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Photo by Matt Lindler
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The Dirt on Healthy
Food Plots
Every successful garden brimming with ripe tomatoes or wildlife food plot blanketed in lush green clover began with a soil test.
Soil tests are simple and inexpensive. Find them at your county extension office or the Natural Resource Conservation Service office for less than $10.
You'll get back a precise prescription for the amount of lime and fertilizer necessary for good plant growth. Lime allows the soil to reach the necessary pH level needed for your specific planting. Liming is generally done at least one month before you plant, so the soil's pH has time to reach the proper level. If your soil is not at the correct pH level when you start planting, your plants will not grow well, even with adequate fertilizer.
Soil sampling is simple. Just follow these eight easy steps:
- Take your samples in the fall.
- Fill out the sheet that comes with the kit.
- Take a sample of the soil at plow depth, at least six inches. You want to take at least five samples of soil for each five acres of field.
- Mix the five samples together and let them dry before sending them.
- Place one cup of dry soil in the provided container or a pint plastic bag.
- Label the bag with your name and number that references the field you took the sample from.
- Record the sample location on an aerial photo or sketch of the farm, and keep for your reference.
- Send the soil information sheet in a separate first-class envelope attached to the sample. Ship the sample per instructions from your county agent.
Avoid sampling areas near fences, eroded knolls, lime, sludge or manure piles, dead furrows or back furrows, animal droppings, low spots and rows where fertilizer has been banded. In general, do not sample any area of a field that varies widely from the rest of the field in color, fertility, slope, texture (sandy, clayey, etc.), drainage or productivity. Sample the atypical area separately if it is large enough to receive lime or fertilizer treatments different from the rest of the field.
The proper amounts of lime and fertilizer will improve plant growth and your food plot's benefit to wildlife.
WANT MORE?
Click here for more land management tips from the NWTF.