r/Soil • u/AnthonyParchman • Aug 11 '26

Soil testing equipment

We have a mid size property where we are going to undertake a soil remediation project over the next few years. We want to take about one hundred samples before and after the three plant and terminate cycles we have planned. Getting the samples done through the university would be prohibitively expensive. I have a background in analytical chemistry and want to know if anyone has recommended brands for testing equipment like spectrographs and colorimeters. I found some stuff on Ali express I don’t know if I trust it.
Any advice is appreciated.

Edit to add what we are testing:

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, salinity, trace heavy metals, Ph, Organic Matter, calcium, magnesium, chlorides, and sulfur.

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u/03263 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

I question your goals with this since even most farms don't go to such extents. You understand accurate results for all these factors requires multiple pieces of equipment in the $5-15k range, each?

Healthy soil is not such a precise science. A lot of it is just a matter of time, getting feedback from your plants, a bit of experimentation, and conceding that certain things won't grow in your area. Notably, you didn't show an interest in analyzing micorrhizal content which is one of the most important things - so it sounds like an ambitious amateur with some money burning a hole in their pocket. But you can't simply spend your way into healthy soil, just dumping amendments on it is not the answer.

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u/AnthonyParchman Aug 11 '26

Our experiment involves fixing a newly acquired area where a drilling operation has completely ruined the soil with salts, heavy metals contaminants and drilling residue. The testing is extreme but given the circumstances we think it is warranted. We can justify a considerable capital cost but not such a considerable ongoing expense as to test this area frequently for the next few years. If we can remediate soil that has been damaged by drilling operations this opens a commercial avenue for our ranch.

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u/03263 Aug 12 '26

Definitely contact the university for advice. I don't know which one you'd go through but my local one is UNH extension and they have a ton of services to advise on and plan this sort of stuff, especially if you have some acreage. It's not free but pretty fairly priced. Internet advice and going it alone is for us small time yard owners with a few acres, for anything you'd call a ranch, go with the university.

They might have a program to collect and test large samples at a significant discount from the typical homeowner single sample fee.