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Soil Testing, Part 2

© Deborah Turton

I'll cover some more soil testing procedures this month. But first a reminder. If your plants are healthy and doing fine, you probably don't need a soil test. Soil tests tell you about your soil. As an organic gardener, your goal is to have healthy soil to have healthy plants. So, for the average gardener, your plants are the best indicator of how healthy your soil is. However, if you want to produce the sweetest vegetables for the fair or the biggest flowers for the competition, a soil test may help you determine any limiting factors in the soil

Biological Activity One way to see if your soil is healthy is to gauge how biologically active it is. Healthy soil is biologically active. This means that there are lots of creatures in it that are living and breathing. A test for biological activity tests the amount of carbon dioxide, CO2, produced by your soil creatures. If this tests shows that your soil is not very biologically active, you can add compost, organic matter, and even innoculants to your soil. To find a test try the Biocontrol Network http://www.biconet.com/soil/arbicoSoilTe... or Peaceful Valley Farms http://www.groworganic.com/ this test is relatively inexpensive.

Biological Enumeration So now you know if your soil is alive or not. But do you know if you have the right types of organisms for each type of garden and lawn? Biological enumeration is basically counting what types and how many of each type of microorganism you have in your soil. It's not a cheap test, and therefore may not be that useful for a beginning gardener. This would be helpful if you're trying to maximize output, for example if you're selling your produce and need to make as much profit as possible. You send in soil samples to a qualified lab, and they determine the type and number of organisms present. The lab will also want to know what you're growing. You'll find out what types of creatures you have and what types you should have. Different organisms improve yields for different fruits, vegetables and grains. The soil food web http://www.soilfoodweb.com/ or BBC Labs http://www.bbc-labs.com can give you information about what types of organisms should be where in your garden. Then by adding microorganisms or changing your gardening techniques you can encourage the right types of microorganism to flourish.

Pesticide Testing The last type of soil testing I'm going to discuss is pesticide testing. Right off the bat, I'll tell you that unless you have a specific reason for looking for a specific pesticide, you probably won't want to do this. First, if you look hard enough you will find pesticides everywhere. They come down in the rain, they're carried on the wind and swept along in the water. Many people have had their houses sprayed for termites at sometime. This particular pesticide lasts a long time. Second, pesticide testing can be very expensive. Tests start at $100 and go up to $300 per pesticide. Third, you do need to have some idea of what pesticide you are looking for. You simply can't give a sample to a lab and tell them to determine which pesticides are present. If spray from a farmer's field is falling on your house, you should find out what type of crop is growing there, and what pesticides are used on it. If your neighbor uses a lawn care company, just ask them what they're spraying. Do as much research as needed to find out which pesticide is drifting onto your property.