A soil test in five steps

The kit costs less than a packet of seed and answers a question you would
otherwise spend a season guessing at.

The method

1. Take five samples per bed, one from each corner and one from the middle,
   a trowel deep
2. Mix them in a clean bucket and pull one test sample from the mix
3. Dry the sample indoors overnight; a wet sample reads low
4. Follow the kit, which is always: soil, powder, water, shake, wait
5. Read it in daylight, not under a kitchen bulb

What I got

• Bed one: 6.4, the brassica bed, which explains the club root
• Bed two: 6.8, fine, leave it alone
• Bed three: 7.2, the old bonfire corner
• Bed four: 6.6, fine

What each result means

Brassicas want 7.0 and above. Potatoes want 5.5 and will take scab at 7.0.
Everything else is happy between 6.0 and 7.0 and will not thank you for
fussing.

The plan

1. Lime bed one this month, at the rate on the bag, and do not plant into it
   for six weeks
2. Move the potatoes to bed three next year, where the high pH will be a
   problem, so lime nothing there and add leaf mould instead
3. Retest in September, before the autumn manure goes on
4. Write the numbers on the shed door where I will actually see them

The step I skip and should not

Step three. Every time. The sample goes in wet, the reading comes back low,
and I lime a bed that did not need it.