On Solid Ground: The Benefits Of Having Your Vegetable Garden Soil Professionally Tested
Whether you're a casual hobbyist growing vegetables for your own dinner table, or a competitive gardener bringing all of your green-fingered skills to bear to grow the largest vegetables possible, the soil you grow your vegetables in is just as important to their health and growth as the water and sunlight they receive. Consequently, any vegetable grower should ensure that the soil they use is well suited to the produce they intend to grow.
Utilising professional soil testing services is one of the most effective ways to achieve this. By taking a sample of the soil in your vegetable garden and analyzing it using scientific methods and equipment, these services can tell you exactly what is (or is not) in your soil, helping you correct natural soil imbalances and determine which types of vegetables are right for the soil in your garden.
What can soil testing services test for?
Soil composition
Some vegetables grow better in coarse, sandy soils that provide rapid drainage, while others thrive in heavy, clay-rich soils that can retain large amounts of moisture during hot weather and droughts. Soil testing services can give you an extremely in-depth breakdown of the various earth and rock types that make up the soil in your growing area and advise you on the best ways to alter these compositions if they are not to your liking (for example, by adding sharp sand to clay-rich soils to improve drainage and prevent root rot).
Soil pH
Soil testing services can also test your soil to determine its acidity or alkalinity, both by directly testing the pH of a soil sample as a whole and determining the proportions of various acidic and alkaline substances within your soil, such as peat and lime. Determining the pH of your soil is particularly important if you grow fragile salad vegetables, or non-native exotic vegetables that require precise control of soil pH levels to grow properly.
Soil contaminants
Sadly, finding a patch of soil completely free of man-made contaminants becomes more difficult every day, and engaging a soil testing service may be necessary to determine whether damaging contaminants exist within the soil of your vegetable patch. Heavy metals, petroleum products and radioactive compounds are just some of the unwanted contaminants that can find their way into the soil of residential gardens and can have a dramatically adverse effect on the health and growth of your plants.
How should I have my soil professionally tested?
If you decide to have your vegetable garden soil tested, there are two ways to go about it.
The easiest and cheapest method is to purchase a soil testing kit, which usually consist of simple soil testing devices (such as litmus tests for determining soil pH) and a sealable sample jar to be filled with soil from your vegetable garden. These samples can them be posted to soil testing laboratories, who will exhaustively test your soil in various ways before returning the results to you. These tests are very inexpensive, but there tends to be a delay between sending off your sample and receiving the results.
More dedicated vegetable growers who need instant results can instead call upon the services of mobile soil testing services. These services are able to test your soil on-site using portable equipment, and can provide you with instant test results that can be acted upon that very same day.