How to Take A Soil Sample

Materials needed:

• Soil testing probe
• A container to store the soil in
• Marker

What to do:

1. Push the probe into the soil to the desired depth, then lift up to remove the core. The sampling depth should be 4 to 6 inches deep for lawns, turf, or other perennial sod, and tillage depth (usually 6-10 inches) for annually tilled crops.
2. Next, take the soil and place it in a bag or box. Write the location of where the sample was taken from on the clean container. 
3. After that, you can either contact your county’s extension office and ask what needs to be done with the soil or deliver it to them. They will ask you a few questions. Examples are “What is the ground being used for?” or “What has it been used for in the past?”
4. The extension office will then send it off to a lab to be analyzed and send you the results.