What is a Soil Test and what can it do for my lawn?
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SOIL TESTING
The temps are rising, the snow is melting, and spring is in the air. Homeowners everywhere are starting to think about spring cleaning, the projects we’ve been thinking about all winter long, and most importantly – What fertilizer products they’re going to put down on their lawn to dominate their next door neighbors at the summer barbecues.
They hop in their cars, we drive to the jam-packed big box store to get some fertilizer. They walk in and are met with hundreds of fertilizer options from floor to ceiling. Lots of brands, lots of numbers, and lots of eye-catchy pretty packaging.
- “What do all these numbers mean?”
- “What does long-lasting mean?”
- “This one looks like it has a green lawn on it, it must be good!”
- “Covers 5,000 square feet…My house is like 2,000 square feet, so it must be good!”
- “Whoa, that’s expensive, I’ll go with this one instead…Should get the job done.”
Sound familiar? It’s OK. We’ve all been in this exact situation. Take a deep breath and let’s learn from this experience we’ve all shared together.
We’re going to answer the question “which fertilizer is best for my lawn?” right away…The answer is it depends.
It depends on what nutrients your lawn is seeking. The only way to know that? You guessed it…A soil test!
We’re going to break down everything you need to know about a soil test to a level where you feel comfortable going into the big box stores and knowing exactly what you need to get for your lawn to see success.
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What is a Soil Test?
A soil test is an Analysis of what your soil contains. Our soil is a complex system full of minerals, organic matter, living organisms, gas and water. It’s important to have a general idea of what the soil is made up of and some of the foundational aspects of what helps the soil be “healthy.”
Like many of you, we desire to have a green healthy lawn, but in order to do that, we must first have a balanced, healthy soil.
What does a Soil Test tell us? A soil test will break down our soil by each individual nutrient with inside and tell us the current levels in correlation to normal levels that a healthy soil seeks for ideal development.
The reason the answer above was ‘it depends,’ is because the results from a soil test are unique to each local area.
The results could even vary significantly from property to property, depending on what the soil has been exposed to over time.
In general, tests will break down these nutrients intro two buckets — Primary and secondary:
Primary – Macro Nutrients: Nutrients that are needed in the highest concentration.
- Nitrogen (N)
- Phosphorus (P)
- Potassium (K)
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- Also…
- Magnesium (Mg)
- Sulfer (S)
- Calcium (Ca)
Secondary – Micro Nutrients: Essential nutrients for development, but are needed in smaller concentration rates in comparison to the macro-nutrients listed above
- Boron (B)
- Zinc (Zn)
- Iron (Fe)
- Manganese (Mn)
- Copper (Cu)
- Molybdenum (Mo)
- Chorine (Cl)
A soil test will also tell us our pH and Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) levels, which are important to have, at minimum, a high level understanding of why they matter.
pH Levels: Soil pH is an indication of the acidity or alkalinity of your soil. This is measured in pH Units between 0-14, with 7 as the neutral point
.
Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC): This is an indication of the soil’s ability to retain essential nutrients to avoid becoming more acidic and is measured in mill equivalents per 100 grams of soil (meq/100g).
The depths of soil science and biology can go quite deep, we’ll save the deep sea fishing for another article. As for pH & CEC levels, these are important to understand, as it defines which nutrients will be made available to your soil and at what levels.
For example, just because you put down a product with a high dose of Phosphorous (P), if your pH level isn’t in the right spot to take it, much of what you put down will go to waste.
Performing a Soil TestThis is where most homeowners give up because it takes effort to complete (wait, we have to do things!?).
There are a few things needed in order to perform a soil test. We’ll make things easy and link them all out for you here! Tools to take a soil sample (something to get 4”-6” in depth):
Soil Probe (Best): Landzie &Amazon
- Garden Shovel (Better): Amazon
- Apple Corer (Good): Amazon
- A clean container to put soil samples in
- Ziplock bag (or what is provided from companies below)
- Ordering the soil test:
Now it’s time to take your sample!
- Mark your tool 4”-6” from the top so you know how deep you’re collecting from
- Wash hands and grab your clean container
- Collect 5-8 samples from around your yard using your tool
- Mix soil samples together inside of your container, remove any foreign objects that don’t belong
- Place in a ziplock bag
- Ship your sample to desired facility and wait for results
- Once results come back, analyze nutrient needs for your lawn and match them with the necessary products to include within your program.
Plan out your lawn season with us by subscribing to our Free Newsletter. Check out and subscribe to our YouTube Channel and follow us on Instagram.