A website from UGA Cooperative Extension

For lawns, gardens and food plots to be highly productive the first step is to understand your soil. We are not going to get that deep into agronomy today, but we are going to talk about the most basic thing you can do to improve your success with the plants that you grow.

Take a soil sample. Soil sampling not only tells you the pH of the soil but also can tell you nutrient levels, and organic matter. Additionaly the sample can give you an idea of the buffering capacity of your soil. Soil with a high buffer capacity requires larger amounts of lime to raise the pH but applications are made less frequently. The opposit is true for soils with low buffer capacities.

Often we lime to increase pH to the 6.0 to 6.5 range. This helps with availability of necessary plant nutrients as seen above.

You will also get a detailed recommendation for applying fertilizer to the crop you are trying to grow. These recommendations can be offered on almost anything you can think of other than tropical fruits like pineapples.

To take a soil sample you need to get at least 15 cores from the area being tested. These cores should be in the 4″ – 6″ range and can all be mixed together for one random sample. Sample differing areas separately as seen below. The nmore cores you put into the sample, the more useful your report will be.

Once you get your results you can contact your county Agent , or call 800-ASK-UGA1 for a full explanation of the recommendations.

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