Good afternoon Harvestman: If one were to seriously consider a soils lab, here would be my approach. 1) Are there recommendations based on soils in my area, I.E. acid vs base, %OM, etc.. 2) Are there recommendations based on replicated trials for the crops grown on those soils and in a climate at least similar to those on which the crops were grown? 3) Was the research in #2 published in any refereed journals? If the answer is no to any of the above I would be suspicious.

I strongly believe in the land grant university process. If one chooses one of their labs for their state they have a very good chance of getting a good recommendation, particularly for the major crops grown in their area of responsibility. There are some states that are better than others and states whose main focus would not be for a crop you are growing. For example, in Kansas an enormous amount of effort has been put into wheat, corn and soybean soils analysis. On the downside, not alot of vegetable and fruit research has been conducted in KS. As another example, Florida has done an enormous amount of vegetable crop nutrition research for many decades on their soils. However, that info probably wouldn't translate well in say upstate NY.

It has been my experience that labs closest to the area of your crop, private or public are your best bet. With private labs it is important to ask what extraction methods they use on your samples. Not all extraction methods are the same and recommendations can ONLY be based on the soil extraction method used.

In a nutshell, Land grants base their recommendations on particular analytical methods for particular soils on a particular crop in a particular area. Some have developed those with more research than others depending on the crop. Private labs are free to do whatever they want, many utilize the same methods as the land grant in their area. Others may do the same and use other methods for soils from other parts of the country which is fine, as long as they use research based recommendations for those methods/crops/soils/climates.

Oh, and to answer your question, no. Call them up and see what analytical methods they use and what their recommendations are based on. With that info, call the land grant soils lab for the area in question and bounce the info off of the lab manager or better, the PhD who is ultimately in charge of the lab.

There are many theories about how all of this stuff works. If your outfit in question is legit, they should be able to make money hand over fist being much better than their competition. I was impressed by their page asking what nutrient sources you have access to. No point in recommending something you can't get!

Thanks Michael, very sensible and thorough. I always use Cornell but I already have the results from these people and promised the contractor to try to gage them. I intend to call them and ask some questions and you have helped me strategize.

You are most certainly welcome. Did you also catch a slight scent of snake oil in the air? Let me know what you come up with from this lab, I'm curious.

I have read some of their material and got the feeling they had an agenda which might influence their testing. Al

Mark says he's heard good reports on them. I'll further my investigation when it's snowing.