Soil testing

I used the rapid-test soil testing kit to test the soil in the grape, peach and cherry orchards.

The grape soil

The grape soil was the only soil that didn't have too much clay in it so I could test the pH right away. The soil pH was 6 to 6.5. I went ahead and tested the same soil for nitrogen potassium and phosphorus. The phosphorus and potassium components were very high however the nitrogen didn't even show up on the test scale!  

I suspect that I need to lower the pH and increase the nitrogen levels in the grape soil.

pH color test.  The Grape soil sample was the only solution that wasn't too cloudy with clay to use this test!  The reading looks between 6 ans 6.5 pH to me.

The soil sample in water for testing the N-P-K content.

pH testing grape soil using digital meter.  Digital meter may need calibrating! 

I tested pH again using the digital meter an got a different result.  However, results are consistent with the color test, so who knows - maybe it it slightly acidic.

I re-tested the soil after calibration of the digital pH meter and the reading was about pH 6.4.

The peach soil

 

The peach soil tested with freshly calibrated digital meter gave a reading of about pH 6.0.  No NPK tests were done because the soil has so much clay it wouldn't de-cloud even after sitting a week!  I assume that the peach soil is very close to the grape soil for NPK since they are so close physically.

 

 The cherry soil

  

The cherry soil tested with a freshly calibrated digital meter yielded a measurement around pH 5.8.  The NPK testes were similar to the grapes and showed good values for P & K but no N at all.