Harvesting and Soil Testing

So, the vegetable garden has taken some serious hits this year. Wet weather, slugs, and cool temperatures have reduced what should have been a bounty of vegetables to a couple of good meals.

The peppers didn't enjoy two months of rain and will probably not produce anything edible. The green beans on the other hand, did well. From one small planting, we got a couple meals worth of green beans.

The garlic did alright and is currently drying. There are more carrots out there than just this little one, although I'm not anticipating the beautiful roots I got a few years ago. I'm not sure what happened with the cukes. They looked great a week ago and then they all started curling and getting big at one end.

I have hopes that I'll get tomatoes. No, really. There are some little green ones doing their thing out on the vines. May the blight fairy overlook my house.

It's also time to start thinking about planting seeds for fall and winter harvests. Kale and lamb's lettuce did really well for me last year and I'm going to put in more scallions and broccoli.

Now is a good time to think about getting your soil tested. Your local extension service can tell you where to write to get a sample kit. In Maine, you can hop onto the Maine Soil Lab website and order a test kit right online. Each sample costs $12 for the basic test and will let you get a start on adjusting the composition of your soil for next spring.

As a former Dirt Lab troll*, I offer a couple of tips to make sure your sample is handled with love and care. Take the time to follow the "How to take a sample" directions on the back page of the paperwork that comes with the test. Wait until the weather has been dry for a bit so that your soil isn't soaking wet. Nothing makes the lab trolls less happy than boxes of wet dirt that have melted the cardboard sample boxes.

The amount of soil needed for the basic tests is about a cup. Go ahead and fill your box to the top, but you don't need to pack it in. The soil lab doesn't test rocks and they'll just add weight to your package, so make sure you take out the stones. Fill out both the paperwork and the sample box and make sure the information matches. Bonus points if you use a waterproof marker. Your sample goes to be dried and sifted in one room and your paperwork goes to another room to be processed. If there's some mixup with the boxes, it helps if they are clearly marked and match your paperwork.

Finally, when you mail in your sample, don't put tape on the sample box, don't use the sample box as the mailing container and don't use so many packing peanuts that you could hide the cat. In fact, avoid packing peanuts altogether. They are horrible things and should be banned.

The Analytical Lab folks will do a good job with your samples whether you heed my suggestions or not, but why not make their job a little easier by helping them out? Perhaps the good karma will come back and help you.

*It has been 15 or so years since I worked at the soil lab and while I'm sure there are some things that have changed in that time, the fact that the forms and the boxes are still the same leads me to believe that most of the process is the same too. Please remember that I am not currently employed by the University of Maine system or the Maine Soil Testing Service and cannot speak for them in any capacity. This is my own opinion of how samples should be sent in based purely on how I liked my samples back when I had to process them. Your mileage may vary.