Soil Tester - EBOOK

Introduction to gardening and soil testing

Introduction to gardening

Starting your garden can be an overwhelming and stressful experience. Most novice gardeners have a long list of questions swamping their minds. Where and when should I begin planting? How many plants are enough? Which plants will grow the best in my garden? Is an outdoor garden better than an indoor one? While all your queries are valid, remember that gardening should be a fun and therapeutic activity for you and your plants.

Fortunately, you do not need to be a green thumb expert to begin gardening! Keep reading this soil tester eBook to find out exactly what you need to know to get started with your gardening project.

Planning your garden

You will want to give your gardening plan considerable thought before you begin buying plants and sowing them in soil. First-time gardeners will typically make the common mistake of setting up a garden that is too large to handle and will then struggle to take care of it. If you have little to no experience with gardening, you will want to start small. An established gardening plan takes into account the resources you have available and how to use them for your gardening project effectively.

You will want to think about the following aspects to kick-start your garden:

·????????Location. How much space can you commit to your garden? It may range from a few planter boxes to an entire outdoor yard. Additionally, keep in mind that some plants need more space to grow, and others need less. Spacing your plants reduces the likelihood of a plant disease epidemic spreading. For reference, ten rows of vegetable plants will demand that your garden size be at least thirty feet wide.

·????????Soil. Even the hardiest plants will struggle to grow in poor quality soil. Ideally, you will want organic soil that is light, loose, and well-drained. The amount of moisture that your soil can retain, its pH levels, and its nutrient content are all key to growing a healthy plant. A soil tester kit can help you profile your soil better and know its growth potential. This information is useful in choosing a fertilizer for your soil.

.????????Plant type. Which plants do you want to grow? You can choose from a vast selection of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers. You must understand the growth requirements for your selected plants. How much sunlight do they need every day? Which hardiness zone suits them most? How often should you water them? Some plants are low-maintenance, while others require constant attention. Choose your plants wisely!

(Pro-tip: Always focus on growing plants that excite you. Being passionate about your plants helps make gardening fun and interesting. Gardening is easy if you learn how to enjoy it!)

Soil testing

Soil testing involves a tool called a ‘soil tester’ that has sensors attached, which are used to analyze the soil in your garden. If you want to optimize your garden’s plant growth, you will need to pay close attention to your soil. Measuring the health and suitability of your soil is an essential deciding factor in making your garden plan. Most soil tests are conducted for gardeners to be able to determine whether or not a crop will be able to thrive in particular soil composition and what needs to be done in case inadequacies are present.

Find out more information about soil testing and diagnosis in section two: ‘Why is soil testing important?’

Starting small with your garden

Your long-term goal may be to have your organic vegetable garden or a charming outdoor landscape for you to relax in, but it is strongly recommended that you take one simple step at a time. Starting small is useful as it lets you be able to test the waters and gives you room to experiment with gardening. It will help you understand how much time you can take out for your plants every day, whether your outdoor environment suits the plants that you have chosen to nurture, and how well you can manage your gardening project. Additionally, starting small is also budget-friendly because you will not have to immediately spend a vast sum of money on plant seeds, gardening tools, fertilizers, and pesticides.

Where do I begin?

Start with vegetables and fruits that you enjoy eating. By allowing your taste buds to decide which plants to grow, you will come to see gardening as an exciting activity instead of a chore that needs to be taken care of regularly. It will also give you a glimpse of a garden to kitchen cooking experience. You can begin by growing vegetables such as carrots, beans, radishes, spinach, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Just follow these vegetable gardening tips to make sure your plants are in good hands:

·????????Use your garden space resourcefully. Most beginners prefer sowing their plant seeds in seed trays and transplanting them into large pots or the ground itself after the first true leaves emerge. Once outdoors, arrange your vegetable plants in neatly spaced out rows with maximum exposure to sunlight.

·????????Position tall vegetable varieties such as tomatoes and okra at the back of your yard so that they do not cast shade on the shorter plants such as radishes and broccoli. Your vegetable garden should be grown in ascending order of height viewed from the front.

·????????You will have to be concerned about replanting your vegetables quickly if they are fast-growing varieties. Place fast-maturing vegetables between larger ones. Grouping vegetables, according to maturity, make replanting easy.

·????????Vine crops and wall creepers are slightly tricky to deal with, especially if you are starting with your gardening project. However, if you still decide to grow them, know that you will need a trellis or a physical structure to support their long plant body.

Fresh produce from an organic vegetable garden.

Why is soil testing important?

Nutritional soil compost.

What is soil testing?

Soil testing is a useful soil diagnostic process that lets you be able to gauge the setting that your plants will be growing in. It is a plant culture method that is best put into practice before you sow your seeds. Such an environmental assessment can help you decide whether a particular site or location has the ideal soil conditions to assist healthy plant growth. From the previous section, you have already learned about how critical soil quality is to growing plants. Soil moisture, pH levels, and availability of sunshine are all significant factors that influence your plant’s growth.

These factors play a dominant role in impacting the following in your garden:

·????????Nutrient leeching

·????????Growth of bacteria

·????????Availability of nutrients

·????????Toxic waste elements

·????????Structure of your soil

Your plants deserve the best soil to flourish.

Why is soil testing important?

Soil pH levels scale.

Soil testing is the chief analysis used in assessing your plant’s soil nutrient content. Most fertile soils will lie in the pH range of 6 to 6.5, perhaps 7 at most. Such soils readily have almost all macronutrients available for plant absorption. However, if the pH level rises, it is usually an indication that certain minerals and nutrients are scarce in your garden soil. For example, metals such as phosphorus lie within the 6.0 to 7.0 pH range in soil. A higher pH level may indicate that there is not enough decomposed organic material available to contribute to phosphorus content in the soil. Meanwhile, if the soil pH is much higher than 6.5, then iron becomes unavailable for plant absorption.

Soil testing can help you capture an accurate picture of the issues plaguing your soil content, along with what needs to be done to address those soil deficiencies. You do not need to spend vast sums of money on fertilizer, especially if it is not required. A soil tester can help you save a lot of money that would have otherwise been spent on fertilizer used to pamper your plants. Over-fertilizing your plants can be just as bad as forcing your plants to grow in infertile soil. Worst case scenario, over-fertilizing may lead to nutrient burn, which is difficult for plants to recover from. Soil testing helps avoid these mishaps from occurring by letting you take calculated decisions every step of the way.

Don’t spoil your soil, perform a soil test!

What does soil testing show?

Corn plants suffering from phosphorus deficiency.

A soil test can reveal whether your soil’s current fertility levels are optimal for plant growth or not. By measuring pH levels, a soil test can pinpoint which nutrients are not as abundant as others in your garden soil. Apart from nutrient balance, this test also measures soil moisture tension, which is a vital characteristic of soil. After all, it is necessary for your plant’s roots to be able to breathe freely under the ground, while having enough water to soak up through their tips. By discovering your soil’s ability to be able to retain water well, you will know how much water your plants will need every week and how frequently they will need it too. Finally, a soil test can also evaluate how much sunlight a plant will be able to get sitting at a particular spot in your garden.

What is a soil tester?

A soil tester is a device that measures your soil’s physical properties and displays them on a meter. Our 3-in-1 soil tester is a gardening buddy that you must have in your toolbox, especially if you are new to learning the ropes of gardening. All you have to do is plug in the probed end in your garden soil (4 to 6 inches deep in the ground) and wait for the readings to change before you can note them down. Leave the soil tester in the ground for a few minutes before you pull it out.

It is a highly precise sensor-powered device that comes with the following:

·????????pH sensor. This sensor measures the activity of hydrogen ions in your soil. Add a few drops of water to your garden soil before using our soil tester for accurate results. If you suspect a nutrient imbalance in your soil, a pH sensor can help you out! This durable piece of equipment shows whether your soil is acidic or alkaline.

·????????Light sensor. Are you worried that your plants are not getting enough sunlight? Your plants can not photosynthesize without adequate amounts of daylight available. This light sensor measures ‘Day Light Integral’, or DLI, in moles. It quantifies the amount of sunlight available to your plants.

·????????Moisture sensor. By inserting the soil tester in the ground, this device can record and display the volumetric water content in percentage by measuring the dielectric permittivity of soil. Soil moisture levels that fall between 5 to 12 percent are considered optimal.

What are the components of soil testing?

Soil testing is one of the most accurate means of determining the nutrient needs of your soil. The purpose is to ensure that vital macronutrients and micronutrients are available for healthy plant growth. The basic components of soil are minerals, organic matter, water, and air. Typically, soil contains 45% minerals, 5% organic matter, 20 to 30% water, and 20 to 30% air.

This section deals with the components of soil testing in detail.

Components of soil testing

Effective soil testing should accurately be able to capture the nutrient levels in a particular area. In specific, we are interested in the concentration of macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients include elements such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Sulphur (S), Calcium (Ca), and Magnesium (Mg). Meanwhile, micronutrients include Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Boron (B), Manganese (Mn), Copper (Cu), and Molybdenum (Mo).

Macronutrients

Macronutrients are also called essential elements because they are required by plants in large amounts to be able to grow well. Plants need macronutrients to make structures such as carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and other organic compounds. They are also used in the synthesis of vitamins, storing energy in the form of ATP, regulating nutrient transport, and supporting the function of enzymes. As a gardener, you need to know that macronutrients are an essential component of soil for plants. The purpose of soil testing is to find out whether or not these macronutrients are available in sufficient quantities.

Micronutrients

Micronutrients are elements that are needed by plants in smaller quantities. Despite their low requirement, they are critical to plant functions. The absence of micronutrients in soil may result in plant abnormalities, stunted growth, and reduced yield. The seven micronutrients listed above are the ones that are critical to meeting your crop’s needs. The availability of micronutrients in the soil is controlled by the balance between soil solution, organic matter, and cation exchange sites. You need to keep a check on micronutrient concentration because some soils are naturally deficient. For example, sandy soils will usually not have enough micronutrients and organic material to support plant growth.

Note: When it comes to nutrients, balance is vital. Too much or too little of any type of nutrient may result in plant growth complications. For example, soil that is deficient in calcium can cause tomato plants to develop blossom-end rot. Meanwhile, land that is excessively abundant in nitrogen content will cause your plant to grow plenty of leaves, but not enough flowers and fruits.

Always remember that plants require macronutrients and micronutrients in appropriate quantities.

Other components of soil testing

A successful soil test should be able to holistically reflect the different component concentrations of your soil other than just mineral content. While nutrients are necessary for plant growth, they are not the only aspect you want to focus your soil testing efforts towards. Soil testing should be able to gauge:

·????????Moisture levels

·????????Soil pH

·????????Sunlight intensity

The relationship between pH and nutrients

Now that you are familiar with the macronutrients and micronutrients needed for crop cultivation, the next step is to explore and understand the relationship between pH and nutrients.

Your garden soil pH is rated on a scale from one to fourteen, where one means ‘most acidic’ and fourteen means ‘most alkaline.’ The central value is seven for neutral soil (neither acidic nor alkaline). Having the right soil pH is vital because it enables your plants to be able to absorb nutrients from the earth. For example, elements such as phosphorus and potassium cannot be absorbed by your plant’s roots if the pH level is not suitable, even if they are present in your garden soil in generous quantities. Alternatively, if your soil pH is too acidic, then the solubility of minerals such as manganese may increase to dangerous levels.

Testing your soil’s pH and estimating nutrient concentration go hand-in-hand.

Laboratory soil testing

Soil sampling and chemical testing.

It is possible to evaluate and analyze the components of soil in a laboratory that conducts soil tests. While not available everywhere, most areas will have a soil testing lab.

How does laboratory soil testing work?

Laboratory soil testing requires that you collect a sample of your soil that is generally representative of your entire garden’s soil composition, and send it to a lab for chemical testing. An extracting solution is used to pull out specific elements (that need to be tested) from the soil. The best extracting solution is one that can remove the same amount of a particular soil component as is absorbed by a plant. The purpose is to form a correlation between the amount of a specific mineral available in your soil and how much of it is successfully absorbed through plant uptake.

How does laboratory soil testing fall short of expectations?

Soil tests performed in a laboratory setting are far from ideal compared to what the average gardener would expect. A garden is a live environment, and it is not possible to closely replicate your garden’s features such as climate, light intensity, insects, drainage, and other physical aspects in a laboratory. Additionally, results also depend on whether or not the soil sample is truly representative of the entire garden, accurate laboratory analysis, and correct interpretation of lab results. It is a challenging process that is not free from errors along the way.

Presenting the 3-in-1 soil tester to the rescue

The most common source of error when it comes to laboratory soil testing is the sample itself. Different samples from different areas of your garden are incredibly heterogeneous. No two handfuls of soil in your garden will have the exact same components in identical amounts. As a result, the conclusions of laboratory soil tester are not generalizable!

How does it save you the trouble?

The 3-in-1 soil tester saves you the hassle of collecting multiple garden soil samples, waiting for days before you get your soil test report, and attempting to interpret the results. You can test the pH, moisture level, and sunlight intensity of the exact spot where you want to grow your plants. You can do so multiple times without exhausting your soil tester. It only takes a few minutes, is cost-effective, and it does not involve complicated chemical testing! A soil tester lets you quickly assess the different components of your soil. It is as simple as reading a few numerical values from the soil tester meter.

Think of the 3-in-1 soil tester as your reliable gardening companion.

Which soils are best for gardening?

Do you want a bountiful garden where plants can thrive? You will need to start at the bottom by building your soil.

What are the different types of soils?

Different plants have different soil requirements. Some plants are hardy enough to be able to grow well in clay soil, which is typically challenging to make use of while cultivating plants. Meanwhile, other plants need to be pampered and grow best in loam, which is a balanced soil type that is a combination of sand, silt, and clay. Here are the six main soil types that you need to be familiar with:

Sandy Soil

Sandy soil is fast-draining, warms up quickly in summer, and dries out easily. It is suitable for growing root crops such as carrots, turnips, radishes, and parsnips. However, please note that sandy soil is usually nutrient deficient, so you may have to make use of compost and fertilizer as required by your plants.

Clay Soil

Clay soil is made up of fine mineral particles and moisture. It is lumpy in texture and sticks together if you try to hold it in your hands. Clay soil is rich in nutrients, but it does not drain quickly and does not have nearly enough air pockets underground. Ornamental grasses, flowers, and fruit trees (such as apple and pear) have no trouble growing in clay soil.

Peaty Soil

Peaty soil is one of the most fertile soil suited for growing plants. It is light-weight and spongy in texture. However, the acidic nature of peaty soil may require pH amendments to be made. It can hold water well without waterlogging your plants either. Shrubs, grasses, herbs, fruit crops, and vegetable plants are suited to growing in well-drained peaty soil.

Silty Soil

Think of the texture of silty soil as being a mixture of sandy soil and clay soil. It is a soft soil that is rich in minerals, drains well, and is easy for you to manage. Almost every vegetable and fruit plant will grow well in silty soil. It is recommended that you introduce organic matter and compost to your silty soil for maximum nutrient coverage.

Chalky Soil

Chalk is calcium carbonate. Chalky soil is made up of chalk and limestone deposits. Owing to the presence of such minerals, it is alkaline (7.1 to 8.0 on the pH scale). The use of appropriate fertilizers and hummus can help lower the pH and balance the availability of nutrients. This fast-draining soil is suitable for growing vegetables such as spinach, beet, cabbage, and sweetcorn.

Loamy Soil

Loamy soil is the ideal soil type for growing most plants. It is a combination of sand, silt, and clay. It can hold moisture well and drains adequately without running the risk of waterlogging your plants. It is rich in nutrients and easy to cultivate. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, pepper, onion, and cucumbers will grow exceptionally well in a loamy soil garden.

Characteristics of good gardening soil

As the famous saying goes ‘feed the soil, not the plant’, your focus must be to develop long-lasting and nutrient-rich soil. Here are the defining characteristics of soil that is suitable for gardening:

·????????Fast-draining. Soil that is fast draining seeps through the ground quickly, without drowning your plants. Ideal soil drainage rate is approximately 2 inches per hour. For a drainage rate that is less than 1 inch per hour, you will need to address your soil’s drainage.

·????????Well-aerated. Plants breathe air locked under the ground through their root tips. Well-aerated soil has plenty of oxygen pockets for the respiration of roots and aerobic microbes. Soil that is loose and light-weight will usually be well-aerated.

·????????Good soil structure. Soil structure refers to how different soil particles bound together to form crumbs. A good soil structure is one in which the clumps of soil do not easily break when they are dug up and have enough room for roots to spread unobstructed. ?

Can I fix my gardening soil?

It does not matter whether you have silty, peat, or sandy soil. There are plenty of ways that you can improve the quality of your gardening soil.

Using a soil tester

Soil tester placed next to root plants.

First, use the 3-in-1 soil tester to form a soil profile. A soil test can help you understand the current situation of your gardening soil and what needs to be done to address potential issues that are holding back plant growth. It can help you determine whether your soil lies in the optimum pH range, how much moisture your soil is capable of holding, which nutrients may or may not be present, and how much sunlight exposure your soil receives.

Fixing your gardening soil

Now that you are aware of where your soil is lacking, it is time to solve those problems. Here are some common gardening soil problems and how to counter them:

·????????To improve water drainage, add sandy soil, build raised beds, or introduce more organic matter.?

·????????To make your soil less acidic, apply lime compounds such as agricultural limestone or dolomite.

·????????To make your soil less alkaline, add products such as elemental Sulphur, acidifying nitrogen, and mulches.

·????????To improve soil porosity and add empty pockets of air, add well-rotted animal manure. It helps microorganisms in the ground make the soil more porous.

Maintaining your gardening soil

Building fertile soil takes a lot of time, effort, and energy. Now that you have good gardening soil in your yard, remember to take care of it!

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