Monday, July 23, 2018

For Soil Testing Ventura County Is Worth Visiting

By Stephanie Carter


Anyone involved in production of crops and other activities that require soil management knows the importance of soil testing. When managing the quantity of nutrients, soil testing is an important undertaking. The activity is carried out by removing chemical nutrients from samples of soils then determining their quality by measuring. Once these test are carried out it is easy to determine more information about the soil. When in need of Soil Testing Ventura County needs to be checked out.

The process is very important for large and small scale farmers since it helps in increasing profits. This mainly applies on farms where commercial fertilizer is used as the primary source of nutrients. Planning for a suitable fertilizer application that will bring profits is challenging without testing. Since the test acts as a guideline, omitting it would cause one to undergo blind losses.

As stated, livestock like crop production, also requires soil analysis. This means that the analysis is no limited to crop production alone. Getting to know the quantity of nutrients present in the ground used for livestock farming is very vital. As such, farm activities can be planned in advance. Management of nutrients imported from outside and those created on the farm can become easier due to the information obtained after analyzing samples.

The process is done in three simple steps. The three steps are sample collection, analysis of samples, and finally interpretation of the results. In order to effectively handle these processes, a lot of paper work has to be maintained, although this can be eased by the use of electronic media. Records are kept for several reasons including determining if nutrients are decreasing, increasing or being maintained at the same level over time.

The frequency at which analysis should be carried out is one of the commonest questions people ask. According to how frequent this question is asked, it can be concluded that most people do not know how often testing should be done. The most suitable time to carry out the process is when one is planning to apply fertilizer or when problems come up during the period of the growth period.

Even though the frequency can be increased when problems arise, the advisable frequency is once a year. Samples should be collected a month or two before the planting season. Samples may be collected at any time of the year regardless of this. Early spring is the best time for collecting samples for summer crops while summer time is the best time for winter and fall crops.

Due to ignorance, some people believe samples cannot be collected when the ground is wet. This is however not true since soil moisture does not affect the results of the sample since it is first dried before being analyzed. The only challenge with extremely wet soils is that collecting and mixing can be difficult. For this reason, it is advisable to drain soils before sampling them.

In conclusion, it is important to ensure the depth is right when sampling. The most suitable depth is 15 centimeters since most plants grow to this depth. Extremely dry ground is challenging to get to this depth. In addition, tilling mixes nutrients to about fifteen centimeters.




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