Most county agricultural agents can arrange to test a sample for a small fee/ Use to be free, but last I checked they charge about 7 bucks.

Look for your local extension office - every county has one. If they don't do the testing themselves any longer (many extension services do not), they will refer you to a good source.

Ohio Cooperative Extension Service

Look around, because there may be free opportunities under your nose. Around here, the city offers free yearly soil testing (one test, from TAMU, their $10 main nutrient version of the analyses). The kicker is that in addition to NPK etc. etc., you also get Pb and As. The city has some money to look for seriously polluted sites (which would attract federal mitigation dollars). So the easy way to get good soil samples is to offer gardeners nutrient analyses on the side. We are not asked for a street address, just nearby cross streets, so if your bed is a potential superfund site, your exact location won't be public knowledge. But you'd sure like to know. You might ask your local brownfields recovery office or resource recovery office, if you have one, if they have such a program.

To my knowledge there is no broadly public program for free testing. But as noted, extension services often offer them for a minimal price. If they don't, as noted, they will point you to services that they endorse. Of course, mailing the soil sample involves some postage, but still ...

You all don't know how good you've got it. A soil test costs 25 bucks at Michigan State University Extension.

Rodney

Here in E. Tn., it used to be $7 through the County Ag. Ext., but last year it went up to $15 for basic nutrient profile, and an extra $15 (total of $30) for an 'advanced' test which includes pH, organic matter, etc...

Your county extension service (gardengal linked above) is a wealth of gardening info for you. Your county website

Interestingly, the links for soil testing on that Cuyahoga County website take you to the University of Massachusetts - Amherst soil lab. On that site, they explain that:

"The Modified Morgan extraction method and recommendations were developed for New England soils and climate."

So, not being a soil scientist who could expertly explain how this could effect Mid West conditions, I would want a better explanation of what that means for those gardeners whose local extension services send out their samples to New England labs.

Honestly I would doubt it would make all that much difference in nutrient level testing. It might alter the recommended additions somewhat though given climatic differences.

That said, there are any number of soil testing labs available in Ohio itself. But as already mentioned, there are no "free" offers.

Dave

Ohio Soil testing labs

The Modified Morgan extraction method is just one of various methods of extracting and evaluating soil nutrients. I don't see why the location or soil source would have anything to do with the results it generated although as noted, the suggestions for amending or supplementing might differ.

I’ve listened to university faculty argue over which extraction method is appropriate so it may be futile to choose a laboratory that is ideal for you. However don’t hop from one lab to another every year or you may get conflicting recommendations.

Here in SW Missouri (Greene county), the price tag is $29.50. Not gonna do that.

If you're seriously deficient in a soil nutrient, no test methodology is going to miss that.

http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/brochures/caes_soil_testing_brochure.pdf