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RESOURCES

This page contains links to methods/protocols for on-farm and laboratory soil health testing and links to additional websites and other resources.

Mission

Empower farmers, ranchers, growers, gardeners, researchers, and the agricultural community to examine their soil, measure soil regeneration, and determine success through innovative solutions.

On-Farm Soil Health Testing

Methods/Protocols

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Demonstrations

How Much Soil is Available to Grow Food?

  1. Healthy Soil PieNew Soil Organic Matter Model (under construction)Soil Particle Size Distribution (under construction)

  2. Sponge and Bucket - Soil Water Movement

  3. Soil Structure

  4. Slake Test/Soil Clods

  5. Rainfall Simulator - Soil Erosion

  6. Soil Macroaggregate Scale Model

  7. Energy Soil Model

  8. Soil Structure - Dirt Cake

  9. Soil Aggregates - Edible Stability

 

Assessments

  1. Soil Textural Triangle

  2. Scum Test

  3. Bulk Density

  4. Particulate Organic Matter

  5. Measuring Soil pH

  6. Water Infiltration Rate

  7. Porosity - Water Holding Capacity

  8. Estimating Water infiltration, Water Holding Capacity and Nutrient Loss

  9. Soil Aggregation

  10. Soil Clods - Slake test

  11. Water Stable Soil Aggregation

  12. Dry Aggregate Separation

  13. Aggregate StabilityWet Sieving

  14. Normalized Stability Index

  15. Estimating Microbial Activity via Respiration

  16. Solvita Burst Test

  17. Draigger Tubes

  18. Soil Your Undies

  19. It's a Tea Party

  20. Reading the Tea Leaves

  21. Measuring Root Length

  22. Observing Soil Microorganisms

  23. Nematodes and Microarthropods

  24. Funnel Method

  25. Tube Method

  26. Centrifuge Method

  27. Fungi and Bacteria

  28. Measuring Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Colonization

  29. Creating Your Own On-Farm Inoculum

  30. Extracting and Measuring Hyphal Length

  31. Counting Earthworms

  32. Assessing Active Nodules

  33. Winogradsky Column - Visualizing Soil Biology

On-Farm Testing

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