Farmers strive to grow healthy plants that produce an economic yield while minimizing environmental impact. An important part of farming is providing plants with proper amounts of lime and essential nutrients. Soil testing can be used to indicate if additional nutrients are needed to achieve optimal yield. Applying the correct amount of nutrient helps achieve desirable yields and quality, while protecting the environment from excess nutrients.

Successful vegetable growers use soil testing as a guide to fertilizer management. Soil testing helps growers to make informed decisions about fertilizer use and helps protect the environment from pollution by excess fertilizer nutrients.

Flower growers test media to ensure that plants have adequate nutrients and a good rooting environment.

A productive soil is essential for healthy, vigorous growth of ornamental plants in the landscape. It assures rapid plant establishment by providing a favorable environment for the developing root system. Information from a soil test will aid in selecting a proper liming and fertilization program to correct problems associated with poor plant growth, such as lack or excess of certain plant nutrients and the level of soil acidity or alkalinity.

To CNAL Constituents

We wanted to bring you up to date with the transition of the CNAL's standard soil testing services for growers to Agro-One services.

Effective August 17, all grower soil testing activities that were previously performed at CNAL are being transferred to Agro-One Services. Agro-One, part of Dairy One Inc., is located at 730 Warren Rd. in Ithaca, NY. All grower soil samples for standard fertility test package using Modified Morgan) and recommendations are now being processed at Agro-One as are the payments, fees, and questions pertaining to your routine soil fertility analysis. Pre-paid Cornell soil test bags will still be honored by Agro-One. All samples submitted in the pre-paid soil test bags will automatically receive a Cornell recommendation. When submitting samples directly to Agro-One, please request the Cornell recommendation; otherwise, you may receive no recommendation - just results. Bags should be mailed to the Agro-One address beginning August 17. For your convenience, any soil bags inadvertently mailed or delivered to our location at Bradfield Hall on the Cornell campus will be picked up and delivered to the Agro-One site. Agro One has pick-up points for samples located across the Northeast (see web site). These may be used for sending soil samples to the Agro-One lab in Ithaca, NY at no charge. Samples will be delivered to the lab the morning after they are picked up. Contact information for Agro-One is available at the website: (Agro-One). Calls can be made to Agro-One at 1.800.496.3344 or 607.257.1272.

CNAL will continue to provide tissue sample analysis for this season, with an anticipated transition date of July 1, 2010.

Testing services of soil (including Morgan analysis), plant, water and environmental samples will continue to be offered under CNAL's research program. Additional information on our research services is available on our website: (Cornell Research Submission Forms).

Your patronage over the years has been very much appreciated and we thank you for your support.

Renuka Mathur
Director, CNAL

Knowing and maintaining correct soil pH and nutrient concentrations before seed planting and after establishment is important for obtaining optimum economic forage and grain yields of high quality.

All fruiting plants require fertile soil with optimum pH and balanced nutrients. The lime and fertilizer rates recommended on your CNAL soil test report serve this purpose. Precise fertility management for fruit crops requires plant tissue analyses as well as soil tests.

Plant tissue analysis can indicate whether plants contain the concentrations of essential nutrients necessary for optimum growth. Results help growers monitor nutrient uptake, correct deficiencies before they reach a critical stage, and for some crops, time harvest appropriately.

Environmental analysis helps growers make responsible decisions about the use of farm, municipal and industrial wastes and by-products, as fertilizer materials or topsoil for crop production or landscaping.

Forms:

• 2008 Order Form 
• Research Submission Forms 
• All Submission Forms 

Products:

• Standard Soil Fertility Test Kits 
• pH Test Kits 
• Tissue Test Kits 

Instruction Sheets:

• Soil Sample Collection 
• Grape Petiole Sample Collection 
• Small Fruit Leaf Sample Collection 
• Tree Fruit Leaf Sample Collection 

Water/solution analysis can be used to monitor nutrient and pollution levels in surface and ground water for a variety of agricultural and environmental purposes such as irrigation, fertilization, livestock and poultry production, pesticide preparation, pond management, and aquaculture.

The Cornell pH Test Kit is designed to quickly determine the soil pH in the garden or field. Read more...