diagnosing soil problems/conditions?

[agcomike]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good general plant diagnosis website/book anywhere? i was wondering on what was wrong with some of my crops in my garden it was doing over this summer if it was the weather or soil condition,
thanks

[chrisjbell]

Find your local ag extension department. They'll do a free soil analysis for you. This is the USDA link that will gradually filter you down to the state, then local level. This link, for example, is the home page for my county extension office.

You can also buy soil test kits, but they either provide a pretty limited analysis or you send samples off where they'll do the same thing as your extension folks. And you can pay quite a bit for those services.

[Slamfire]

I don't know about websites but the University of California has a series of programs running on RFD-TV. They talk of micronutrient deficiency, plant pathology, along with plenty of other subjects. I'd imagine the info would be available from the Davis campus' website. UT would probably have similar information available.

[mysticokra]

The ATTRA website has a world of diagnostic tools. See http://attra.ncat.org/soils.html

For a list of Alternative Soil testing vendors see http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/soil...s%20on%20Humus


You might also check out the Stockman grass farmer. While their focus is on pasture, the principles of reading the plants as an indicator of soil health is in depth. See http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com/sgf/grazing.html