Farmers strive to grow healthy plants that produce an economic yield while minimizing environmental impact. An important part of farming is providing plants with proper amounts of lime and essential nutrients. Soil testing can be used to indicate if additional nutrients are needed to achieve optimal yield. Applying the correct amount of nutrient helps achieve desirable yields and quality, while protecting the environment from excess nutrients.

Successful vegetable growers use soil testing as a guide to fertilizer management. Soil testing helps growers to make informed decisions about fertilizer use and helps protect the environment from pollution by excess fertilizer nutrients.

Flower growers test media to ensure that plants have adequate nutrients and a good rooting environment.

A productive soil is essential for healthy, vigorous growth of ornamental plants in the landscape. It assures rapid plant establishment by providing a favorable environment for the developing root system. Information from a soil test will aid in selecting a proper liming and fertilization program to correct problems associated with poor plant growth, such as lack or excess of certain plant nutrients and the level of soil acidity or alkalinity.

E-Soil Reports

The Cornell Nutrient Analysis Laboratory is now offering E-Soil Reports. The reports are an electronic version of the familiar Soil Test Reports that you receive in the mail. An E-Soil Report, however, is sent by e-mail and contains the Soil Test Report (in PDF format), an Excel file of laboratory results, and a Readme text file that describes the files and data format. Optionally, you can receive a Cropware Data file that you can import into Cornell Cropware, a free software program for farmers and consultants creating site specific nutrient management plans. Read more...

Knowing and maintaining correct soil pH and nutrient concentrations before seed planting and after establishment is important for obtaining optimum economic forage and grain yields of high quality.

All fruiting plants require fertile soil with optimum pH and balanced nutrients. The lime and fertilizer rates recommended on your CNAL soil test report serve this purpose. Precise fertility management for fruit crops requires plant tissue analyses as well as soil tests.

Plant tissue analysis can indicate whether plants contain the concentrations of essential nutrients necessary for optimum growth. Results help growers monitor nutrient uptake, correct deficiencies before they reach a critical stage, and for some crops, time harvest appropriately.

Environmental analysis helps growers make responsible decisions about the use of farm, municipal and industrial wastes and by-products, as fertilizer materials or topsoil for crop production or landscaping.

Forms:

• 2008 Order Form 
• Research Submission Forms 
• All Submission Forms 

Products:

• Standard Soil Fertility Test Kits 
• pH Test Kits 
• Tissue Test Kits 

Instruction Sheets:

• Soil Sample Collection 
• Grape Petiole Sample Collection 
• Small Fruit Leaf Sample Collection 
• Tree Fruit Leaf Sample Collection 

Water/solution analysis can be used to monitor nutrient and pollution levels in surface and ground water for a variety of agricultural and environmental purposes such as irrigation, fertilization, livestock and poultry production, pesticide preparation, pond management, and aquaculture.

The Cornell pH Test Kit is designed to quickly determine the soil pH in the garden or field. Read more...