Posting A Soil Test for Interpretation
Posted: August 26th, 2012, 11:07 am
NOTE: During the Soil Test Busy Season (March 1 to May 15), soil test interpretations are only performed for Members that (a) have been active members with nontrivial posts for 90 days or more, and (b) are submitted by the owner of the lawn/garden (no third-party submissions). A Member may submit only one test results page during the Busy Season.
Sampling for a soil test, presenting the results and getting through an Interpretation are steps that will get you off on the right foot to building a good plan for the soil and your lawn or garden. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you go through the process:
(1) Read "Soil Management Part 1" in the Articles area. This article lays out the groundwork (pun intended) to knowing what you are doing and why you are doing it.
(2) Make sure you sample correctly. Lots of samples from the areas that you care about makes for a better picture. If there are areas that are quite different, or you've been treating them differently, consider multiple tests. Sample the inch between 3" and 4" for lawns, no matter what your lab says. For gardens, sample at 6". We don't want to be interpreting your subsoil, and that can happen if you sample at 6" and your topsoil is 4", which is very common especially in new construction.
(3) Use a Lab we know. To you, all labs may seem the same, but their testing processes are very different. We can't know them all. Use Logan Labs (preferred because they have ALL the items we look for). Your local lab's test will get you a recommendation to retest. We will ignore postings with unknown tests.
A submission form for Logan Labs that is specific to BL/ATY users is at:
BL/ATY Logan Labs Submission Form
Note: if you are in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, the Austin, TX or the Twin Cities (MN) area, request "Ammonium Acetate extraction of cations" in your submission.
(4) Use a screen snipping tool to post the results, or convert it to a JPG and store it on a photo-sharing site (turn Family Safe on please). Manually-entered info often has omissions or errors. An entry error leads to bad interpretations - "garbage in, garbage out". Windows 7/10 has a great free snipping tool - use it. Other operating systems have tools either built-in or available as freeware - use them. If you post something that is manually-entered with multiple test result sets, it is very hard to read - and you'll be at the bottom of the heap of tests to be interpreted by the volunteers. Don't cry.
(5) Subscribe to your posting topic. This will get you notifications by email when there are questions. If you drive-by and post and don't visit BL/ATY for days on end, your posting is going to get buried in the traffic and you'll be forgotten as lots of new traffic comes in. Respond to questions in a reasonable timeframe before the Interpreter forgets what your scenario was all about.
If you do all of the above, your soil test will generally be reviewed and responded to within 24 hours (except in busy season), by one or more of the of the "official" interpreters (Andy, Morph). All of the people that are "official" have been through an "apprenticeship program" to make sure that the results are consistent from person to person - we each have our own approaches, but discuss differences in a non-public forum to make sure that you won't get conflicting advice.
(6) Give us background. Provide your square footage in the "Lawn Size" field in your Profile. We can't advise about how much of something to buy if we don't know whether you have 300 sq ft of soil or 3 acres. Also, tell us about your grass type, mowing and irrigation habits, chronic diseases in the grass, and your goals for the lawn/soil, Letting us know whether you prefer simple or "best" approaches helps a lot, although the amount of work increases with advanced approaches. Also, provide the level of your lawn care experience in the "Experience" field of your Profile.
(7) Post soil results in the Soils Forum. If you bury your soil test in a general question on another topic, we may very well miss it. It is almost impossible these days to read every posting in every topic. Also, do NOT post the results as an additional post to last year's thread - that will cause us to miss your posting. If possible, add the year in the title, like "Bob's Soil Test Results - 2023".
(8) Put a Link to your soil test into the "Soil Test Interpretation Queue". That's the waiting line.
(9) Try to avoid PM's discussing your soil test. If everything isn't in one place (your thread), there is no way to go back and read the activity and history. Soil Test Interpreters get lots of PM's, and there is a limit to how many PM's are stored - then they are automatically thrown away.
(10) Most of the time, the Nitrogen component of a fertilization plan is left to the OP's discretion. There are too many options and every individual has their preferences and variations. As Nitrogen does not materially affect the soil chemistry, it is not specified. If you wish us to recommend a Nitrogen component in your plan, please request it.
Sampling for a soil test, presenting the results and getting through an Interpretation are steps that will get you off on the right foot to building a good plan for the soil and your lawn or garden. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you go through the process:
(1) Read "Soil Management Part 1" in the Articles area. This article lays out the groundwork (pun intended) to knowing what you are doing and why you are doing it.
(2) Make sure you sample correctly. Lots of samples from the areas that you care about makes for a better picture. If there are areas that are quite different, or you've been treating them differently, consider multiple tests. Sample the inch between 3" and 4" for lawns, no matter what your lab says. For gardens, sample at 6". We don't want to be interpreting your subsoil, and that can happen if you sample at 6" and your topsoil is 4", which is very common especially in new construction.
(3) Use a Lab we know. To you, all labs may seem the same, but their testing processes are very different. We can't know them all. Use Logan Labs (preferred because they have ALL the items we look for). Your local lab's test will get you a recommendation to retest. We will ignore postings with unknown tests.
A submission form for Logan Labs that is specific to BL/ATY users is at:
BL/ATY Logan Labs Submission Form
Note: if you are in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, the Austin, TX or the Twin Cities (MN) area, request "Ammonium Acetate extraction of cations" in your submission.
(4) Use a screen snipping tool to post the results, or convert it to a JPG and store it on a photo-sharing site (turn Family Safe on please). Manually-entered info often has omissions or errors. An entry error leads to bad interpretations - "garbage in, garbage out". Windows 7/10 has a great free snipping tool - use it. Other operating systems have tools either built-in or available as freeware - use them. If you post something that is manually-entered with multiple test result sets, it is very hard to read - and you'll be at the bottom of the heap of tests to be interpreted by the volunteers. Don't cry.
(5) Subscribe to your posting topic. This will get you notifications by email when there are questions. If you drive-by and post and don't visit BL/ATY for days on end, your posting is going to get buried in the traffic and you'll be forgotten as lots of new traffic comes in. Respond to questions in a reasonable timeframe before the Interpreter forgets what your scenario was all about.
If you do all of the above, your soil test will generally be reviewed and responded to within 24 hours (except in busy season), by one or more of the of the "official" interpreters (Andy, Morph). All of the people that are "official" have been through an "apprenticeship program" to make sure that the results are consistent from person to person - we each have our own approaches, but discuss differences in a non-public forum to make sure that you won't get conflicting advice.
(6) Give us background. Provide your square footage in the "Lawn Size" field in your Profile. We can't advise about how much of something to buy if we don't know whether you have 300 sq ft of soil or 3 acres. Also, tell us about your grass type, mowing and irrigation habits, chronic diseases in the grass, and your goals for the lawn/soil, Letting us know whether you prefer simple or "best" approaches helps a lot, although the amount of work increases with advanced approaches. Also, provide the level of your lawn care experience in the "Experience" field of your Profile.
(7) Post soil results in the Soils Forum. If you bury your soil test in a general question on another topic, we may very well miss it. It is almost impossible these days to read every posting in every topic. Also, do NOT post the results as an additional post to last year's thread - that will cause us to miss your posting. If possible, add the year in the title, like "Bob's Soil Test Results - 2023".
(8) Put a Link to your soil test into the "Soil Test Interpretation Queue". That's the waiting line.
(9) Try to avoid PM's discussing your soil test. If everything isn't in one place (your thread), there is no way to go back and read the activity and history. Soil Test Interpreters get lots of PM's, and there is a limit to how many PM's are stored - then they are automatically thrown away.
(10) Most of the time, the Nitrogen component of a fertilization plan is left to the OP's discretion. There are too many options and every individual has their preferences and variations. As Nitrogen does not materially affect the soil chemistry, it is not specified. If you wish us to recommend a Nitrogen component in your plan, please request it.