Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Choosing a Soil Lab
While it may be tempting to drive a sample over to your local soil lab, this may not be
the best option. Right now, most soil labs aren't doing a great job. They're still stuck in the
same chemical mindset of soil management that many of the colleges are teaching. While
local soil labs do often have valuable knowledge and data on local soils, if they aren't fo-
cused on organic or biological soil management, I don't use them. We just don't speak the
same language.
Also many soil labs that are evolving their thinking to more holistic soil management
methods are making some of the same old mistakes. If you find a lab that suggests liming
based on pH or total base saturation without considering what nutrients you specifically
need, look elsewhere. If you find a lab that offers organic recommendations as being sec-
ondary to chemicals, you may want to look elsewhere. You can figure these things out by
reading their website or giving them a call. Some of the ecological soil scientists do advoc-
ate small amounts of certain chemicals, but the focus should still be on organic inputs.
I have two favorite soil labs. There are many others out there. For me, I ship to these in-
stead of using my local lab. I would even recommend shipping to them if you live in
Canada. You just have to fill out a couple of extra forms for customs requirements. If we're
going to go through the trouble of doing a soil test, let's do it right so we can feel confident
about the results. These labs are doing the kind of tests that I believe are most useful, based
on the research of Albrecht, Reams, Callahan and Andersen, to name just a few. See the
Resource list in the back of this topic for their full contact information. Current prices are
$50-$75. You can use another soil lab, just make sure they do Albrecht testing and/or
Reams/LaMotte testing or a similar test:
Crop Services International
Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan and led by Dr. Phil Wheeler and
Ron Ward, authors of
The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook.
Not only are they doing base saturation and Reams testing, but they
work with biodynamic farmers and other energetic systems such as elec-
tronic scanning that we will look at in a later chapter. I highly recom-
mend them. You can get both the base saturation and Reams tests plus
recommendations, see their website for details.
International Ag Labs
Based in Fairmont, Minnesota and led by Dan Skow, co-author of
Mainline Farming for Century 21.
