Soil Test Kits- Coco/Soil Mixes? Teas?

[GanjaGardener]

Picked up a LaMotte's soil test kit. Am using it to test home landscape but bought w/ 2 other purposes in mind:
- to test 3 soil mixes- balanced-light, N weighted and P weighted. Am hoping that the tests can give me a rough idea of strengths/ratios after 4-5 mos of co-mingling and microbe breakdown.
- to test soil 1,2 and 3 days <-(arbitrary) after applying different teas and 3 ferments.

Coir/rh base- "raw" organic nutes and addies used in mixes and teas

Here's a shot of line-up minus a few- BioLink MicroNutes, Yucca, Citric Acid, Endomychos, Bac inoc ) more to give you a basic idea of nute/addies in soil/teas that I'll be measuring than to do an itemized breakdown.

Would appreciate any input on experience w/ testing custom soil mixes, or w/ using a kit to test soil after tea applications and what the waiting time might be, assuming there is a level of efficacy w/ these proposed applications.

 

[mrbong73]

Sorry haven't used the soil test products yet but am interested to see what it says. I'm tempted to send in a sample of my current mix as I am planning on using it long term and would like to know for sure where it is now as a baseline.

As far as testing the tea application, I would probably test prior to application and then again idk a few hours (?) after to see what happened. And then maybe again a couple days later to see how it compared to the previous two.
Just a thought. Good luck.

 

[GanjaGardener]

thx mrbong
it seems that the same logic involved in outdoor plots would apply to indoor mixes, just haven't heard much about it. I'm hoping that these tests will help me better drill down a consistent, go-to base mix so I can send it out to a lab like you're plannin to do, at least w/ the mother baseline mix that I modify off of.

good idea to test before-after a few hrs. will be testing the mixes today and soil w/ ferments tomorrow. Teas as I go.

u just inspired another idea. what about testing teas and liquid addies using a neutral base like coir? i realize that there's a lot more to soil health and nutrition than what N-P-K-CA-Mg levels show, but getting additional info about the growing substrate through tests can't hurt unless one relies too heavily on them or misinterprets the results due to not being in touch w/ the broader, fuller picture. IMHO (at least, until i learn more.) Since you're into it too, i'll lay the downlow about test kit and opinions on you in day or 2, mrb. tx again.