Soil testing-professional or DIY kit

[Deleted]

Are professional testers worth the $$$? or am I better off doing a kit?  



I have a few more planting areas to get to this year.  One is a veggie garden, one is a flower garden and another is ground cover.  Would I do seperate tests for all areas or consentrate on the veggie garden?

[pitterwoo]

I've been involved in some community gardens and to set them up we would take soil samples ourselves and send them to the university extension for testing. This would tell us heavy metals and such. If you just mean pH for planting I think you can use self-test kits.

[tarheels]

Yeah, do you not have a university extension office? They test the soil for free - just go in and ask what they need.

[FoxInFiji]

Yes the university extension is what all of the Master Gardeners in my garden club recommend as well. You can test for all kinds of things with the same soil sample while you're at it.

[Deleted]

I called the university extension, $20 to do a standard test and more for additional testing, heavy metals, etc. i am going this route, but am jealous you guys have free options.

[simpsongal]

I'd love to do this but I'm still tilling and working my soil. I don't think it's uniform enough for soil testing.