Thursday, March 11, 2021

Soil Test Best Way to Check Growing Potential of Garden by Vicky Spelman

 

CSU Soil Test

A soil test is the best way to check the growing potential of your garden. You can buy the most attractive plants in the greenhouse or order the best seeds, but they won’t produce the best results if the soil lacks the proper nutrition or the proper qualities the soil should have. The “routine” Garden and Landscape test will take the guess work out of your garden’s growing potential. It will guide you in deciding which nutrients are lacking and sometimes, more importantly, which you have too much of. Overfertilizing is a common gardening problem. It is not only expensive, but it may harm your garden’s production and our environment. CSU also enables you to have your garden retested at a discount to check on your garden’s progress.

THE LAB IS OPEN YEAR-ROUND 
Our hours are 8-5 Monday-Friday
Except on and around major holidays.
Tests are $35.00 per sample

Place the soil sample into the CSU soil container (preferred), or a zipper-seal plastic bag. Seal the container and label the sample with name, address and location of the sample (for example “Vegetable Garden”, “Lawn1”, “Lawn2”, etc.). Please do not place form inside the container with the soil sample.

Locations of where you can obtain CSU soil test kits (call and check they are in stock first).

http://www.soiltestinglab.colostate.edu/documents/gardencenterlist.pdf

If you are unable to get a soil test kit, which is preferred, you can send your soil samples in a zipper-seal plastic bag and fill out this form:  

https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/ag/soiltest-hort.pdf

The form will walk you through how to collect your samples using a clean rust-free trowel, spade, soil tube or soil auger.  Soil should be dry before sending.

Courtesy Cornell University
**IMPORTANT UPDATE**

The lab is under new management! At this time, we cannot accommodate requests for expedited tests. Our turnaround time exceeds one month as of March 01 2021. We will be returning calls Monday and Wednesday afternoons and all-day Friday. Thank you for your patience.