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Soil Testing – The Most Important Step For Growing Organic Vegetables

When you intention is growing organic vegetables the first and foremost thin you need to do is to test your soil.

growing organic vegetables
soil testing for growing organic vegetables

I personally would advise you to go for potting mixture that is organically prepared and available in organic gardening shops.

However if you are planning to start growing organic vegetables in a plot of land or soil from your locality get your soil tested.

It is very important to know the nutrient content of your soil and the amount of chemicals present in them will give you an idea of whether you could use the soil for growing vegetables organically.

The pH of the soil is another important factor that is going to help you decide the manures to be used and in what quantity.

Sampling and Testing Soil for Growing Organic Vegetables

Soil testing has become an easy process off late because of the government’s initiatives of opening more and more soil testing centers and the mobile soil testing laboratories.

You can also get a soil health card made for your soil so that you can check on the progress of the health of soil improving when you begin growing organic vegetables.

Yes! Organic manures improve the health of the soil.

Your soil will improve so much that you would actually become a supporter of organic agriculture within no time.

Simple Steps to Take Sample

  • Mark 4 corners of your plot and the center, if you plot is small a single random point would do. Better to take from more than one place to get a good report.
  • Clean the sample area of any plants or grass.
  • Take a shovel or a soil auger.
  • Pierce your soil to a depth of 4 to 6 inches into the soil
  • Take about 150 to 200 grams of soil from each area.
  • Mix all the samples thoroughly and spread over a cotton cloth to dry, at least for 24 hours
  • Fill the sample in a cloth bag, label it  and send to the laboratory, You can track your soil sample online too

If you are sure that for at least four preceding years you have not used any chemicals on your cropping area and if your vegetables you are growing is for y our consumption alone you can do the layman’s soil test hacks which I will explain in the next post, so make sure to be in touch.

If you have already started growing organic vegetables do inform us in the comments below, we would surely like to feature you and give inputs if necessary – of course that would be a free service so do not worry.

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Dr Menaka Bharathi
Dr Menaka Bharathihttps://www.simpleindianmom.in
Dr Menaka Bharathi aka Simple Indian Mom is an Agricultural Microbiologist and helps moms to keep their family and kids naturally healthy both mentally and physically.
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