How To Take A Soil Sample
Assessing the pH and nutrient levels of your soil can help you manage problematic lawns better and help you to maintain your lawn.
There are 2 options on how you can test your soil:
- Use at home soil test kit
- Send soil sample to your local agricultural college
Soil Testing Kits For Home Use:
We now keep in stock easy to use soil testing kits. They have the reagents for testing pH, Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus. They only require a small soil sample to mix with the reagents. The kit has a full set of instructions and indicator sheets to identify the pH, N, P & K levels in your soil. It can do up to 40 tests. Soil testing kits are availble via this link: Soil Testing Kit
Agricultural College Soil Testing:
You can find you local agricultural college online and drop off a soil sample for them to analyse. They will be able to determine the pH, P & K levels in your soil. Ask about N levels, not all colleges include this in a basic soil sample analysis. They will need around 300g of uncontaminted soil to anaylse. Here is how to collect your sample:
- Get a desertspoon from the dishwasher and a large food freezer bag.
- Only touch the handle of the spoon and the outside of the bag
- With the spoon dig down 5-7.5cm (2-3") below the surface of your lawn
- Take a small sample and put it straight into the freezer bag.
- Do Not Touch The Soil With Your Hands
- Carry on doing this across your lawn in a W shape until you have around 300g of soil from that lawn.
- If you are sending samples of multiply lawns please bag soil from each lawn separatly. It can amaze you the diffrence in soil types and nutrient levels between a front and back lawn.