NPK and pH analysis completed

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Today I went back to the train station and finished testing the rest of the soil samples for the vineyard in testing for pH, P, and N (but we did not have any more stock solution for the K test anywhere, so I had to drop that one for the rest of the samples). Results were still relatively the same with the pH hovering between 6.5 and 6.8 or so and the P and N only at trace levels. I also tested a sample of soil taken from the Ambers garden, which had high levels of phosphorous (the test indicator showed a very pretty blue colour in contrast to the grey of the previous samples, so it was very exciting!), but still only trace levels of nitrogen. I also tested wood ash that Cliff had put on part of the vineyard (taken from their stove), which had a high pH (since it had a small amount of lime in it). The ash reacted to the P and N indicators by fizzing up (due to its calcium carbonate content—the indicators probably had acid in them), but I still managed to test it for P and K, and the results were only at the trace levels. Cliff had come in and was looking up what kind of fertilizers and how much he needs to add to the vineyard to bring up the NPK levels in the soil to optimize its growing capacity (..does that phrase make sense?). It’s nice to know all this testing is actually helpful! Thursday I plan to use another test kit to test for calcium, magnesium and possibly chlorine for a few of our samples.