From

Location

Message

Date Posted

San Diego

I'm looking ahead to next season with soil testing. My area of dirt is small, say 75 sq ft or so. I want to get my soil tested but there is a small area(four by five feet) that I ammended this year in the middle of my soil. Can I get an accurate test without having to take two seperate soil tests? I don't have the most money so I'm trying not to pay double. Any suggestions would help, thanks, Jim

7/29/2002 4:47:44 PM

Buffalo, NY

Jim, the only way that will work is if you tried to redistribute your ammended area over your entire area. They usually say to take different samples from many areas and include all as an average but if you took 2 samples, they can be so different that a recommendation for your average can be way off. If you are only talking about an 8x10 patch or so, try to mix & till it all together, or try to ammend the rest of the soil the same way as the previously ammended area & send a sample from the ammended area & hope the new area ends up the same. Or, better yet, send a sample from the spot the plant will go in the ground. Somebody else will probably add to this or advise a completely different way to do it...anybody wanna jump in?

Mark

7/29/2002 6:19:14 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

Hey Jim Mark gave ya the best advice. This fall you're gonna add all the leaves and stuff you can get into the soil. The 4X5 spot that been amended dig it all out and spread it around the 10X8 area. Fill the hole with leaves etc and in the spring do the same thing....Leaves will probably eat up some of your PH. so lime will probably in there ...good luck

7/29/2002 7:25:12 PM