Soil testing

luckat

I'd like to get my soil tested to see what kind of amendment it may need. Where can I have this done?

orangelemon

You can buy electric testers or liquid testers in B&Q, you can do the test yourself, its cheap , no more than 6 euro for liquid, and 15 for electric.

luckat

Mm, thanks. I'm looking for a more complex test, though - soil values, nitrogen/phosphorus balance, etc.

Minder

Look for the construction laboratories for soil testing. Try golden pages under environmental services or environmental monitoring. Or if you know anyone in the civil engineering business, ask them who they use for testing - the labs that test concrete for strength will do water, soils etc.

Google returns this lot

Just be aware that the results will be very detailed and will not be benchmarked, so you most likely will not get a comparative study, just a measure of the chemical composition of the sample. You will need to discuss with the lab the sort of tests you want, there are probably dozens of soil tests available - the rates are charged on turnaround, so a quick result will be more expensive than waiting two weeks for an answer.

Hope this helps.

10-10-20

Don't farmers have this service available to them also? Try Teagasc?

luckat

Thanks, might try Teagasc. There used to be horticultural advisers for Dublin, who helped people to grow vegetables, but the Celtic Tiger chased them away.

Now that Tigs has been declawed, maybe they'll return.