ABSTRACT
Knowing the nutritional content of your soil is critical to the development of successful fertilization, irrigation, and soil management programs. But, soil testing can sometimes be made confusing and mysterious, and, as a result, is frequently misused. For example, different testing labs use different reporting forms and units to present their results, the ranking scale for various elemental measurements may not be provided or only partially provided, labs may use different ranking ranges even when using the same chemical extractant, and different labs use different laboratory methods (i.e., extractants or procedures) to achieve their results. Since some soil and water testing is performed by companies who also sell fertilizer, soil, and water amendments, the question arises as to what recommendations can be trusted. In this chapter, we have adapted information from a series of articles on soil testing in golf course management by Carrow (1995) and Carrow et al. (2003, 2004a, 2004b) to address key issues related to routine soil testing.
