As someone who's always lived in places with hard water, I would definitely avoid running high calcium concentrations through any pipes or drip lines. Probably best, if you're using a water-soluble amendment is to do it with a watering can, especially as you don't need to do it often. It's just not worth the risk of gumming up your water infrastructure with mineral deposits.

Hi Jacques, I take soil sample for my job, (I work in agriculture) and we always wear gloves to avoid touching the soil when mixing it. It can actually affect the pH, even more so if you are wearing sun screan. That might be what threw of your analysis! I hope it's a useful piece of info for next time 😊

Wow! This was by far one of the best soil testing videos I've seen. Very informative, and the comparison from last year till now, just proves, why we need a "Epic gardening analysis kit." I'm very visual, so looking at your charts was so educational in detail. Thanks for sharing your details as well.

Thank you for explaining this in detail. I went to a soil workshop where they were discussing adding spent mushroom blocks to the soil.so many benefits. I have yet to test my soil but i definitely see changes. The increased worm activity and less compaction in my beds. Thank you for sharing

All of us science nerds loved this video. I also love rocks and used to have a nice collection as a child. Still enjoy running little garden experiments although it is very hard to control for all the variables.

Hi Jacque, I am a retired dairy farmer from mid-state NH. on a 3 generation farm. We also took soil samples often. We used a tubular probe about 12 inches long, which would extract a cylindrical soil sample about 1 in. in diameter, and as long as we were able to push it into the ground. We removed any plant matter (weeds, grass, alfalfa or corn stubble, etc.) we did not remove any top soil!, took a number of samples in the field, combined and mixed together the samples, took a small sample of that and sent it in for analysis. I feel this way gives a much better overall representative soil sample.

I appreciate the detailed feedback and breakdown of the data and what each change told you. I can tell your background is as a scientist. Cheers!

Hey Jacque, One simple way to add calcium to your soil, is to roast (gently) your egg shells, grind them up, and sprinkle them around your plants. Also, if you boil eggs, use the water on your garden after it has cooled. Love your informative videos. Thanks for the time you spend researching stuff to share with us. 🇦🇺🦘

This was awesome! Love the in-depth analysis of the test results. Looking forward to the eventual follow up!

The idea of soil testing is daunting to me because I have a bunch of different beds with totally different soil mixes/methods. Multiple raised beds all filled differently, one no-dig bed mulched with mushroom compost, one tilled bed, one “lazy bed” and a lazy lasagna bed. I feel like anything other than testing every bed individually would be pointless for me since they’re all so different.

Wow! I'm so glad that you have this kit!

I love the analysis, very helpful for how to go about interpreting my own results. I have clay soil with high potassium and phosphorus also. I never thought about how manure based compost could be contributing. Some people might think the higher the numbers the better but like you mentioned - it can throw off the uptake of other nutrients. Thank you for your thoughtful work!

Hi Jacque, loved the video. One thing to keep in mind is since your calcium levels are below the optimal range, make sure to not over apply calcium because it can tie up you phosphorus making it unavailable to you plants. Thanks👍

Are soil tests normally this intricate or are we just getting more richness because Jaques is also a geologist. Like ‘because granite would have more potassium’ is that common knowledge? Lol. Thanks for the very informative vid!

Great video, Jacques. You have encouraged me to do a soil test on my raised beds. I have planned on rotating my crops this year, so this will give me more accurate information. Thanks for all of your informational videos. 😍 from zone 6B in Southeast Missouri.

Best soil test video I’ve seen. Great. Thanks 😊

Glad you gave a breakdown on how to do the test. I am always intimidated. That said, if you have clay soil and you create a blueberry bed out of sheet mulch and coffee grounds, you can have an organic matter test off the charts. Mine was 35% organic matter. It'll be interesting to see how that changes over time. The blueberries love it.

This is a really informative guide. Thanks always making great content!

Thanks for the thorough explanation of the test and spotlighting how some results are not always a problem.

Thank you for the clear and concise overview of soil testing and interpretation of the results. It corroborated many of my observations and showed me some new perspectives. You mentioned grubs. Unless I had reason to suspect that the grubs were the larvae of pest insects, such as plant damage potentially attributable to either the larvae or adults, I would be inclined not to worry about grubs. Some of the grubs might be either larvae of beneficial beetles or other insects, or harmless. Also, gypsum can add calcium (and sulphur) without substantially raising soil Ph.

This is so helpful…a fantastic video, so well presented. Thank you.

Garden like a Viking has a great video on homemade water, soluble calcium. Also, I was wondering, if you’re screening out your organic matter.

Not too long at all! I love the detailed explanation of how to apply the results

My soil pH in San Diego was always slightly high and the same was seen even in things like my vermicomposter. I eventually started to just attribute it to something about the mineral composition of the water being enough to affect pH and those same minerals being common in the soil.

You need to grow (black oil) sunflowers all over your garden. Their big tap roots will leave nice organic matter for your garden when you cut them down, and the roots help to break up and aerate the soil.

I'm excited to see your results next year too! I have not done any soil testing yet, but I would sure like to. I know our organic matter is next to nothing. So I'm focusing on that for now. It will be interesting to see what an actual test shows.

Quite an incredibly helpful video AND promotes sales of soil tests. Double whammy, you nailed it, fantastic job! I’m sure Kevin would be proud…

I have a bazillion pill bugs in my raised bed. It worries me because they can feed on young seedlings. I sprinkled with Sluggo plus but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference. I know they help decompose but the number of them is abundant. And creepy.

I nerd out over this kind of information 😂 love the content!

$20 at our county's Extension Office. Also available at many ag supply stores. Overall it's good to have options. These videos are important info for gardeners everywhere. Well done!

This was so neat! Thanks for sharing! New Hampshire

I get a ton of pill bugs, so to help with them not eating too many seedlings, I add in compost, worm casting, and I add will toss veggie leaves & veggies/fruit scraps for worms & pills bugs to break down in each bed.

Fascinating. Thank you, Jacques. 😊

I have watched many gardening videos on KZfaq and no one tests their soil. This is the only one I can remember seeing. I have my soil tested every three years. Two years ago I heavily composted my soil and ruined my nitrogen level. My crops were horrible. I hope that this year things are better.

Epic is doing soil testing, ahhh so exciting! 🎉

Love this! ❤ Having access to a full and complete, comprehensive, easy to read soul test is a game changer! Now, is it something you will do all the time? No. Yet if you have a garden bed, or maybe a bed you've used for years, and all of a sudden the plants look brown, wilted, burned, floppy, or just unhealthy, well since you spent months and sometimes years growing these green little friends, you will surely want to quickly correct the issue before they perish! Thats when the soil tests come in. If you've already cared for your bed, amended the soil, added compost, done alk the normal things, and you ate still havinfmg trouble, a soil tests is forbsure the way to go! Grab your soil like Jaques showed everyone, send in that bag, and in a short time you have access to see if you have too much of one nutrient, too little of another, high mineral, low mineral, hydroohobic soil, you name it! Boom! Now you can fix it as save your littke green friends! I love this, it will come in handy fir many a gardener. ❤

Thank you I was wondering about those kits on your alls site. For calcium I use ground up egg shells and seafood shells like crab shrimp and lobster. I dry them out un the oven or my treager depending on if I want the house to smell like fish. Oven set to 200° then let them go for 6-12 hours depending on how much you have then into the nutra bullet to turn them into powder.

I have been soil testing all my soils, my raised beds were really hot on nutrients like pegged the graph on everything even after corn and tomatoes and garlic were in the bed, crazy how much it had that 3 heavy feeders in succession didnt manage to deplete it. My native soil is a giant ancient sand dune that holds absolutely no water and is nutrient depleted and requires a lot of fertilizer applications and lime applications to keep it from going super acidic.

Yaass!! Im looking forward to see actually how cover crops impact the results next year and perhaps how regenerative practices would help as well. Also, question: are there plants which you can grow who absorb more of K or P in conparision to orhwr minerals to balance out the high amounts in the soil? Like bananas have high K, so would that work? If the paknts absorbs more, there is less left in the soil?

Love your informative videos! I’m particularly interested in growing sweet potatoes in grow bags and I saw one where you harvested the potatoes. However, I’d like to know if the fertilizer is the same for beds vs grow bags & what kind of soil is used for grow bags. I think i read where nitrogen isn’t good for tubers as they will have lush leaves but very little productive sweet potatoes?

Fantastic comprehensive review of soil testing. I’ll surely benefit from this. I have raised beds & containers, grow mostly veggies. My husband recently bought Aerobin 400, composting system. It is Australian made. 400 L capacity. I’m so excited to see the results next year. It also gives me compost tea, which I have already started using. I have three tumbler composters which I was not very happy about. So I am hoping this Aerobin will really help increase my composting.

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but you can use a grass cover crop like oats or wheat to scavenge excess phosphorus from your soil and increase organic matter. its great to have that confirmation though before taking the next step so you know what the best options are!

Do coir and peat count as Organic Matter?

Calcium sulfate/ gypsum will not raise Ca levels in the soil. It works as a plant feeder. Calcium carbonate, 200 mesh will boost levels in the soil. A more coarse mesh chalk will have a slower availability, last longer in the soil and be less dusty to spread.

Easy organic matter check is soil color -> blacker is better. Light brown soil -> low organic. Organic = carbon = black. Happy Growing!

Tree roots take all kinds of nutrients and water out of the soil and they will travel quite a distance. I even had tree roots grow up through the drain holes of a container that had been sitting in the same place for two years. Couldn't understand why nothing would grow in it until I tried to move it and discovered the tree roots. Raised beds are definitely the way to go if you have any trees nearby. Your zinc and copper were high. Is that a problem?

this was very interesting, thank you.

Thanks for the great video! My potassium and phosphorous levels in my beds are similarly quite high, and I was curious if you’d recommend avoiding fertilizer that has any at all? Last year I used balanced organic granular fertilizers and plant based compost mainly, but now I’m wondering if I should only use supplemental nitrogen throughout the growing season. What do you think?

Great episode. I am using my local extension at UMass for some soil testing, but I strongly encourage EVERYONE to do some testing. I admit, I have a lot more control, since I am using mostly grow bags (a little over 100 between 5, 7, 10 and 25 gallon) for my gardens. BTW, had a week in the Pacific Northwest for some work recently, and some time off. Saw the Columbia River Gorge, the great flood plains (Missoula floods) Lots of Central Washington, and a ton of the areas where there were some impressive Volcanic flows. (well, a "while ago") Curious, if in your prior life, you ever got to do some study of those volcanic flows? I live in New England and we really don't have that kind of geology. A lot more of our geology (Cape Cod for me) is much more influenced by Glacial and ice movement. In fact, my whole area is an entire moraine from 15,000 YA) in fact, I am not far from that "east coast" place called WHOI.

That hummingbird wants to eat that orange flower that’s in the greenhouse DESPERATELY. lol.

I wonder if alfalfa meal would be a good general amendment for you. It's great for nitrogen, organic matter, plus calcium, magnesium, sulphur that you may also need. A good organic non GMO product is ideal. I'm trying a cover crop of field peas this year for the first time, which I'll terminate and leave in place as a mulch.

Great video Jacques! One thing that really helped me understand soil testing is reading The Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon. Great read ,check it out!

I am just getting started gardening this year, looking to fill a dozen raised beds. In order to get the best soil (test), Do you guys recommend: Cocco Coir / Compost / 50/50 blend Perlite/Vermiculite Top Soil / Compost / Sand or wood chip Blend What amendments / additives / fertilizers ? Thank you.

A big bag of Diamond K gypsum would do go really far in your garden. I've been pushing calcium hard this year due to all the rain and everything in my garden is loving it. Phosphorus availability to the plant mostly relies on microbes to break down OM and rock phosphate to release it in a plant available form. When i see flower development on anything i usually give them a tea of gypsum and Fish hydrolysate or a sprinkle of Fish bone meal and gypsum. It's a great way to launch things into production.

What about testing for heavy metals?

There was someone discussing the soil food web, and how looking at the bacterial, fungus, and nemotode level in your soil is key for plant growth. They discuss using compost (or compost tea for large scale farms) to improve this. Her opinion is that the mineral testing isn't really important. There are plenty of minerals in all soil to sustain growth for 100s of years, it is just a matter of having the microrhizal fugus and bacteria to free them up.

Question. I have raised beds that I filled originally with the square foot gardening mix of vermiculite, peat moss, and assorted composts. The beds are over clay. I find the soil mixture level drops quite a bit each season and has to be topped up a couple times a year. I live in hot SE Texas so garden all year. What would you suggest I add to the beds to help maintain the soil level better so it’s not disappearing into the atmosphere. Make my own compost, worm castings and leaf mold so I have the organic material covered. Thanks

Hi Jacques, I really enjoyed your video, you are an amazing teacher. I enjoy watching your videos. When are you going to write your garden book 😁?

It makes sense that there would be little organic matter in the soil if you omitted the top two inches (where the organic matter is)

Would love a follow up video or info on how you address the calcium deficiency- from what I’ve read it’s not a straight-forward issue.

Fun fact 6.5 is the best Ph overall as a lot of soil nutrients cannot be taken up efficiently or at all if it is below or above that. At 6.5 you get the highest degree of availability of nutrients.

calcium nitrate is pretty good to run through water pipes for plants

Interesting about the grubs. I have used a lot of wood chips in my raised beds and I have found a lot of grubs in them.

I think you’ve done splendidly. Your cabbages are humongous! Fantastic. Are you going to make sauerkraut 😋? Thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom. Much appreciated. ♥️🇨🇦

Can you do a video on different ways to change the numbers over the year, like calcium and organic matter etc… Thanks

check with your local recycling center/ waste removal. Usually they will make compost from green waste. Just make sure that they aren't using sludge from the wastewater treatment plants.

Testing the soil is very important - who knew?! Interesting presentation, thanks. I have a question regarding garlic. I planted it at the right time and it is growing very well. My problem now is protecting the green tops. I live in northern Arizona and the wind is endless. Can I trim the tops off like with onions or will I impair their growth? Thanks, you Epic boys are so interesting and fun to watch.

I would be curious to see sap analysis also. Highly biologically active soils have the ability to provide compounds that aren't in the soil. Anyway, great video, I always enjoy your videos.

Jacques in the lab! We love the science, spreadsheets, and experiments!

Your P and Zn are very high in your native soil. In fact no need to add in anytime in a life time for a garden. You could be adding 1" of soil to your raised bed. If your area is 4356 square ft that is 1/10 acre that weighs 300,000 lbs per 9" of soil. SOM of 5% is great, no need for more to screw up fertility with compost. Just add ammonium sulfate for the N and to lower the pH some. 25 lbs through the year for 4,000 square feet.

Increasing the organic matter will probably also help drop the pH as well. Some of those dissolved organic matter/carbon trends slightly acidic.

Great video!!

Been thinking about this for a bit now - last year’s soil test for my raised veg beds said “too much organic matter.” How do I balance that out? Dig up clay from elsewhere and sprinkle it around? Ok, prob not. But still, for veg how much of a “problem” is this? And how to correct/balance for more minerals or whatever clay would bring?

soil organic matter and also tests for carbon are meant to measure levels of these in a soil that is not amended routinely with dead organic matter added to soil. SOM is meant to measure the living and dead microbes in soil. fine particles of cellulose and the boom and bust of adding dead organic matter are skewing the results, which should show numbers for stable populations of microbes associated with crops grown. it's like getting a high (good) reading of carbon for soil that has had coal fines added in.

Well. The product of the grubs, worms, other organisms in compost IS a manure. When I find some in one of my outdoor planters, I've succeeded in making "soil". And the plants are usually very pleased.

Oh the amount of spam emails you might get from this is scary. Really neat video ❤️‍🔥

Just got my soil test results today. The good thing is everything is off the charts high. The bad thing is everything is off the charts high, including ph at 7.4, organic matter at 29% and sodium at 125ppm (447ppm for my new soil). I see a large amount of gypsum powder and sulphur in my near future 😂

Another great video Jacque. Quick question, you mentioned sing fertilizer through your drip system and I've been looking for a good cheap way to fertigate my garden. My Question is which system do you use and are you happy with it. TIA!

One question is what is the repercussions of high numbers on some of the nutrients?

Does that soil test include checks for contaminants such as lead, asbestos, and mercury? I'd hope so at that kind of cost. Yes, I skimmed the video 25 minutes is pretty long. Down here in Melbourne Australia, there's a great soil test option available that checks for contaminants, soil structure, and nutrient levels that's almost free. (Donation) If yours covers all the bases it's a small price to pay to not only get an idea of your current soil status but also suggestions to improve it.

Thanks!

Really interesting! I’m surprised with such low calcium levels, you haven’t had more blossom end rot

Have you tried doing worm composting and/or sending a worm you dug up with the soil test and seeing the change in organic matter lol

Hot Tip: Add Borax when planting beets, easy way to get boron into your soil. My beets have never looked better

Hey Jacques whenever ph is above 7 ph the phosphorus gets deionized and doesn't get absorbed very well.

19:25 😂😂

Hi Jacques, you said if your organic materials are too high it can cause problems. I have raised beds that are filled almost completely with organic matter. What should I look for as problems that would cause? I have basically no native soil because my property is predominantly decomposed granite (Pikes Peak batholith). What can I put in my beds to correct this problem?

I assume you could also use this for lawns

Can you do a video on tumble composting? I know that I am doing something wrong to get the ideal result. But I have no idea how to fix it...

Jacque, Im just curious, not trying to be a pest or rude or anything cause we're all trying to learn how to be epic gardeners and you never stop learning. I was watching you take soil samples and then preparing each location for the bag. It occurred to me that when you go from one locations tray to another without washing your hands or washing the sifter it may mix the samples and skew the results. What do you think about that? Just wondering. Id be curious to see if you prepare each sample again and clean in between each sample location...scooper, sifter, & hands....if the tests would come out different. Not saying you have to do that obviously (your garden, your life) but im just curious. However, you said your definitely having an issue in one and maybe it could make a difference? 🤷‍♀️ I love your videos. Your very helpful! Im so thankful for all of you at epic garden because i am 45 this month and have never been taught how to do this stuff even though my mother and grandmother were brought up farming. When i was born as the eldest of my mothers children all that stopped and my mother became blue collar. My grandmother became disabled. So neither of them thought to teach me what they know. Not even family recipes or anything. I have none of that to hand down. So....I am determined to learn and hand down myself. Also ti become more self sufficient and healthier. i thank you for being willing to help us learn. 🫂🥰 Ive seen several critical people making rude comments....you may not follow all the rules and you may make mistakes....who cares! We are all human for one and what works for you may not work for everyone but at least it gives us ignorant people a starting point to trial and error. I appreciate you all very much! Dont stop or get discouraged because of the rude critics...GOD BLESS YOU ALL. Im here, watching and loving to learn from you all

Areas that have heavily manured( or lots of compost added) will test high for K. Calcium carbonate can buffer this, but a good 14 element soiltest- including base amounts of K, Na, Ca, Mg- is needed so another imbalance isn't created.

Ph is pretty much all i worry about. I am gona add compost and plant food any ways.

Why no test for Na? That's the primary" pollutant" in San Diego's water, as well as manures. It has always tested high in my soil reports.

I know that my soil PH tests on the high-ish side, and already has LOTS of calcium floating around IN it, yet it's not always available to my plants. I live in a place where limestone is quarried all around us. We also have lots of rocks & large limestone in our soil. And our water passes through limestone caves, always carrying calcium with it. So even the water is higher in PH. However, the trick is to figure out how to make the calcium more available to root systems. The only answer I know is what NOT to do - which is to NOT add more calcium! I'll be interested to find out what calcium answers you come up with Jaques!

Yeah, here in Arizona we've had a lot more rain than usual and it looks like all that rain really did some damage to one of my blueberry plants. So I'm guessing now is a perfect time to test my soil lol

I have sandy soil, like 903%. What ratio of county compost should I mix into it. I'm using the blend for raised beds. 50 50? I'm growing primarily tomatoes & squash.

At your pH level you start entering phosphorous lockout range dude you're not just "slightly deviating but fine". Since you're low on calmag and sulf you should go dolomite lime and garden sulfur.

if your veges are already growing amazingly (like those gigantic cabbages), is there really a need to take the time to change the soil? is the amount of effort and time to put into the soil balance worth the extra growth?

I would nit recommend running any calcium through your drip lines as it will build up and calcify over time. I would apply it let the drip lines work it into your soil.

WCA is a fun KNF solution! A dripline WCA application and a top dress of pulverized egg shell powder would certainly fix your CA issue.