0:00Hi guys, Jonathan here with Farmers Friend and I'm at Bountiful Blessings Farm with my dad John. We're reviewing some questions that some of our customers have submitted and we have a

0:09question from Trina. She says, "We've gotten soil tests done last fall and would love to know how to read them. Do we need a soil professional NRCS? Not

0:18sure who to use as a resource or maybe you have some tips. We know every soil is different, of course. Thanks. Looking forward to this weekly Q&A.

0:27So, soil soil science, it's a it's a big deep broad topic with lots of different opinions and perspectives.

0:37People get PhDs in this, you know. Yeah, exactly.

0:41There's a lot of different opinions, but let's how about this? Let's just, you know, may maybe touch on it from a high

0:47level, but probably most helpful would be just to hear how you guys have handled it and what your approach is to managing soil health.

0:56Yeah. Well, even that would be a long answer, but um you know, she says, "We'd

1:03love to know how to read them." Uh, you know, my my advice would be for starting

1:10out just working with a professional who knows how to read them because it is it is a science. Although, it's

1:18interesting. Elliot Coleman um in his new organic grower book, he says um soil testing is part science and

1:28part necromancy. Yeah. And I thought that was interesting. In in other

1:35words, it's not maybe as true a science as people would like it to be. There are

1:42a lot of questions and a lot of variables. So yeah, I would encourage starting out by using a professional.

1:50Ideally, somebody who knows your part of the country well, knows what the soils are like there. Do you think uh aggra

1:59extension is a good place to go for that or um you know, do we have any resources you could recommend there? I mean, I

2:08think that varies a lot from stateto state. Yeah. You know, I think there's more a extensions that are are learning

2:17about organic agriculture, but traditionally I found the a extension is not real helpful for organic solutions.

2:27Yeah. Um so you could give it a try and and see if you're from a progressive state that's really up on that. Um yeah.

2:38Yeah. A lot of times the a extensions are just going to be, you know, able to help with like, I don't know, livestock

2:45related stuff and like rowcropping and those types of resources. But yeah, when it comes to diversified veh, you know,

2:51organic vegetable production, that's not generally their wheelhouse. Yeah, I would say that's a pretty accurate

2:58description from my experience, but I I do know some states that are pretty progressive with it, which is good.

3:05Yeah. Um, I wanted to just show some books. You know, I came from the generation that actually read books. So,

3:14I don't know how old you are, Trina, but um there's three books I've got here

3:20which I think are very good as as just a kind of basic overview of soil science. The

3:29Intelligent Gardener by Steve Solomon is an excellent book.

3:35Um, the soul of soil by Joe Miley and Grace

3:42Gershuni. Um, and then there's soil science for gardeners. Um, working with nature to build soil health by Robert

3:51Pavas. So those are a good place to start to give you kind of a broad foundation and um, you know, if you want

4:00to go deep into it, you can certainly do that. There's lots of other books and resources.

4:07Um, but currently my favorite uh soil expert, I guess you would say, is

4:16John Kemp because I I love his kind of holistic view of things. And I recently

4:23watched a webinar of his called soil testing 2.0. and he kind of uh brought the whole

4:33idea of soil testing into question from his research and his uh work in the

4:41field. He said that many times the results of the soil test do

4:48not correlate to what they find in sap analysis, which is what they do a lot

4:54of. In other words, it may or may not be in the soil, but even if it is in the soil, it doesn't mean it's going to get

5:02in the plant because it's very uh intricate and complicated how how

5:11minerals get from the soil to into the plant and and of course the biology is a huge part of that.

5:21So, you know, his his point and and I did want to just point this out and I would encourage you to watch this this

5:29webinar if you have a chance, soil testing 2.0. But he said the calcium to

5:36magnesium ratio, boron, sulfur, and zinc, those four things seem to correlate pretty well. In other words,

5:45soil tests seem to be pretty accurate in reporting those, you know, what what

5:52ends up in the plant. But all the other things, you know, and that includes your your big ones, your macronutrients,

6:00nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, there's not a a direct correlation between what this shows up

6:08on the soil test and what shows up in the plant. Interesting. So, just to make it a little more complicated and

6:16confusing, but but so John Kemp, he has a consultation service or like you can send your results to them and they'll

6:24give you advice on on your, you know, fertilization program,

6:30right? Well, he he they don't do a lot of soil testing. they they focus on the

6:37sap analysis, but but again that's more for big growers because it's quite expensive to do. Um for the little guys

6:46like us, he just has some general protocols of materials that he either

6:54sprays on the soil or sprays on the plants that we found very helpful. Yeah.

7:00Well, I mean I feel like the results speak for themselves. So if you've been getting good results, then that's yeah,

7:09that's what matters, right? So cool. All righty. Well, Trina, you've you've got uh three books to read to give you a

7:16basic understanding of soil science here. So, uh you know, it's it's a it's a deep topic and you're not going to,

7:25you know, become a professional in, you know, your first or your second or your fifth year. Uh but or your 25th year.

7:32Yeah. But, you know, just uh you just got to keep diving in and trying things and and figuring out what works for you.

7:39Digging in, I think, is more appropriate. Sure. Uh dig in. Anybody watching, if you have other questions that you would like us to review, click

7:48that link down below and submit them and maybe we'll add that to a future conversation. Until next time, happy growing.