Home Depot and Lowe's both have a simple soil test kit that will give you a Ph reading and an NPK reading. You will not, however, get micro nutrients. For that you need a professional soil test.

Barbara

Thanks.

Soil tests are usually available from your local State Ag college extension agent. They are usually fairly cheap. They usually look at soil structure, and will give recommendations for fertilizers if any.

The factor most appropriate for home testing is pH. I and others have found the inexpensive Rapi-Test pH meter to be good enough. You can also use pH paper with an appropriate range for soils-- 4 to 8, or some fraction of that depending on whether the soil tends acid or alkaline. Test-tube pH kits are less satisfactory. Some give only vague results, while others can be difficult to interpret and expensive.

Test-tube kits for phosphorus and potassium might be of some use, but again these are fairly expensive. You don't need to test nitrogen because it is contantly in flux. I would save the $ on the test-tube kits and get a real soil test. Unfortunately in California the state doesn't do tests and private tests are fairly expensive. (Elsewhere they are cheaper than a test-tube kit.)

I felt that the test-tube kit I used was a waste of money and time. As I recall, it only provided for one sample to be tested, so check the label for that if you plant to do multiple tests.

A professional soil test will give you a specific recommendation for correcting pH based on soil texture as well as pH; indicate how well the soil holds nutrients;i dentify any deficiencies; and identify any excesses. Soils that have been fertilized heavily in the past often have large excesses of phosphorus and potassium. Some soils have problem excesses of magnesium, calcium, or boron. You can make things worse by fertilizing soils with excesses if you use the wrong stuff. However, if your soil already grows a wide range of normal plants well, that suggests things are in reasonable balance.