatdifferently than, like, a a
perennial or a shrub bed, whichwould be treated differently
(04:27):
than a vegetable garden. And thesoil labs, they are going to
tailor the recommendationsdifferently based upon what is
being grown in that spot. Andthat's something to be mindful
of. But if you really just wanta general knowledge of what's
happening in your soil, youwould take anywhere from six to
maybe 10 random samplesthroughout your yard and mix
(04:51):
those all together in a plasticbucket, and you would then take
a couple cups, maybe two cupsworth into a plastic baggie and
you would send that off to thesoil lab.
Now that sounds easy, but Ken,is there any how deep down do we
go? You know, like what's a goodstrategy for collecting these
sub samples?
Ken (05:12):
Yeah. So again, the the depth is going to vary depending
on on what you're sampling for.So like in your lawn,
recommendation is usually aboutthree, four inches down, that
you would dig. Vegetable gardensare usually five to eight inches
deep. And then if you're doingtrees or shrubs, things will be
rooted a little more deeply,ten, twelve inches deep.
(05:33):
Is is typically what therecommendation would be for how
deep you're digging in. Youknow, basically, you're digging
a hole, you take a slice off theside of that, and put that in
your bucket or or whatever. Mixthose together. You don't need
necessarily a tremendous amount,from these. But if you're
digging 10 holes that are 10 to12 inches deep, it's gonna take
you a little bit of time, unlessyou've got one of the fancy soil
(05:57):
probe thingies, which will speedup the process.
Chris (06:01):
Which I do have. And those really do speed up that
process. And so really, it'sjust a a sil a cylindrical
probe. It's hollow in themiddle, but it's sharp on the
bottom. And so you just it won'twork in dry soil, so you have
to, you know, you know, after arain or something, this helps to
use this.
You push this into the soil, andthe probe has markings on the
(06:24):
side to say see which depthyou're at, and then you take it
and you twist it and you popthat core right out, makes it
really easy. Now again, probablya homeowner is not going to have
this because you're not going tobe taking soil samples as as
regularly as as, you know, likea farmer, fruit vegetable
(06:45):
grower, a landscaper might be.And so, yeah, again, you'd
probably just use like a shovel,dig a v shaped hole, and then
slice off the edge of that holewith your shovel or your trowel
or something. And you'rebasically just trying to
replicate that little core thatwe would be getting with that
probe. So, yeah, as Ken said,you don't need that much.
(07:06):
But it has to be scatteredthroughout the yard and then we
we mix it all together.
Ken (07:11):
And you wanna take off take out any plant debris, get out
roots and stuffs that doesn'taffect the levels that are that
are getting returned to you.And, you know, if you're as
you're digging, let's say you'rein a vegetable garden, you
notice there's like bigdifferences in what the soil, is
like the texture, the color,that may be worthwhile
separating that out area outfrom the rest and and testing
(07:34):
that separately. Because ifyou've got big differences in
texture and color, there'sprobably gonna be varying
nutrient levels and and p or pHpotentially. And there's you may
need to treat that separatelyfrom kind of what the rest of
the stuff is like.
Chris (07:52):
Yeah. And if folks have more questions about how to
collect those soil samples, wedo have a video or two that we
can link you in the showdescription about that that just
demonstrates how to how to dothat. And then, Ken, the
question I usually get followingthat, you know, description of
(08:13):
how to do it is, well, where doI send it? So what do we
recommend to folks in terms ofwhat to do with it? Should
should they just go to a gardencenter and buy one of those home
test kits?
Ken (08:27):
Yes. That is what yeah. Question you get a lot is, you
know, what which which test kitsshould I buy from the the garden
center, the hardware store? Andwhat you can do is those are not
going to be nearly as accurateas sending it off to a lab. And
sending it off to a lab isn'tgonna be that much more
expensive, than the home kits.
So I think our ourrecommendation, I think, even if
(08:49):
we weren't working forextension, but extension
recommendation would be to sendthat off to a soil testing lab.
And unfortunately, University ofIllinois does not have its own
soils testing lab. A lot of landgrant universities do, Illinois
does not. So again, on thatsoils website, that will be down
in the show notes. We do have aa link some links to lab or
(09:11):
lists of labs, that will conductsoil analysis for you.
And when you send that off, makesure you're in the you indicate,
that you are doing this in avegetable garden. Otherwise,
which we will see in a littlebit, you'll get recommendations
for corn and beans if the lab isin Illinois or the Midwest more
(09:31):
than likely.
Chris (09:32):
That is correct. Because most of the soil tests they get
are from, you know, agronomicfields, grain farmers, corn,
soybean farmers, like that isthe majority of tests that they
are processing in those labs.The other thing suggested is
maybe give, like, three or fourlabs a call, see how much they
charge for a soil test. I willsay for my soil test, it cost me
(09:57):
$17 for just a basic garden soillab test and include about $10
shipping and handling, and itwasn't that expensive. You know?
$27.30 dollars with tax, andthen you're you're probably not
spending much more, as Ken said,than one of those kits that you
would pick up at the gardencenter. So call a couple labs,
(10:19):
see what they might charge, seehow they want you to collect
those samples if they have anyspecial instructions at all. And
then, you know, sometimes ifthey they might have you create
an online account, those can bepretty handy because in the
past, a lot of soil labs, theywould just mail you a paper
report, which then youimmediately lose. You know, you
(10:40):
might misplace or it just goesand winds up in the trash. But
now with our modern day websiteweb based kind of that sales
point point of sale for thesesoil labs, you have an account,
which means your reports aresaved in your account.
You can track that over time,which I think is pretty handy in
(11:01):
some cases. So, yeah, if if youfind something like that useful,
call the lab, see if that's aservice that they might offer.
Ken (11:07):
Yeah. And depending on on where you're at, you may be able
to drop them off at the lab, seeit save on
Chris (11:12):
that Yes.
Ken (11:13):
The shipping. Because like here in my house in
Jacksonville, we've got a a lab.They have a drop box relatively
close to Jacksonville, so youcan just drive over there if you
wanted to.
Chris (11:27):
And that brings up a good point, though. So let's say we
call a lab down in Florida. It'sa lot cheaper than getting your
soil tested than a lab here inIllinois. Should we be sending
our samples out of regionperhaps? Is there is there might
be an issue with that?
Ken (11:44):
Dig back into the, the man the mind here. Remember some
pills classes. So there thereare different, tests that you do
to extract the nutrients. Sothere's like Bray and Malik and
and all kinds of different otherones. Those tests, some of them
are gonna be better fordifferent parts of the country
than others.
So like in Florida, you know,they use a different type those
labs down there, at least thesoil lab at University of
(12:07):
Florida is going to use adifferent extraction technique
than we would in the Midwestbecause the soils are much
different down there. So I wouldprobably shoot for stuff in the
Midwest.
Chris (12:20):
Yeah. And I think if you're curious, it looks like
the Bray soil test for somethinglike phosphorus is what we
typically might see here in theMidwest. That's because Bray
tends to work better for moreacidic soils, anything below,
like, 7.2 pH. And so if you doget your soil test report,
(12:44):
you're in the Midwest, you usethe Midwest Lab and it says
something other than Bray under,like, your phosphorus reading,
then you might wanna call thelab and and maybe ask them,
like, can you can you conbecause it can be converted. So
can you, like, convert this?
Or a lot of times the labs willhold your samples for, like,
thirty days afterwards, and thatmight require retesting. So just
(13:10):
give them a call if you havequestions about the particular
type of test. But usually, notall the time, but usually,
you're gonna see, like, the Braytest for your phosphorus. And so
yeah, just because it's soilacidity based.
Ken (13:24):
Should we show show our results now?
Chris (13:26):
I guess that's probably a good idea. Yes. I we we
apologize ahead of time foranyone who might just be
listening to this podcast. Weare going to start we're we're
gonna show the actual reportfrom the soil labs that we did
receive. We will of course,we'll we'll be describing
numbers.
There's no visual thing reallyto know. But, just just keep in
(13:48):
mind, I don't think you'll bemissing much, but if you wanna
check it out, we will have aYouTube link in the show notes
as well.
Ken (13:53):
You want me to go first? Example of somewhat what not to
do.
Chris (13:59):
Ken's is weird. But yes, go go ahead, Ken.
Ken (14:01):
Alright. So this is a soil test we did actually at our,
Luqueman Garden site a couple ofyears ago. I think the, the soil
testing video that we show onthe extension website, I think
it was actually the soil wetook, from that. So this is a
this is a few years old, but sofor this one, all I have is a
text file, and a Excel file.This is much easier to read,
(14:23):
than those others.
But here you can see, we gotsoil tests. We we just had one
sample that we sent in becauseof the the soil there is pretty
uniform, at least the area wherewe're gonna be planting in where
we tested, look pretty similar.So we've got, soil pH, buffer
pH, p one would be ourphosphorus, k is our potassium,
(14:43):
Ca, calcium, Mg, magnesium. Wehave OM percent, so that's
organic matter percent. We havecanine exchange capacity and we
have base saturation are theones that were given on this.
So our soil pH is 6.6, buffer pHis seven point zero. So
basically the buffer pH is goingto kind of give you an
indication of how difficult isthe right term, but how easy
(15:05):
it's going to be to adjust thepH of that soil, how resistant
that soil is to resist tochanging pH. So for ours, it's
it's not bad. We're not we andwe don't need to raise our pH,
so it's not really an issuebecause ideally, we're growing
in something around six toseven, for the pH for garden
(15:26):
soil. So we're we're fine there.
Our phosphorus, have 83 poundsper acre, which I think is along
the high, side for that one.Potassium is four fifty one
pounds per acre, which is alsoon the high side. Calcium, 5,295
pounds per acre. Again, high.Magnesium, 862, again, on the
(15:47):
higher end.
On this side, we had not grownin this side at all. It had been
grass and pasture for a longtime. So there's really no not a
whole lot of of, inputs ormanagement that that we were
aware of for the last severalyears, going into this. Organic
matter, we've got 3.5%.Typically, I think we would want
(16:09):
somewhere to 5% range istypically what we're looking
for, in like a vegetable gardensituation.
So we're fine there. Cationexchange capacity, is basically
how how available nutrients are,to to plants, and stuff. And
then so the the base saturationis is kind of the percentage of
(16:32):
the soil's cation exchangecapacity, that's taken up by the
different, elements or nutrientsthere. So kind of for calcium,
the ideal range is is 60 to 80%.So we're good on that one, on
the soil test that we have.
The magnesium, 10 to 20%. Soagain, we're we're good on the
higher end of good, but we'restill kind of within that ideal,
(16:56):
ratio there, percentage there.Potassium, two to 6%. So again,
we're we're good there. Hydrogenshould be less than 30%.
So, you know, our nutrientslevels may be a little high. You
know, we're we're we're good. Wedon't really need to add
anything. And then forrecommendations, we've got
recommendations and this isounce per acre. Because we did
(17:17):
not indicate or forgot toindicate that this is for a
vegetable garden, we haverecommendations for how to grow
corn, beans, power greens,legumes.
So hundred bushel corn, 30bushel bean recommendations
here. So if we're trying to growcorn, recommendation would be a
21 pounds of nitrogen, 19 poundsof phosphorus, 12 pounds of
(17:38):
potassium on that. So sincewe're not trying to grow corn,
we don't we have not reallyfertilized any of this stuff out
there and we have our yieldshave been just fine. We don't
have any deficiencies. You know,our tomatoes still put on an
ungodly amount of tomatoes, andstuff.
(17:58):
So, you know, this is I don'thow indicative this is of
Illinois, but I don't think thiswould be too uncommon for an
area where you haven't reallygrown a whole lot in. We've got
good nutrient levels and stuff.We don't really need to add
fertilizers, maybe a littlenitrogen. But other than that,
we haven't needed to don'treally need to add anything. Now
(18:20):
we need to go back and probablyretest after this growing season
to see what our levels are like,but we haven't seen any
indication of any kind of dropoff on our yields or anything
like that.
Chris (18:33):
Yeah. I was gonna say this looks like an Illinois
soil, like high nutrients,pretty good organic matter
content, good CEC. Like, you'reyou got everything going for you
here, Ken, at the LuukmanGarden. So this looks great
despite the fact they gave yourecommendations for growing
hundred bushel per acre corn,but I think it looks great.
(19:01):
Yeah.
You don't even need to add anylime. Your everything is spot on
right here.
Ken (19:07):
So one of the many advantages if it will must be a
good soil.
Chris (19:12):
Yes. So you shared your soil report. Time to see this
one. Alright. So this soil testreport that I am showing you,
this comes from my backyard.
I took samples from the lawnwhere I was located. Was pretty
much adjacent to severallandscape beds. The air I kind
(19:35):
of wanted also to separatesamples for the the landscape
beds that were mulched, butactually I put my probe down
there. Some of that soil isstill frozen. So goes to show
mulch is a great insulator bothin keeping soil warmer and
colder.
So I still had a little bit ofice down there, so I was not
able to get this sampled. But sothis soil report, we're just
(19:59):
going to take you through this.We did use a different company
than what Ken had used, so myreport's going to look a little
bit different. But it will tellyou when they received it, they
got this, my sample on March 6,They completed the sampling on
March 10. So great turnaroundtime.
I did name the sample home oneafter Admiral Akbar's ship from
(20:21):
the movie Star Wars, the JediStrikes Back. So no. Not the
Jedi Strikes. That's the Empire.The the Return of the Jedi.
Ken (20:28):
I need
Chris (20:29):
to get my movies right. My goodness. It's a trap. Ken's
like, Ken said you failed.Return of the Jedi.
Okay. Home one. So this is athree page report. This first
page is going to go through alot of the numbers that Ken had
just described where, yeah,we're just looking at these
(20:54):
different readings that they gotfrom their test report. Our
organic matter here, very muchin line with what Ken had.
My in my yard, it is 3.3%. Andin in this case, yes, we are
pretty much right where we wouldwant to be for our organic
matter content. And then it goesinto our phosphorus readings.
(21:16):
You know, looking at the it saysBray test here, have a weak
Bray, strong Bray, and so I'm inparts per million for my report,
whereas Ken was in pounds peracre for nutrients. So units can
be different here.
So for Ken, pounds per acre, hewas the ideal range is 20 to 40
(21:38):
pounds, but for me in parts permillion of phosphorus, I am
looking anywhere from 10 to 20parts per million for my weak
bray. And as you can see, I'm at29 parts per million, which the
lab, this h right here indicateshigh. And so I know that I have
(21:59):
an excessive amount ofphosphorus. We move on here to
potassium. I am at a 79 partsper million, which for Ken,
again, for his pounds per acre,that kind of max threshold is
250 pounds per acre ofpotassium.
(22:19):
For parts per million, it is125. So I am the lab indicates I
am very high. I'm VH on thisone. And then we get to
magnesium. Just sort of speedthis up here.
Three hundred and forty twoparts per million also indicated
as very high. And my calciumhere is is indicated at a 1,306,
(22:44):
which this is rated as low. Sothis is something that that
maybe we'll keep an eye on.We'll see what the soil test
then recommends here in the nextfew pages. Sodium levels, 37,
which I guess if we also that'smeasures your sodium, but we
also look at some of our salts.
(23:07):
You know, my salts, if I jumpdown to the bottom right hand
corner of this this table here,is measured in I wanna say it's
like I don't know what this Idon't know what this is, but
it's measuring electricalconductivity. Bet it's like
micromoles or something. Butwhat we're looking at, I have a
(23:29):
rate reading of point four,which they list as a low soluble
salts because you don't wantvery salty soils. That can be
bad for your plants. So pointfour is considered low.
If you go over point five, youget to medium. 1.26, you have
high. Anything pretty much over1.75, you got some salty soils
(23:53):
there. You might be able tosprinkle that on your french
fries. Alright.
So jumping back up here to thistop line, very interesting for
an Illinois soil. My soil pH is5.5. That's pretty acidic even
for Illinois standards. So I doI I maybe this can explain some
of this. I also have someblueberry bushes that I got from
(24:16):
a friend, and and he haddescribed how they sort of
struggled in his yard, butthey've really done pretty well
in my yard, and this might bewhy.
Blueberries like an acidic soilof, like, 4.8, and I have a soil
pH of 5.5. And my buffer index,and as Ken described that as,
it's kind of that resistance tochange. It's not at a seven.
(24:37):
It's not at a neutral. It isalso kind of low.
The lower it is, the harder itis the more it will resist
changing to be more alkaline, togo up. So I I don't think it's
that big of a I don't think mybuffer index is going to be an
issue here, but I don't know.I've never really had to play
(25:00):
with soil pH. You know? It'salways just been in the sixes,
and I've been okay with it.
Far as my cat oh, go ahead.
Ken (25:09):
Let's just turn your lawn into a a blueberry patch and
Chris (25:12):
I I told my wife that I'm like, you know, maybe we should
just go buy a bunch of azaleas,rhododendrons, because they also
like an acidic soil. We're justgonna have to pick acid loving
plants, and I'm fine with that.So my my cation exchange
capacity or CEC is a little bitlower than Ken's was, but not
bad. It's at 13.5. And, youknow, looking at our extension
(25:35):
website, you know, where wekinda give a recommendation for
CEC, what is best for a gardensetting, we're looking at
anywhere from, like, 15 to 20CEC, that range right there.
You get over 20. Once we get to,like, 25, we get into, like,
heavy heavy clay, like a claypan soil, you know, like a pure
(25:59):
organic soil or a muck typesoil. And and that clay why does
a heavy clay soil have such ahigh CEC? Well, because clay
particles are so small, butthey're plate like, they stack
on top of each other, and thismeans that there's a lot more
surface area for them to hold onto nutrients. And so clay, even
(26:24):
though I know people don't likeit, you know, we all complain
about our clay soil, Clay doesplay an important role in
nutrient holding capacity forour soils, and so that that is
just just something to be to bemindful of.
Thank your clayey soils everyonce in a while for the
nutrients that they hold. Andthen, of course, my base
(26:44):
saturation, you know, it looksfairly decent. Ken, I forget the
ranges that you had mentionedearlier, but I might have a few
that are a little too high, andI might I don't know if my
potassium is is right or not ormy sodium, if that's still in
line with the base saturationlevels that you had referenced
(27:04):
earlier, but everything looks tobe on the up and up.
Ken (27:09):
Yeah. Let's see here. Calcium, 60 to 80. Magnesium, 10
to 20. Potassium, two to six.
Hydrogen, less than 30.
Chris (27:16):
Okay. I think we're looking good. This lab also did
test the nitrates in the soil.This can be a tough one to to
analyze for soil labs becausenitrogen is not a it's not a
very permanent thing. It it itfluctuates in the soils.
It goes from nitrate to nitrite.There's our atmosphere is
(27:40):
chocked full of nitrogen. Whenplants are growing like crazy
in, like, June, they're using aton of nitrogen, so are the
microorganisms in the soil. Sonitrogen, it changes. It can
also leach through the soil.
It can go away. So it's it'svery difficult to get an
accurate measurement of nitrogenin your soil. So very often, I
(28:02):
skip this on a soil test. Idon't really pay much attention
to the nitrogen readings herebecause the lab knows this too.
And very often when you get alab report, they're going to
give you nitrogenrecommendations regardless of
what this might say becausedepending on what crop you're
growing, there are there isresearch based upon how much
(28:26):
nitrogen those crops use, andthen they just give those
recommendations like, you know,we assume this crop is going to
use this much nitrogenthroughout the year, and this is
how much nitrogen you'll need toapply to your soil.
So just something to be mindfulof. Maybe talk to your soil lab
about those nitrogen numbers,but I typically ignore them. Do
(28:47):
you ignore nitrogen numbers,Ken, on soil reports?
Ken (28:51):
Yeah. I'm not sure how many I've seen actually have it on
there. That must be the lab. Idon't know. A lot of people use
around here doesn't do it.
So
Chris (29:01):
Yes. And the home test kits definitely don't give you
an accurate reading just onnitrogen, so just be mindful of
that. Alright. Our second pagehere, this is just a a basic
recommendations recommendationspage. So, really, they're
splitting the first page of whatthey analyze.
The second page arerecommendations. So we'll show
that here for you right now, butI want to quickly flip to the
(29:24):
third page, which has everythingsummarized. And I think this is
a much easier way of looking atthis information. Yes. You can
go back up to that first page.
You can look at all thosenumbers and look up the ranges
that are ideal. But here, hey.They've got a chart of each
thing, and it has it's like abar graph, and it says low,
(29:46):
medium, optimum, or very high.And each of our nutrients is
listed here, and it it this theyall have their own corresponding
bar where it falls on idea onthe scale here of do we have
enough? Do we have too much?
Do we have too little? So Ithink this is very visually more
(30:08):
appealing to to me. So again, interms of what we just talked
about on that first page,everything looks to be optimum
in terms of our organic matter,phosphorus, potassium,
magnesium. Everything is lookingvery good on here. Calcium is a
little bit low.
Salts are good. CEC, good forwhat we're using it. PH, little
(30:33):
low. A bit low. On the otherright side of the screen here,
they give us a suggestions forwhat to do for your lawn.
So as I said, this is sampledfrom a lawn. This is gonna
remain lawn, and so I made sureto specify I want
recommendations for turf grass.And they are going to give the
(30:54):
handy thing here is that theygive this in 100 square feet,
1,000 square feet, or an acre.So probably most of us are going
to be dealing if you're in avegetable garden, probably by
100 square feet. If you're in,like, a lawn or landscape,
probably by a thousand squarefeet.
So per thousand square feet, Ineed to add about 2.87 pounds of
(31:16):
nitrogen. Now that needs to besplit up so that I only apply
one pound of nitrogen perapplication in per thousand
square feet. So this isprobably, like, two and a half
ish fertilizer applications forthe lawn. And they still do
(31:37):
recommend adding phosphorus,which I'm already at optimum.
I'm gonna skip that becausephosphorus, it binds the soil
and it doesn't go away unless iterodes through soil erosion.
So I don't want to risk buildingup my phosphorus levels too
high. Because I've seen that ina few soil reports where over
decades, folks have been puttingten ten ten on their their
(32:00):
lawns. The ten ten ten beingnitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.
That middle number p,phosphorus, they were getting
issues with their woody plantsturning chlorotic, and I
suggested doing a soil test.When that soil test came back,
the phosphorus was literally thebar chart was off the chart.
(32:23):
It was higher than what thechart could measure. And doing a
little bit of reading when youhave excessive amounts of
phosphorus, you can actuallyblock the uptake of metal ions
to our our plants, our woodyplants being the first
susceptible ones to that. Andthat's what they were seeing
with that chlorosis. The plantsweren't able to take up the iron
(32:44):
and zinc and all the othermetals that they're required to
use as micronutrients. And thenpotassium, again, I'm at
optimum, so I'm just gonnaignore this phosphorus and
potassium.
I'll probably do one fertilizerapplication, and then I'll
return my clippings back to thelawn, is equivalent to another
fertilizer application. If youreturn those clippings
throughout the year, it's likeadding one pound of nitrogen
(33:06):
back to your lawn. And then allthe way down here, we have our
lime. And I don't know, Ken, I'mdebating whether or not I need
to lime this or just embrace theacidic nature of my soil. But I
can add about five pounds.
6.2 is what they have here, butyou can go get, like, lime in,
(33:26):
like, five pound bags, 25 poundbags, 50 pound bags. But, you
know, you could go put down afive pound bag of lime in a
hundred square feet and call ita day. I don't think I'm gonna
bother, though.
Ken (33:41):
Sounds like a good experiment. Do some Yes. And not
others.
Chris (33:45):
See what happens. Maybe I should do that because yeah. The
lawn does struggle. I alwaysblame my dogs and kids, though.
But I could try to put some limedown in a hundred square foot
area, mark that, and see if itdoes any different.
It's a good idea. Well, that wasa lot of great information about
soil test reports. If you havequestions about your soil test
(34:08):
reports, it it is important toknow a lot of times the labs
will have like an agronomist orsomeone who can help you
interpret these. If not, pleasefeel free. You can reach out to
your local extension office.
We're always happy to also lookat those reports with you and
maybe help guide you into whatare some recommendations
possibilities. Well, the GoodGrowing podcast is a production
(34:31):
of University of IllinoisExtension, edited this week by
me, Chris Enroth. A specialthanks, Ken. Thank you for
sharing your Luukman Garden soiltest and hanging out with me
today to chat all things soil.
Ken (34:44):
Yes. Thank you. And I'm gonna I am gonna do one this
year for our home garden. I knowI keep saying that, but this
will be the year. And I lookforward to the results of your
experiment with lime.
Chris (34:57):
Oh, me too. We'll we'll see how this goes. I already
know I've already scouted outwhere to get the little five
pound bag of lime at the farmstore. So I'll go buy that.
We'll flag out a spot.
I'll take I'll take somepictures. Maybe we can share it
on this podcast next year.Excellent.
Ken (35:16):
Let's do this again next week.
Chris (35:19):
Oh, we shall do this again next week. It's getting
hot outside. I'm gonna have tostraight out the winter clothes
for the spring clothes, andguess what else is popping up
out there? Spring ephemerals,the flowers that are there and
then gone. So we're gonna talkabout those spring ephemerals
next week.
Well, listeners, thank you fordoing what you do best and that
(35:40):
is listening or if you'rewatching this on YouTube
watching. And as always, keep ongrowing. We're gonna go right
into those details, but you knowI'm not doing this by myself. I
(36:01):
am joined as always every singleweek by Hornica sorry, Ken. And
guess what's else?
And guess what's else? I can'tsay it. And guess what else?
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension coming at you fromMacomb , Illinois, and we have
got a great show for you today,soil test results. We are going
to dive into what happens whenyou get that report back, and
you have all these numbersstaring at you in the face.
(00:27):
Well, you know I am not doingthis by myself. We are joined as
always every single week byhorticulture educator Ken
Johnson in Jacksonville.
Hey, Ken.
Ken (00:35):
Hello, Chris. There's there's definitely a lot of
numbers on these tests. So ifyou get an analysis with them,
it makes a lot more sense.
Chris (00:43):
It it really does. You know, you could have, someone
from the soil lab just sort ofhold your hand through the whole
process here. That would begreat. But that doesn't always
happen. You know, we get do getquestions into the office,
people saying, I've got thissoil test report they sent to
me, and there's not muchinformation on here.
(01:03):
You know, what do I need toknow? What's the important
things about this? So we haveour soil test reports that we
have taken, that we're gonnashare with everyone today.
Ken (01:14):
Maybe we should before we get into the, I guess, the the
the meat of the the presentationor it's not a presentation, the
podcast today, we should do a, arecap on how to take a soil
test. So if you're inspiredafter listening to this, you
know how to go about doing it.
Chris (01:34):
You should be inspired after listening to this because
every time I am doing a class inperson, and, you know, the whole
topic of soil testing comes up,I always like surveying the
crowd to see, like, who's takena soil test. And it is very
infrequent, rare, not common foranyone to raise their hand and
(01:58):
say, oh, yeah. I've taken a soiltest. But a lot of these people
have been gardening, you know, along time. So it's interesting.
So how about you, Ken? Whenyou're doing presentations, do
you ever survey the crowd to seewho's done a soil test?
Ken (02:12):
Yep. And and similar results to you. And then, I
mean, we're doing a growinggreat vegetables class right now
and we did that poll and Iforgot to save the results, but
I think it was 70 plus percentof the people had not done one
before. Yeah. So it's it isusually I say, yeah, commonly
(02:33):
overlooked or not done.
I would say fortunately though,in Illinois, get myself in
trouble for saying this. It's Idon't think it's and and most of
our soils in Illinois, it's notas big of a deal, as in other
places in the in the world or inThe US. But it's still a good
idea to do it, because it canhelp help alleviate some
problems you may be having or orallow you to to address some
(02:57):
problems you may potentiallyhave.
Chris (03:00):
That that is true. Yeah. And many times, you know, I I
would say, you and I, we dealwith folks that are having
problems in their landscape. Ibet the vast majority of folks,
they don't contact us becausethings are going alright with
their soil or they they don'thave that need. But a lot of
(03:20):
times, it it it seems like, youknow, clients that we help and
the soil test would be useful toknow what might be causing these
issues with their plants or,yeah, why are you not getting as
good of a yield off of yourtomato plants this year?
Before we do that, Ken, the waythat I took my soil sampling and
(03:44):
and we can link to our soilswebpage. It's
Illinoisextension.edu sorry.It's
extension.illinois.edu/soil. Andon that web page, it describes
how to take a soil test. And andfor me, just following the
instructions on that that webpage, it is a lot about
(04:06):
randomization.
It is you don't necessarily wantto have a a good strategy for
collecting your soil samplesother than it being random and
maybe separating it by yourgrowing areas. If you have a
lawn, you would treat thatdifferently than, like, a a
perennial or a shrub bed, whichwould be treated differently
(04:27):
than a vegetable garden. And thesoil labs, they are going to
tailor the recommendationsdifferently based upon what is
being grown in that spot. Andthat's something to be mindful
of. But if you really just wanta general knowledge of what's
happening in your soil, youwould take anywhere from six to
maybe 10 random samplesthroughout your yard and mix
(04:51):
those all together in a plasticbucket, and you would then take
a couple cups, maybe two cupsworth into a plastic baggie and
you would send that off to thesoil lab.
Now that sounds easy, but Ken,is there any how deep down do we
go? You know, like what's a goodstrategy for collecting these
sub samples?
Ken (05:12):
Yeah. So again, the the depth is going to vary depending
on on what you're sampling for.So like in your lawn,
recommendation is usually aboutthree, four inches down, that
you would dig. Vegetable gardensare usually five to eight inches
deep. And then if you're doingtrees or shrubs, things will be
rooted a little more deeply,ten, twelve inches deep.
(05:33):
Is is typically what therecommendation would be for how
deep you're digging in. Youknow, basically, you're digging
a hole, you take a slice off theside of that, and put that in
your bucket or or whatever. Mixthose together. You don't need
necessarily a tremendous amount,from these. But if you're
digging 10 holes that are 10 to12 inches deep, it's gonna take
you a little bit of time, unlessyou've got one of the fancy soil
(05:57):
probe thingies, which will speedup the process.
Chris (06:01):
Which I do have. And those really do speed up that
process. And so really, it'sjust a a sil a cylindrical
probe. It's hollow in themiddle, but it's sharp on the
bottom. And so you just it won'twork in dry soil, so you have
to, you know, you know, after arain or something, this helps to
use this.
You push this into the soil, andthe probe has markings on the
(06:24):
side to say see which depthyou're at, and then you take it
and you twist it and you popthat core right out, makes it
really easy. Now again, probablya homeowner is not going to have
this because you're not going tobe taking soil samples as as
regularly as as, you know, likea farmer, fruit vegetable
(06:45):
grower, a landscaper might be.And so, yeah, again, you'd
probably just use like a shovel,dig a v shaped hole, and then
slice off the edge of that holewith your shovel or your trowel
or something. And you'rebasically just trying to
replicate that little core thatwe would be getting with that
probe. So, yeah, as Ken said,you don't need that much.
(07:06):
But it has to be scatteredthroughout the yard and then we
we mix it all together.
Ken (07:11):
And you wanna take off take out any plant debris, get out
roots and stuffs that doesn'taffect the levels that are that
are getting returned to you.And, you know, if you're as
you're digging, let's say you'rein a vegetable garden, you
notice there's like bigdifferences in what the soil, is
like the texture, the color,that may be worthwhile
separating that out area outfrom the rest and and testing
(07:34):
that separately. Because ifyou've got big differences in
texture and color, there'sprobably gonna be varying
nutrient levels and and p or pHpotentially. And there's you may
need to treat that separatelyfrom kind of what the rest of
the stuff is like.
Chris (07:52):
Yeah. And if folks have more questions about how to
collect those soil samples, wedo have a video or two that we
can link you in the showdescription about that that just
demonstrates how to how to dothat. And then, Ken, the
question I usually get followingthat, you know, description of
(08:13):
how to do it is, well, where doI send it? So what do we
recommend to folks in terms ofwhat to do with it? Should
should they just go to a gardencenter and buy one of those home
test kits?
Ken (08:27):
Yes. That is what yeah. Question you get a lot is, you
know, what which which test kitsshould I buy from the the garden
center, the hardware store? Andwhat you can do is those are not
going to be nearly as accurateas sending it off to a lab. And
sending it off to a lab isn'tgonna be that much more
expensive, than the home kits.
So I think our ourrecommendation, I think, even if
(08:49):
we weren't working forextension, but extension
recommendation would be to sendthat off to a soil testing lab.
And unfortunately, University ofIllinois does not have its own
soils testing lab. A lot of landgrant universities do, Illinois
does not. So again, on thatsoils website, that will be down
in the show notes. We do have aa link some links to lab or
(09:11):
lists of labs, that will conductsoil analysis for you.
And when you send that off, makesure you're in the you indicate,
that you are doing this in avegetable garden. Otherwise,
which we will see in a littlebit, you'll get recommendations
for corn and beans if the lab isin Illinois or the Midwest more
(09:31):
than likely.
Chris (09:32):
That is correct. Because most of the soil tests they get
are from, you know, agronomicfields, grain farmers, corn,
soybean farmers, like that isthe majority of tests that they
are processing in those labs.The other thing suggested is
maybe give, like, three or fourlabs a call, see how much they
charge for a soil test. I willsay for my soil test, it cost me
(09:57):
$17 for just a basic garden soillab test and include about $10
shipping and handling, and itwasn't that expensive. You know?
$27.30 dollars with tax, andthen you're you're probably not
spending much more, as Ken said,than one of those kits that you
would pick up at the gardencenter. So call a couple labs,
(10:19):
see what they might charge, seehow they want you to collect
those samples if they have anyspecial instructions at all. And
then, you know, sometimes ifthey they might have you create
an online account, those can bepretty handy because in the
past, a lot of soil labs, theywould just mail you a paper
report, which then youimmediately lose. You know, you
(10:40):
might misplace or it just goesand winds up in the trash. But
now with our modern day websiteweb based kind of that sales
point point of sale for thesesoil labs, you have an account,
which means your reports aresaved in your account.
You can track that over time,which I think is pretty handy in
(11:01):
some cases. So, yeah, if if youfind something like that useful,
call the lab, see if that's aservice that they might offer.
Ken (11:07):
Yeah. And depending on on where you're at, you may be able
to drop them off at the lab, seeit save on
Chris (11:12):
that Yes.
Ken (11:13):
The shipping. Because like here in my house in
Jacksonville, we've got a a lab.They have a drop box relatively
close to Jacksonville, so youcan just drive over there if you
wanted to.
Chris (11:27):
And that brings up a good point, though. So let's say we
call a lab down in Florida. It'sa lot cheaper than getting your
soil tested than a lab here inIllinois. Should we be sending
our samples out of regionperhaps? Is there is there might
be an issue with that?
Ken (11:44):
Dig back into the, the man the mind here. Remember some
pills classes. So there thereare different, tests that you do
to extract the nutrients. Sothere's like Bray and Malik and
and all kinds of different otherones. Those tests, some of them
are gonna be better fordifferent parts of the country
than others.
So like in Florida, you know,they use a different type those
labs down there, at least thesoil lab at University of
(12:07):
Florida is going to use adifferent extraction technique
than we would in the Midwestbecause the soils are much
different down there. So I wouldprobably shoot for stuff in the
Midwest.
Chris (12:20):
Yeah. And I think if you're curious, it looks like
the Bray soil test for somethinglike phosphorus is what we
typically might see here in theMidwest. That's because Bray
tends to work better for moreacidic soils, anything below,
like, 7.2 pH. And so if you doget your soil test report,
(12:44):
you're in the Midwest, you usethe Midwest Lab and it says
something other than Bray under,like, your phosphorus reading,
then you might wanna call thelab and and maybe ask them,
like, can you can you conbecause it can be converted. So
can you, like, convert this?
Or a lot of times the labs willhold your samples for, like,
thirty days afterwards, and thatmight require retesting. So just
(13:10):
give them a call if you havequestions about the particular
type of test. But usually, notall the time, but usually,
you're gonna see, like, the Braytest for your phosphorus. And so
yeah, just because it's soilacidity based.
Ken (13:24):
Should we show show our results now?
Chris (13:26):
I guess that's probably a good idea. Yes. I we we
apologize ahead of time foranyone who might just be
listening to this podcast. Weare going to start we're we're
gonna show the actual reportfrom the soil labs that we did
receive. We will of course,we'll we'll be describing
numbers.
There's no visual thing reallyto know. But, just just keep in
(13:48):
mind, I don't think you'll bemissing much, but if you wanna
check it out, we will have aYouTube link in the show notes
as well.
Ken (13:53):
You want me to go first? Example of somewhat what not to
do.
Chris (13:59):
Ken's is weird. But yes, go go ahead, Ken.
Ken (14:01):
Alright. So this is a soil test we did actually at our,
Luqueman Garden site a couple ofyears ago. I think the, the soil
testing video that we show onthe extension website, I think
it was actually the soil wetook, from that. So this is a
this is a few years old, but sofor this one, all I have is a
text file, and a Excel file.This is much easier to read,
(14:23):
than those others.
But here you can see, we gotsoil tests. We we just had one
sample that we sent in becauseof the the soil there is pretty
uniform, at least the area wherewe're gonna be planting in where
we tested, look pretty similar.So we've got, soil pH, buffer
pH, p one would be ourphosphorus, k is our potassium,
(14:43):
Ca, calcium, Mg, magnesium. Wehave OM percent, so that's
organic matter percent. We havecanine exchange capacity and we
have base saturation are theones that were given on this.
So our soil pH is 6.6, buffer pHis seven point zero. So
basically the buffer pH is goingto kind of give you an
indication of how difficult isthe right term, but how easy
(15:05):
it's going to be to adjust thepH of that soil, how resistant
that soil is to resist tochanging pH. So for ours, it's
it's not bad. We're not we andwe don't need to raise our pH,
so it's not really an issuebecause ideally, we're growing
in something around six toseven, for the pH for garden
(15:26):
soil. So we're we're fine there.
Our phosphorus, have 83 poundsper acre, which I think is along
the high, side for that one.Potassium is four fifty one
pounds per acre, which is alsoon the high side. Calcium, 5,295
pounds per acre. Again, high.Magnesium, 862, again, on the
(15:47):
higher end.
On this side, we had not grownin this side at all. It had been
grass and pasture for a longtime. So there's really no not a
whole lot of of, inputs ormanagement that that we were
aware of for the last severalyears, going into this. Organic
matter, we've got 3.5%.Typically, I think we would want
(16:09):
somewhere to 5% range istypically what we're looking
for, in like a vegetable gardensituation.
So we're fine there. Cationexchange capacity, is basically
how how available nutrients are,to to plants, and stuff. And
then so the the base saturationis is kind of the percentage of
(16:32):
the soil's cation exchangecapacity, that's taken up by the
different, elements or nutrientsthere. So kind of for calcium,
the ideal range is is 60 to 80%.So we're good on that one, on
the soil test that we have.
The magnesium, 10 to 20%. Soagain, we're we're good on the
higher end of good, but we'restill kind of within that ideal,
(16:56):
ratio there, percentage there.Potassium, two to 6%. So again,
we're we're good there. Hydrogenshould be less than 30%.
So, you know, our nutrientslevels may be a little high. You
know, we're we're we're good. Wedon't really need to add
anything. And then forrecommendations, we've got
recommendations and this isounce per acre. Because we did
(17:17):
not indicate or forgot toindicate that this is for a
vegetable garden, we haverecommendations for how to grow
corn, beans, power greens,legumes.
So hundred bushel corn, 30bushel bean recommendations
here. So if we're trying to growcorn, recommendation would be a
21 pounds of nitrogen, 19 poundsof phosphorus, 12 pounds of
(17:38):
potassium on that. So sincewe're not trying to grow corn,
we don't we have not reallyfertilized any of this stuff out
there and we have our yieldshave been just fine. We don't
have any deficiencies. You know,our tomatoes still put on an
ungodly amount of tomatoes, andstuff.
(17:58):
So, you know, this is I don'thow indicative this is of
Illinois, but I don't think thiswould be too uncommon for an
area where you haven't reallygrown a whole lot in. We've got
good nutrient levels and stuff.We don't really need to add
fertilizers, maybe a littlenitrogen. But other than that,
we haven't needed to don'treally need to add anything. Now
(18:20):
we need to go back and probablyretest after this growing season
to see what our levels are like,but we haven't seen any
indication of any kind of dropoff on our yields or anything
like that.
Chris (18:33):
Yeah. I was gonna say this looks like an Illinois
soil, like high nutrients,pretty good organic matter
content, good CEC. Like, you'reyou got everything going for you
here, Ken, at the LuukmanGarden. So this looks great
despite the fact they gave yourecommendations for growing
hundred bushel per acre corn,but I think it looks great.
(19:01):
Yeah.
You don't even need to add anylime. Your everything is spot on
right here.
Ken (19:07):
So one of the many advantages if it will must be a
good soil.
Chris (19:12):
Yes. So you shared your soil report. Time to see this
one. Alright. So this soil testreport that I am showing you,
this comes from my backyard.
I took samples from the lawnwhere I was located. Was pretty
much adjacent to severallandscape beds. The air I kind
(19:35):
of wanted also to separatesamples for the the landscape
beds that were mulched, butactually I put my probe down
there. Some of that soil isstill frozen. So goes to show
mulch is a great insulator bothin keeping soil warmer and
colder.
So I still had a little bit ofice down there, so I was not
able to get this sampled. But sothis soil report, we're just
(19:59):
going to take you through this.We did use a different company
than what Ken had used, so myreport's going to look a little
bit different. But it will tellyou when they received it, they
got this, my sample on March 6,They completed the sampling on
March 10. So great turnaroundtime.
I did name the sample home oneafter Admiral Akbar's ship from
(20:21):
the movie Star Wars, the JediStrikes Back. So no. Not the
Jedi Strikes. That's the Empire.The the Return of the Jedi.
Ken (20:28):
I need
Chris (20:29):
to get my movies right. My goodness. It's a trap. Ken's
like, Ken said you failed.Return of the Jedi.
Okay. Home one. So this is athree page report. This first
page is going to go through alot of the numbers that Ken had
just described where, yeah,we're just looking at these
(20:54):
different readings that they gotfrom their test report. Our
organic matter here, very muchin line with what Ken had.
My in my yard, it is 3.3%. Andin in this case, yes, we are
pretty much right where we wouldwant to be for our organic
matter content. And then it goesinto our phosphorus readings.
(21:16):
You know, looking at the it saysBray test here, have a weak
Bray, strong Bray, and so I'm inparts per million for my report,
whereas Ken was in pounds peracre for nutrients. So units can
be different here.
So for Ken, pounds per acre, hewas the ideal range is 20 to 40
(21:38):
pounds, but for me in parts permillion of phosphorus, I am
looking anywhere from 10 to 20parts per million for my weak
bray. And as you can see, I'm at29 parts per million, which the
lab, this h right here indicateshigh. And so I know that I have
(21:59):
an excessive amount ofphosphorus. We move on here to
potassium. I am at a 79 partsper million, which for Ken,
again, for his pounds per acre,that kind of max threshold is
250 pounds per acre ofpotassium.
(22:19):
For parts per million, it is125. So I am the lab indicates I
am very high. I'm VH on thisone. And then we get to
magnesium. Just sort of speedthis up here.
Three hundred and forty twoparts per million also indicated
as very high. And my calciumhere is is indicated at a 1,306,
(22:44):
which this is rated as low. Sothis is something that that
maybe we'll keep an eye on.We'll see what the soil test
then recommends here in the nextfew pages. Sodium levels, 37,
which I guess if we also that'smeasures your sodium, but we
also look at some of our salts.
(23:07):
You know, my salts, if I jumpdown to the bottom right hand
corner of this this table here,is measured in I wanna say it's
like I don't know what this Idon't know what this is, but
it's measuring electricalconductivity. Bet it's like
micromoles or something. Butwhat we're looking at, I have a
(23:29):
rate reading of point four,which they list as a low soluble
salts because you don't wantvery salty soils. That can be
bad for your plants. So pointfour is considered low.
If you go over point five, youget to medium. 1.26, you have
high. Anything pretty much over1.75, you got some salty soils
(23:53):
there. You might be able tosprinkle that on your french
fries. Alright.
So jumping back up here to thistop line, very interesting for
an Illinois soil. My soil pH is5.5. That's pretty acidic even
for Illinois standards. So I doI I maybe this can explain some
of this. I also have someblueberry bushes that I got from
(24:16):
a friend, and and he haddescribed how they sort of
struggled in his yard, butthey've really done pretty well
in my yard, and this might bewhy.
Blueberries like an acidic soilof, like, 4.8, and I have a soil
pH of 5.5. And my buffer index,and as Ken described that as,
it's kind of that resistance tochange. It's not at a seven.
(24:37):
It's not at a neutral. It isalso kind of low.
The lower it is, the harder itis the more it will resist
changing to be more alkaline, togo up. So I I don't think it's
that big of a I don't think mybuffer index is going to be an
issue here, but I don't know.I've never really had to play
(25:00):
with soil pH. You know? It'salways just been in the sixes,
and I've been okay with it.
Far as my cat oh, go ahead.
Ken (25:09):
Let's just turn your lawn into a a blueberry patch and
Chris (25:12):
I I told my wife that I'm like, you know, maybe we should
just go buy a bunch of azaleas,rhododendrons, because they also
like an acidic soil. We're justgonna have to pick acid loving
plants, and I'm fine with that.So my my cation exchange
capacity or CEC is a little bitlower than Ken's was, but not
bad. It's at 13.5. And, youknow, looking at our extension
(25:35):
website, you know, where wekinda give a recommendation for
CEC, what is best for a gardensetting, we're looking at
anywhere from, like, 15 to 20CEC, that range right there.
You get over 20. Once we get to,like, 25, we get into, like,
heavy heavy clay, like a claypan soil, you know, like a pure
(25:59):
organic soil or a muck typesoil. And and that clay why does
a heavy clay soil have such ahigh CEC? Well, because clay
particles are so small, butthey're plate like, they stack
on top of each other, and thismeans that there's a lot more
surface area for them to hold onto nutrients. And so clay, even
(26:24):
though I know people don't likeit, you know, we all complain
about our clay soil, Clay doesplay an important role in
nutrient holding capacity forour soils, and so that that is
just just something to be to bemindful of.
Thank your clayey soils everyonce in a while for the
nutrients that they hold. Andthen, of course, my base
(26:44):
saturation, you know, it looksfairly decent. Ken, I forget the
ranges that you had mentionedearlier, but I might have a few
that are a little too high, andI might I don't know if my
potassium is is right or not ormy sodium, if that's still in
line with the base saturationlevels that you had referenced
(27:04):
earlier, but everything looks tobe on the up and up.
Ken (27:09):
Yeah. Let's see here. Calcium, 60 to 80. Magnesium, 10
to 20. Potassium, two to six.
Hydrogen, less than 30.
Chris (27:16):
Okay. I think we're looking good. This lab also did
test the nitrates in the soil.This can be a tough one to to
analyze for soil labs becausenitrogen is not a it's not a
very permanent thing. It it itfluctuates in the soils.
It goes from nitrate to nitrite.There's our atmosphere is
(27:40):
chocked full of nitrogen. Whenplants are growing like crazy
in, like, June, they're using aton of nitrogen, so are the
microorganisms in the soil. Sonitrogen, it changes. It can
also leach through the soil.
It can go away. So it's it'svery difficult to get an
accurate measurement of nitrogenin your soil. So very often, I
(28:02):
skip this on a soil test. Idon't really pay much attention
to the nitrogen readings herebecause the lab knows this too.
And very often when you get alab report, they're going to
give you nitrogenrecommendations regardless of
what this might say becausedepending on what crop you're
growing, there are there isresearch based upon how much
(28:26):
nitrogen those crops use, andthen they just give those
recommendations like, you know,we assume this crop is going to
use this much nitrogenthroughout the year, and this is
how much nitrogen you'll need toapply to your soil.
So just something to be mindfulof. Maybe talk to your soil lab
about those nitrogen numbers,but I typically ignore them. Do
(28:47):
you ignore nitrogen numbers,Ken, on soil reports?
Ken (28:51):
Yeah. I'm not sure how many I've seen actually have it on
there. That must be the lab. Idon't know. A lot of people use
around here doesn't do it.
So
Chris (29:01):
Yes. And the home test kits definitely don't give you
an accurate reading just onnitrogen, so just be mindful of
that. Alright. Our second pagehere, this is just a a basic
recommendations recommendationspage. So, really, they're
splitting the first page of whatthey analyze.
The second page arerecommendations. So we'll show
that here for you right now, butI want to quickly flip to the
(29:24):
third page, which has everythingsummarized. And I think this is
a much easier way of looking atthis information. Yes. You can
go back up to that first page.
You can look at all thosenumbers and look up the ranges
that are ideal. But here, hey.They've got a chart of each
thing, and it has it's like abar graph, and it says low,
(29:46):
medium, optimum, or very high.And each of our nutrients is
listed here, and it it this theyall have their own corresponding
bar where it falls on idea onthe scale here of do we have
enough? Do we have too much?
Do we have too little? So Ithink this is very visually more
(30:08):
appealing to to me. So again, interms of what we just talked
about on that first page,everything looks to be optimum
in terms of our organic matter,phosphorus, potassium,
magnesium. Everything is lookingvery good on here. Calcium is a
little bit low.
Salts are good. CEC, good forwhat we're using it. PH, little
(30:33):
low. A bit low. On the otherright side of the screen here,
they give us a suggestions forwhat to do for your lawn.
So as I said, this is sampledfrom a lawn. This is gonna
remain lawn, and so I made sureto specify I want
recommendations for turf grass.And they are going to give the
(30:54):
handy thing here is that theygive this in 100 square feet,
1,000 square feet, or an acre.So probably most of us are going
to be dealing if you're in avegetable garden, probably by
100 square feet. If you're in,like, a lawn or landscape,
probably by a thousand squarefeet.
So per thousand square feet, Ineed to add about 2.87 pounds of
(31:16):
nitrogen. Now that needs to besplit up so that I only apply
one pound of nitrogen perapplication in per thousand
square feet. So this isprobably, like, two and a half
ish fertilizer applications forthe lawn. And they still do
(31:37):
recommend adding phosphorus,which I'm already at optimum.
I'm gonna skip that becausephosphorus, it binds the soil
and it doesn't go away unless iterodes through soil erosion.
So I don't want to risk buildingup my phosphorus levels too
high. Because I've seen that ina few soil reports where over
decades, folks have been puttingten ten ten on their their
(32:00):
lawns. The ten ten ten beingnitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.
That middle number p,phosphorus, they were getting
issues with their woody plantsturning chlorotic, and I
suggested doing a soil test.When that soil test came back,
the phosphorus was literally thebar chart was off the chart.
(32:23):
It was higher than what thechart could measure. And doing a
little bit of reading when youhave excessive amounts of
phosphorus, you can actuallyblock the uptake of metal ions
to our our plants, our woodyplants being the first
susceptible ones to that. Andthat's what they were seeing
with that chlorosis. The plantsweren't able to take up the iron
(32:44):
and zinc and all the othermetals that they're required to
use as micronutrients. And thenpotassium, again, I'm at
optimum, so I'm just gonnaignore this phosphorus and
potassium.
I'll probably do one fertilizerapplication, and then I'll
return my clippings back to thelawn, is equivalent to another
fertilizer application. If youreturn those clippings
throughout the year, it's likeadding one pound of nitrogen
(33:06):
back to your lawn. And then allthe way down here, we have our
lime. And I don't know, Ken, I'mdebating whether or not I need
to lime this or just embrace theacidic nature of my soil. But I
can add about five pounds.
6.2 is what they have here, butyou can go get, like, lime in,
(33:26):
like, five pound bags, 25 poundbags, 50 pound bags. But, you
know, you could go put down afive pound bag of lime in a
hundred square feet and call ita day. I don't think I'm gonna
bother, though.
Ken (33:41):
Sounds like a good experiment. Do some Yes. And not
others.
Chris (33:45):
See what happens. Maybe I should do that because yeah. The
lawn does struggle. I alwaysblame my dogs and kids, though.
But I could try to put some limedown in a hundred square foot
area, mark that, and see if itdoes any different.
It's a good idea. Well, that wasa lot of great information about
soil test reports. If you havequestions about your soil test
(34:08):
reports, it it is important toknow a lot of times the labs
will have like an agronomist orsomeone who can help you
interpret these. If not, pleasefeel free. You can reach out to
your local extension office.
We're always happy to also lookat those reports with you and
maybe help guide you into whatare some recommendations
possibilities. Well, the GoodGrowing podcast is a production
(34:31):
of University of IllinoisExtension, edited this week by
me, Chris Enroth. A specialthanks, Ken. Thank you for
sharing your Luukman Garden soiltest and hanging out with me
today to chat all things soil.
Ken (34:44):
Yes. Thank you. And I'm gonna I am gonna do one this
year for our home garden. I knowI keep saying that, but this
will be the year. And I lookforward to the results of your
experiment with lime.
Chris (34:57):
Oh, me too. We'll we'll see how this goes. I already
know I've already scouted outwhere to get the little five
pound bag of lime at the farmstore. So I'll go buy that.
We'll flag out a spot.
I'll take I'll take somepictures. Maybe we can share it
on this podcast next year.Excellent.
Ken (35:16):
Let's do this again next week.
Chris (35:19):
Oh, we shall do this again next week. It's getting
hot outside. I'm gonna have tostraight out the winter clothes
for the spring clothes, andguess what else is popping up
out there? Spring ephemerals,the flowers that are there and
then gone. So we're gonna talkabout those spring ephemerals
next week.
Well, listeners, thank you fordoing what you do best and that
(35:40):
is listening or if you'rewatching this on YouTube
watching. And as always, keep ongrowing. We're gonna go right
into those details, but you knowI'm not doing this by myself. I
(36:01):
am joined as always every singleweek by Hornica sorry, Ken. And
guess what's else?
And guess what's else? I can'tsay it. And guess what else?
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!