At home soil test kit.

WillQuantrill

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With grow season approaching I realized I hadn't followed through with one of my goals to get a soil test this winter. Not entirely my fault because several emails sent in October to MU AG local extension have gone unanswered. So a very short search led me to Amazon, https://a.co/d/0baGlWoh I plan on updating this thread all the way through the process to share any pros and cons to be found and how it can be applied to tobacco making soil testing more accessible to the homegrower. My initial feeling is that typical as most other things in life, the private sector already supports a more expedient, comparable service for those that dont mind paying a small fee. Expected delivery is 13 hours.
 

WillQuantrill

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Couple days late in posting this, the soil test kit showed up in 14 hours and the next day I opened it. As you can see in the picture it has very clearly marked instructions which are quite simple. Scan the QR code on your phone it takes you to a registration page to enter an email address and start an account. There you answer a couple basic questions like how many square feet the garden is and what you intend to grow. In retrospect I probably should have picked flower/ornamental but I thought hemp might be more appropriate. I dont know anything about Hemp plant nutrition but Tobacco wasn't an option. The sample jar had a liquid in it with some sort of capsules. Even came with a measuring cup for the soil. Very simple, pour the soil in the sample cup seal the jar and put into prepaid envelope including tracking number. Instructions claim results will be posted in 6 days. Look forward to posting result numbers.
 

WillQuantrill

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Big week in Tobacco for me, even got my soil test back today. Kind of handy the results include a PDF download, more parameters than I probably need but, very useful data to amend up to! Of course "MySoil" offers suggestions on their fertilizer but should be easy to cross reference. I would appreciate input from anyone more experienced in soil testing/amendment. I have always known my PH is high but its not as bad as other tests I've done, that part seems a little more simple to fix. I am surprised Nitrogen is so low. I understand it is off-season but I have added what I though was ALOT of N into the garden last year, including a Urea based a month before transplant. It would probably be easier to list the nutrients I DON'T need (Calcium, and Sodium) to add and start there.
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deluxestogie

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Nitrogen is nearly always low after a growing season.

I would suggest correcting the pH with sulfur now (sold for azaleas and blueberries), applying a balanced fertilizer (e.g. 10-10-10), and till-in a bag or three of Black Kow manure for the micronutrients and tilth:


Bob
 

WillQuantrill

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I bought a sampler kit of testers when I bought the sample kit so they should come in handing for retesting when adding amendments. Thank you for the suggestion sir and I will get my hands on some of the good stuff.
 

WillQuantrill

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I bought 12 lbs of "Prilled Sulfur" that will require some amount of math and add a little, retest. Pretty soggy outside right now so I believe it could be spread on top and let it soak deeper for a couple weeks before I till. Apparently Black Kow is available at my local Home Depot and I can get some Fertilizer while I'm there. Think I'll stick with the "Orchid" plant food @Knucklehead turned me onto for nutrition once plants establish.
 

GreenDragon

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I see that this thread has been getting quite a lot of views, so I wanted to interject a word of caution to the general forum. The best piece of advice I can give, learned over and over again from this and my other hobbies: Do Not Chase Numbers, or in my local vernacular, "if it ain't broke, don't mess with it". Don't get me wrong, it's great to do a soil test occasionally so you know what's going on in your lawn and garden. I do so myself. This is valuable information to have to help you troubleshoot problems when they arise and for general heath and upkeep.

So what do I mean by not chasing numbers? To not fall in the trap of trying to get every parameter into the "perfect" range by getting into a cycle of action-test-action-test-action-test etc. Looking at the results a shot of sulfur and some micros would be a good addition this year. Would I bother retesting this year? No. See how the plants do, and react accordingly. For example, my soil tested out on the acidic side, so the first year I added some granular lime. My third year one bed started showing signs of nutrient deficiency, so it got another handful of lime - problem solved. The other beds were fine - no action needed.

A few other things to contemplate:
1) Those charts are for ideal conditions aimed primarily at farmers. Farmers get paid by weight / volume. Ideal conditions produce big plants with large yields. What they don't produce is flavor.
2) A little stress is a good thing. Plant's produce a variety of deterrent compounds in response to stress: aromatic oils in herbs, flavor compounds in fruits and veg, poisons (nicotine) when munched on... Ironically, these are the things people like!
3) The best tobacco I grew was in my "worst" beds in Texas. Alkaline shallow soil, high heat, and always water stressed. Those plants produced leaf that was highly aromatic, almost incense like. Looked horrible, tasted great.
 

WillQuantrill

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I see that this thread has been getting quite a lot of views, so I wanted to interject a word of caution to the general forum. The best piece of advice I can give, learned over and over again from this and my other hobbies: Do Not Chase Numbers, or in my local vernacular, "if it ain't broke, don't mess with it". Don't get me wrong, it's great to do a soil test occasionally so you know what's going on in your lawn and garden. I do so myself. This is valuable information to have to help you troubleshoot problems when they arise and for general heath and upkeep.

So what do I mean by not chasing numbers? To not fall in the trap of trying to get every parameter into the "perfect" range by getting into a cycle of action-test-action-test-action-test etc. Looking at the results a shot of sulfur and some micros would be a good addition this year. Would I bother retesting this year? No. See how the plants do, and react accordingly. For example, my soil tested out on the acidic side, so the first year I added some granular lime. My third year one bed started showing signs of nutrient deficiency, so it got another handful of lime - problem solved. The other beds were fine - no action needed.

A few other things to contemplate:
1) Those charts are for ideal conditions aimed primarily at farmers. Farmers get paid by weight / volume. Ideal conditions produce big plants with large yields. What they don't produce is flavor.
2) A little stress is a good thing. Plant's produce a variety of deterrent compounds in response to stress: aromatic oils in herbs, flavor compounds in fruits and veg, poisons (nicotine) when munched on... Ironically, these are the things people like!
3) The best tobacco I grew was in my "worst" beds in Texas. Alkaline shallow soil, high heat, and always water stressed. Those plants produced leaf that was highly aromatic, almost incense like. Looked horrible, tasted great.
Sage advice, I am capable of overthinking new processes. As this is the first time I have had the soil lab tested Im really curious what my end results turn out like amended to better levels. And for the record my cheap light/moisture/ph tester wasn't far off on PH level registering a 7, so atleast I can confirm it works.
 
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