As gardeners, we spend most of our time focusing on what we plant and see growing with our eyes, but the real secret to a healthy garden often lies beneath the surface – your soil.
If you don’t test your soil, you’re essentially gardening blind.
Without knowing the pH or nutrient levels, you might be adding the wrong fertilizers, which can lead to poor plant growth, nutrient deficiencies, or even toxic buildup of certain elements. Your plants could be struggling to absorb what they need from the soil, so you get weaker roots, smaller yields, or even diseases killing off these plants.
In the long run, not testing your soil could mean wasted effort, money, and frustration as you try to guess what your plants need. When you test your soil and find out what your soil needs, you can tailor your approach for a healthier and more productive garden!
The good news is that you don’t need to test your soil very often. But if you’ve never done it before or if it’s the end of the gardening season, it really is the best time to give it a go.
What a soil test tells you
A soil test tells you what’s really going on with nutrients and pH levels in the ground. When you know exactly what’s in your soil and what’s missing, you can fix shortages or imbalances before they become a bigger problem.
A good-quality soil test kit can tell you the:
– pH level: pH level shows if your soil is too sour (acidic) or too sweet (alkaline), which affects how well plants can absorb nutrients.
– Nutrient levels: Nutrient levels tell you how much nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are in your soil, which are the key nutrients your plants need to grow strong and healthy.
– Organic matter: Organic matter is the broken-down remains of plants and other natural materials in your soil. It helps your soil hold onto water and nutrients, making it healthier for your plants to grow. Think of it as the “fuel” that keeps your garden soil rich and productive.
– Other elements: A soil test kit can also show the levels of other important secondary nutrients like magnesium and calcium, which help plants grow properly and stay strong.
How to Test Your Soil
Have you decided to test your soil? Great! You’ll be surprised how easy it is to do, especially if you follow the three simple steps below…
Step 1: Collect Samples
Choose an area where you want to test the soil. You could choose your lawn, a vegetable garden, an organic growing area, a compost pile, or even a food plot.
Always follow the instructions in your soil test kit for collecting samples. But as a general rule of thumb, dig up small soil samples from several spots in your chosen area (6-8 spots/samples are usually best).
You’ll need to dig down and collect soil from about 6 inches deep because you want to reach where the roots grow.
Now mix all the samples together in the kit’s container or a clean container of your own. This mixture will give you a good overall picture of the soil in your chosen testing area.
Step 2: Test the Soil in a Lab or Use a Home Test Kit
Some soil test kits let you do the testing at home, like this one from Amazon.
Others, like this one, let you mail the sample in a prepaid return mailing envelope. Your soil sample is then tested in a lab and results are sent to you electronically in about a week’s time. The lab also usually gives you recommendations on what to do to improve your soil.
And if you want something that’s super easy to use, especially for beginners, try this 7-in-1 testing meter that tests soil temperature, air humidity, air temperature, sunshine level, soil moisture, soil pH, and soil fertility for you – just by pushing it into the ground.
Lab tests are most accurate of them all, but home kits and meters can and will give you a good general idea of your soil’s pH and nutrient levels. We don’t need exact results for this to work, we just need guidance to make decisions and take action.
Once you get your test results, whether you test at home or send samples off to a lab, you’ll now know what’s lacking or what’s in excess.
It’s time to take action and fix things – don’t worry, this is easier than you think!
Step 3: Fix Your Soil
Now comes the fun part of improving your soil.
Depending on what your soil test shows, you’ll need to either raise or lower the pH, or add nutrients to the ground.
Use the table below as a simple guide to follow for fixing your soil:
| Soil Test Result | What It Means | How to Fix It |
| Low pH (Acidic Soil) | Soil is too acidic (below pH 6.0) | Add lime to raise the pH. Follow the recommended amounts based on your soil test |
| High pH (Alkaline Soil) | Soil is too alkaline (above pH 7.0) | Add sulfur and peat moss (optional) to lower the pH. Use a light hand – this is a gradual process |
| Low Nitrogen (N) | Plants are slow-growing or have yellowing leaves | Add compost (such as Black Kow), well-rotted manure, or a nitrogen-rich fertilizer like blood meal or fish emulsion |
| Low Phosphorus (P) | Plants have weak roots, poor flowering | Use bone meal, rock phosphate, or a fertilizer higher in phosphorus |
| Low Potassium (K) | Weak stems; poor fruit production | Apply wood ash (for a quick fix) or kelp meal, greensand, or a potassium-rich fertilizer like 0-0-60 |
| Low Organic Matter | Soil doesn’t retain moisture well; plants may dry out quickly | Add organic compost, well-aged manure, or organic mulch heavily like straw or wood chips to increase organic matter |
Let’s Say Your Soil Is Acidic and Low in Nitrogen
If your soil test shows a low pH and low nitrogen, you’ll want to take a few steps to fix this.
First, add garden lime according to the test recommendations to bring up the pH. This may take a couple of months to really change the soil balance, so do it in fall or early spring.
For nitrogen, spread a layer of compost (here’s how to make an easy compost bin at home) or well-rotted manure over your garden beds, or use a natural fertilizer like blood meal. You can even do both! As these organic materials break down, they’ll add nitrogen back into the soil, giving your plants a nutrient boost.
Soil testing might seem like a bit of upfront work, but it saves you time and money in the long run. Instead of guessing what your plants need, you’ll know exactly how to improve your soil. That means healthier plants, better yields, and fewer problems down the road.
Once you fix any issues, you won’t need to test your soil again unless you see symptoms returning or you come to the end of the growing season.
Happy gardening, everyone!
