I live in Houston, and I just want to make sure my soil is organic and not toxic before I start growing food next Spring.
Anne- what exactly is a universtiy extesnion program? Do I need to contact the local universities?
Thanks everyone- you all gave me great pointers. I really just needed to be pointed in the right direction (never heard of an extension agency- so I never would have known where to look!:)
Comments
put a couple of corn seed in the gound if mold grows around it after 2 weeks you are screwed
your local ag agent can tell you
Talk to the university extension agency in your county. They do soil tests, but usually they do not test for toxins. They will test for ph and essential elements like phosphorus and potassium. They can probably tell you how to get a test for toxins.
call your county agriculture ext. agent
Great Question! Unfortunately, they do not test for Organic and Non-organic soils. The only way to personally test is to know whether any chemicals/fertilizers/herbicides were ever applied to the area within the last 3 years. If you want your land to be certified organic, it may be a little costly, but you can go to your local Ag Center of your town and he will check your practices every few months and carefully examine all you do the land to make sure that it is TRUE organic. However, i highly do not recommend it unless you are planning on selling your product and advertising it as organic.
Now, as far as PH goes you CAN test that. there are a few methods readily available at all hardware stores and even some multipurpose stores like Walmart. You can get an electric PH tester which has a probe with a wire on it, which is quite accurate. You can also get these small containers that you mix water, your soil (deeper than 6 inches for accurate reading) and a capsule that dyes your soil, and you just follow the reading to tell you what your ph is! they also have non-electric probes but i do not recommend them, as they have not worked well in my using in the past. Also, you Can ask your Local Ag Center to test it for you, but again, i would not recommend it over doing it yourself unless you are trying to sell your product or grow something like huge Atlantic giant pumpkins or a contest size fruit/vegetable.
Hope that helps and if you have any further questions pertaining to gardening/landscaping/farming, you can message this account with your question. Thanks!
call them and ask who does their lab work for soil testing…..
If you live in the US, call your County Extension Agent. They are a good source for all sorts of growing advice and are usually very nice to deal with.
For university extension program look up Cooperative Extension Service in the gov’t section of your phone book. Extension does not do soil testing in all states any long and they only test for pH and NPK. No anywhere near a complete test for an organic garden.
Google organic soil testing services and you should get at least 5 good hits. these labs test for around 45 different things in your soil not just NPK.
That said, to test for toxins means testing for lead and I do not believe any soil testing service does that. You will have to find a different sort of lab.
I will also say that I don’t think it really matters as no certified organic farm gets this done. If your soils are a live and healthy they will take remediate the soil. if your soils are dead and compacted (if you live in a housing development this will be the case as they remove all top soil with big machines when they put in these developments and than put fertilizer sod on top so it appears you have something to grow a garden in) you will likely need to build raised beds and bring in garden soil
