Guidelines for Soil Sampling

Soil samples representative of a field are the best guidelines to determine fertilizer needs. This publication describes proper procedures to collect representative soil samples and includes a diagram on how to sample a furrow-irrigated field.

Topics include:

• Descriptions of sampling approaches for uniform fertilizer application and variable rate fertilizer application, including grid and zone approaches
• Selecting proper sampling depth
• Collecting soil cores
• Soil sampling equipment
• Timing of sampling
• Handling of samples