Soil Testing

I had a 'Fothergills' soil test test, fiddly and you could test the same sample of soil and get widely different readings.
2 Questions ... anybody found a good soil test kit - in US they seem to rave about the 'Rapitest' the problem is the reviews in UK are all negative.
On several posts they say in US local university will carry out soil tests for free.
I'm sure nothing wil be free in UK ,..... but is anybody aware of reasonable solid test lab?
RHS does it at £33 per sample - but excl Nitrogen which is a key test I want.
As they say to take multiple sample .. this could easily be several hundred pounds.

Just after standard NPK values.

 

Why do you feel you need to know the level of nitrogen in your soil?

 

If you have farmers store Wynnstay near you, they do it

 

NPK are the 3 standard measures of soil efficacy along with PH, a shortage will reduce green leaf development. I'm also testing soil in my lawn ... Nitrogen for lawn is important for green grass

 

do you know how much ?

 

what are you trying to achieve?
If we know that then we can give appropriate advice.

Pretty much all soils contain enough NPK to support plant life.
If you look outside at this time of year, you'll see a lot of green everywhere.
That means that all the soil wherever you see green has enough nitrogen with no need for more, and almost none of that is achieved by the use of additional fertilizers.

Different parts of your garden will contain varying amounts of nitrogen and trying to change the chemistry of soil is not an easy process. But it is easy to mess up.
It's all about having the right balance of nutrients.
Too much of one, can cause problems elsewhere.

If you want to green-up your grass, you can use chicken pellets (organic) or a nitrogen fertilizer such as Chempak 2

If you want info on the general type of soil and pH you have in your area, pop your postcode into this site and it'll tell you

LandIS - Land Information System - Soilscapes soil types viewer

 

Your comments agree with me ..... What I am trying to achieve is to understand the nutrient condition of my 3 veg plots & my lawn.
If I know what the NPK values are I can decided if I need to apply appropriate action to adjust.

For example i have put a lot of rotted cow manure in my plots, so that could have impacted NPK levels ... certainly pushed it too acidic, which I corrected with Lime.

I could as you say just add chicken pellets, but it could also be necessary, without knowing.
My underlying soli type is clay .. and this can cause a build up of Phospates, many lawns are damaged by excess phospates.

 

I've been gardening for 50+ years and never had the need to check the soil chemistry in my gardens, so can't advise.
Hopefully you'll get an answer.
I wish you the best of luck.

 

I think you can get too scientific, growing in the soil, and gardening in general, is not an exact science.

 

I have bee gardening even longer than that ..
but duration is not really rekevant.

 

I'm not trying to be too scientific, this is not a weekly test ...but a once in a decade assessment.
The tools exist to check your soil, J see not to do so.
People rush to buy different formulatik of NPK feeds? But seem unwilling to know what is actually needed.

 

There's nothing to beat many years of experience to judge how a plant is growing, if it needs help and if so, how to help it.

 

Wynnstay charge £15 for one of their offerings, but the friend who ordered it never got results back - sample too small he thought

 

The Soil Association has a list of names under their soil testing section. In addition, a simple ‘soil testing’ Google highlighted several other companies which appear to achieve what you want. Think like a farmer, they get soil testing done all the time. I also know growers who exhibit dahlias get soil tested regularly as their plots can get a build up of phosphorus - it must be possible on a small scale basis.