Tips for soil sampling in Georgia

contest. This is the same idea with a soil test and the resulting soil test report from the lab. Soil testing is a game plan for success in your soil use activities. Today, I will be sharing tips for soil sampling by using information provided by Leticia Sonon and David Kissell, UGA Soil Test Lab.

For starters, technically developing and maintaining a productive soil begins with a soil test. A properly taken soil test will provide information on the soil’s actual nutrient status. Soil test results will then help in establishing liming and fertilizing recommendations for that soil use activity. An activity could be vegetable gardening, maintaining a home lawn or growing a corn crop for example.

Any time of year is a good time to soil test, but the key is allowing enough time for the report to return and for the application of the lime or fertilizer. Note, lime is a slow reacting substance and should be mixed with the soil two to three months before planting. In theory, fall is the best time to sample because soil is normally dry and easier to sample. Once you establish a medium or high fertility level, it is suggested that lawn and ornamental planting spots are sampled every 2- 3 years.

Vegetable garden spots need to be sampled every 1- 2 years.

To send soil samples to the UGA Soil Test Lab, you will bring samples to our office and we will package and mail samples for $ 9 each. Results normally return from the lab in 5- 6 working days.

One thing that confuses some people is soil pH. For most items we grow, they like a pH range in the 6.0 to 6.5 range. We have a tendency to be more acidic or lower pH in our area. When pH is low, any fertilizer you add may not be utilized as completely as you would like. Plus, I go back to taking out the guesswork. There are basically liming and fertilizing recommendations you can find online, but a soil test will tell you what you specifically need to do for the soil you are working with on your property. You cannot get more specific than getting a recommendation for your soil.

I would like to use the home lawn example for taking soil samples. First, you are going to need sampling tools. The tools need to be clean as well as the container to hold the samples. Never use tools or containers that have held fertilizer or lime before. Your digging tool can be a trowel, shovel, spade or hand probe, for example. We have a few soil probes that can be checked out from our office if you choose.

You need to know the correct sampling depth for what you are testing. For lawns, sam- ple to a depth of four inches. That would be the same depth for a pasture. For gardens, ornamental, mixed fruit trees and wildlife plots, sample to a depth of six inches. For sampling a lawn, for example, you need to use a zigzag approach when taking samples and randomly stop 8-10 times for soil collect. You want to get samples from all of the areas of the lawn. When you take an individual sample, clear the ground surface of any debris. Push the tool to the desired depth in the soil, which is four inches in this example.

Push the handle of tool forward to make a wide opening. You will then cut a thin slice from the side of the opening that is .25” thick, 2 inches wide and extending from the top of the ground to the depth of the cut. Each sample taken will go into the clean container. The container is suggested to be a plastic container and not a metal container to avoid sample contamination. When you take all of the samples, you will need to mix all of the samples together and bring in one pint of the mixed soil. Try to take out any rocks, sticks, grass clippings or other debris.

Since most all soil in the area is wet this time of year, you need to air dry the mixed sample overnight before bringing to the office. You can dry the samples on a flat surface on a clean white paper. You can pick up an official soil sample bag prior or you can take the sample and bring to us in a zip lock or a plastic bag to save a trip. For large areas such as a pasture, a sampling procedure should not represent more than 15 acres for a sample.

For more information, contact UGA Extension- Gordon County at 706- 629- 8685 or email gbowman@ uga. edu.