Introduction to Managing Soil Fertility: Understanding Your Lab Soil Test Reports

Join NOFA MASS for another of our free weekly Resiliency Skills Online Gatherings on Friday, May 22nd, at 5:30pm. We will have an Introduction to Managing Soil Fertility: Understanding Your Lab Soil Test Reports.Getting a soil test done is an important step in creating a successful garden, and nutrient levels can change over the years as some minerals leach or are taken up by plants, while others build with additions of organic matter and fertilizers. In this webinar, we’ll talk about how to identify, address, and respond to mineral imbalances and deficiencies to increase your crop health and improve the quality and nutrient levels of your produce. We’ll review two approaches to two different soil tests. Anna Gilbert-Muhammad will explain how to send in a UMass Soil Test (or similar University soil test) and how to interpret the results. She will offer some ideas for some easy-to-find materials that you can use to adjust for deficiencies without needing to go to an agricultural supplier. Laura will then describe how to send in and interpret a Logan Labs test. These tests use a different extraction process and the results are geared more towards professional growers, but gardeners can also use Logan Labs to get excellent results with a little math. Laura will explain how to interpret the results and how to do the calculations to determine what amendments you will need. We will discuss several concepts:

–       What is pH and why does it matter?
–       Cation Exchange Capacity
–       Organic Matter- how much nitrogen does your organic matter provide?
–       Trace elements- why do they matter?
–       What is the Albrecht method of soil balancing?