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From YouTube: What's In Your Soil
Description
Linda Blue, Cooperative Extension Agent, explains how to test your soil and how to maintain and keep healthly soil.
A
A
If
you
garden
at
all,
or
even
if
you
just
take
care
of
your
lawn
and
landscape
areas,
it's
probably
been
suggested
at
some
point
that
you
should
do
a
soil
test.
Well,
if
you
have
not
had
your
soil
tested
yet
I
want
to
suggest
that
not
only
is
it
not
difficult,
but
in
North
Carolina
we're
really
lucky,
because
this
is
still
a
service
is
offered
free
of
charge
by
the
North
Carolina
Department
of
Agriculture.
The
only
thing
that's
going
to
cost
you
is
the
postage
to
ship
your
samples
to
the
lab
down
in
raleigh.
A
Now
before
I
tell
you
how
to
do
that
soil
test.
I
want
to
answer.
What's
probably
your
first
question,
which
is
why
do
I
want
to
do
a
soil
test?
Well,
just
like
you
and
I
need
certain
nutrients
and
so
forth
to
grow
and
be
healthy.
Our
plants
also
have
certain
needs.
Unfortunately,
I
can't
look
at
this
soil
and
tell
you
what's
in
it,
I
can't
tell
you
the
chemistry
of
the
soil,
how
acid
it
is
or
what
nutrients
it
has
in
it.
That's
what
our
test
is
going
to
do.
A
It's
going
to
tell
us
the
chemistry
of
the
soil.
Now
in
Buncombe,
County,
there's
a
couple
of
things
that
we
usually
are
looking
for
areas
where
we
usually
are
having
trouble
just
like
much
of
North
Carolina,
our
soil
does
tend
to
be
assets,
and
that
can
really
make
a
difference
in
how
well
your
plants
grow
and
again.
The
only
way
we
can
find
this
out
is
by
having
the
soil
tested.
A
Then
you
might
remember
from
our
school
classes
that
pH
is
measured
on
a
scale
from
1
to
14,
with
7,
of
course,
being
neutral
now
by
far
most
of
the
plants
that
you're
going
to
grow,
want
the
pH
to
be
right
here
in
at
six
to
seven
range.
That's
just
barely
in
the
acid
range
now,
if
your
pH
is
much
lower
than
that
which
it
often
is
no
amount
of
throwing
additional
fertilizer
on,
there
is
going
to
make
those
plants
and
grow
any
better.
A
On
the
other
hand,
you
know
there
are
a
few
plants
that
we
refer
to
as
acid
loving
plants.
Your
azaleas,
rhododendrons
and
blueberries,
for
example,
are
going
to
want
the
pH
to
be
down
here
in
the
four
and
a
half
to
five
and
a
half
range.
So
if
you
get
your
pH
up
too
high
for
those
plants,
they're
not
going
to
get
what
they
need,
there's
only
just
a
couple
of
plants
that
I
can
think
of,
such
as
lilacs
on
dianthus
that
actually
want
the
ph
to
be
just
a
little
bit
above
the
seven
range.
A
And
if
again,
if
the
ph
is
not
in
the
range
of
those
plants
need,
they
are
not
going
to
grow
properly.
Now,
when
your
soil
report
comes
back,
the
lab
is
going
to
give
you
recommendations
for
what
you
need
to
do.
For
example,
the
pH
again
being
the
first
thing
that
we're
looking
at.
If
our
soil
is
acid,
the
lab
is
going
to
tell
us
how
many
pounds
of
lime
you
need
to
add
per
thousand
square
feet
to
correct
that
problem.
A
Now,
for
using
line
you
can
use
either
the
powdered
lime
or
the
pelletized
lime
they're
the
same
thing.
The
pellets
are
just
a
little
bit
more
convenient
for
you
to
use,
and
it's
always
best
to
do
this
testing
well
in
advance
of
planting
so
that
you
can
mix
that
line
into
the
soil
before
you
plant
now.
The
other
area
that
we
usually
are
having
to
look
very
closely
at
is
our
phosphate.
A
Our
phosphate
levels
do
often
tend
to
be
low
and
again,
if
you
don't
know
that
and
don't
know
to
add
extra
phosphate,
nothing
else
that
you're
going
to
do
to
those
plants
is
going
to
make
up
for
that
to
make
those
plants
grow
any
better.
If
your
report
is
recommending
that
you
need
to
add
additional
phosphate,
you
again
have
a
few
choices.
You
can
use
your
super
phosphate,
which
is
very
commonly
available.
A
You
can
also
use
something
like
your
starter
fertilizer
or
for
the
organic
gardeners,
usually
you're,
going
to
use
something
like
your
bone
meal
or
sometimes
rock
phosphate,
or
something
like
that.
So
you've
seen
all
of
this
information.
We
only
get
by
doing
the
soil
test.
So
if
you're
now
convinced
that
you're
ready
to
do
your
soil
test,
let
me
go
show
you
how
to
collect
your
sample.
A
Now,
of
course,
the
next
thing
you
want
to
do
is
to
collect
a
good
sample,
make
sure
that
you
start
out
with
a
clean
plastic
bucket
and
also
make
sure
that
you're
collecting
tools
are
clean,
your
trowel
or
your
shovel,
especially
making
sure
that
you
don't
have
any
rust
on
your
tools
now
for
each
box
of
soil,
that
you're
doing
you're
going
to
collect
multiple
samples,
say
10
to
20,
plug
the
soil
from
throughout
your
front
yard
and
mix
those
all
up
together
in
this
plastic
bucket.
Well,
how
do
you
collect
that
sample?
A
We
want
to
make
sure
we
get
soil
from
down
around
the
whole
root
zone
of
the
plan.
What
farmers
and
professional
landscapers
use
is
one
of
these
soil
tubes,
and
you
can
see
what
this
does
is.
We
can
collect
multiple
samples
from
throughout
this
horizon
this
root
zone
area,
to
give
us
a
good
representation
of
the
soil
throughout
that
area.
We
don't
need
to
include
that
little
bit
of
grass
in
our
sample.
A
Rest
of
that
can
go
right
into
our
bucket
now,
of
course,
you
probably
don't
have
one
of
those
handy
little
tool,
so
you're
going
to
be
using
shovels
and
trowels.
Your
lawn
can
be
a
little
more
difficult
to
do
with
a
shovel,
but
all
you
need
to
do
is
to
try
to
make
yourself
a
slot
into
the
soil
with
your
shovel
so
that
you
can
put
yourself
else.
A
A
nice
slice
of
that
horizon
like
this
and
again
we're
going
to
do
the
same
thing,
removing
that
grass
from
the
top
that
we
don't
need
to
include,
and
we
don't
even
need
this
whole
sample.
We
can
put
some
of
this
right
back
into
the
ground
and
again
making
sure
that
we
get
a
good
horizon
of
the
soil.
Of
course,
your
vegetable
garden
and
flower
bed
you're
going
to
do
pretty
much
the
same
way
for
your
shrubbery
beds,
make
sure
you
get
your
sample
from
Queen
your
shrubs.
A
A
If
you
use
numbers
one,
two,
three
four
do
make
sure
that
you
make
yourself
a
list
before
you
send
this.
All
so
that
when
it
comes
back
you'll
remember
which
samples
are
which
now
it's
really
important,
that
you
fill
out
your
form
correctly,
so
that
you
tell
the
lab
what
it
is
that
you're
growing
in
that
area.