mercredi 18 juillet 2018

When One Needs Soil Testing Ventura County Deserves Priority Consideration

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.

This test is depended upon by both the large scale and small scale farmers in making their profits. This is done on those farms that depend mainly on commercial fertilizers as the main source of nutrients. It would be difficult planning for money-making use of fertilizers without analyzing the land first. When people skip the process, they are prone to making risks that lead to blind losses since the analysis acts as a guide.

As already stated, the application of this process is not limited to crop production as livestock farms too require it. For livestock farms, knowing how much nutrients are available in the ground is very important. This way, the activities of the farm can be planned in accordance to this information. With this information, management of nutrients generated on the farm and those imported from outside becomes much easier.

The process is done in three steps, namely collection of sample, sample analysis and lastly result interpretation. A lot of paperwork is needed in order to carry out these steps. However, electronic devices make the job much easier. The reason for keeping extensive records is to detect if nutrients are appreciating, depreciating, or stagnant at the same level over a period of 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.

The recommended frequency is once a year, although this can be raised when problems are realized. The idea time for collecting samples is a month or two to planting season. Despite this, samples can be collected throughout the year. However, for summer crops, the best time for sample collection is in early spring. As for winter and fall crops, the best time is during summer.

Lack of knowledge has driven some people into believing that samples cannot be taken when soils are wet. Such people fail to understand that soil moisture has no effect on the results considering that samples are dried prior to analysis. The only problem with soils that are extremely wet is that they are both difficult to collect and mix. As such, soils must be allowed to drain prior to sampling.

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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