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How to Test your Soil
You can use a basic soil test kit to test the levels of the three most important nutrients in the soil: Nitrogen, Potassium & Phosphorous. These three nutrients are most important because plants require them in large quantities but they are sometimes depleted from our soils. Doing a soil test allows you determine what fertilizers you need to add to improve your growing conditions.
What you need
- Prepared soil sample
- Glass of water
- Soil test kit
How to prepare your soil sample
- Prepare sample 24hrs before test
- Choose an area of your garden (Eg. where you want to grow vegetables)
- Take a sample of soil from the following depth
- If growing vegetables (2 – 6 inches below soil surface)
- If growing trees (6 – 12 inches below surface)
- Add sample to jar of water & allow sit over night
Carrying out the soil test
- For each of the NPK test chambers
- Extract water from the jar of your soil sample (Using the pipette)
- Take water from the top 2cm of the soil sample
- Place water into the left side of the test chamber. Continue until full
- Next using the pipette, take water from your glass of normal water and fill the right side of the water chamber
- Next take your test capsule and add entire contents to the left side of the test chamber
- Close the chamber, shake well and then allow to settle
- After 30 minutes view the test chamber left side & compare it against the indicator on the right side
- This will help you determine whether your soil is surplus or deficient in that particular nutrient
