North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Regina M. Kreger" <regina@kreger.net>]

On May 13, 2006, at 1:01 PM, Charles Paradise wrote:

Jim,
You've written before how much soil testing has benefitted your growing
efforts. Getting levels of boron, zinc and copper are obviously more than
the typical university N-P-K and Ph test...so where should I look to get
these useful soil tests?
Charlie Paradise z6 Massachusetts

University tests vary, apparently. Cornell (NY state) automatically does, in addition to pH and PK, magnesium, calcium, aluminum, iron, manganese, zinc, organic matter, and nitrate. You can get boron for an extra $5, and "soluble salts" for an extra $2,

That said, if you want organic-form recommendations, you need to get their standard recommendations translated. Some county extension people are good at this; others aren't.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly

---

Maryland's cooperative extension doesn't do soil tests anymore, so instead they publish a table comparing 8 different commercial soil labs, for what they test for, price, how and how quickly they get you your results, etc.  According to the table, UMass does test for boron, zinc, and copper. Here's the link:
http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/revisedRegionalSoilTestLabsCharthg110a_001.pdf

Regina