Regular Soil Analysis Is Critical To All Homeowners Many experts recommend that you sample your soil every year. However, for most homeowners a soil analysis every two to three ye'ars is sufficient. The cost of a soil analysis is free to all North Car olinians, and now is a good time to soil sample! Soil icMing can save you iimc and money. There is no need to apply fertilizer when the plant cannot use it or sufficient quantities already ex ist in the soil for plant growth. Soil testing is the intelligent, environ mentally sound approach to garden ing in the 90s. Time spent soil sam pling will be repaid many times over in healthier plants, less pest prob lems and fewer weeds. A soil test is the best way to determine the health of your soil. The autumn and winter are good times to sample your garden and lawn. Sampling technique is critical in order to gain a valid picture of soil fertility. Define each area that you will be sampling. For example, the average home gardener should take a separate sample for the front y*rd, rear yard, vegetable garden, rose garden, perennial flower beds, shrub beds, etc... The objective of soil sampling is to provide a soil sample that will be representative of all the cultivated soil on the site. Soil type in many t residential areas is highly variable, so the more subsamples collected! the better the sample. Use a soil probe or small spade to collect the top four inches of soil in established turf gardens. Collect subsamples in 10 to 12 lo cations in the site and mix these sub samples together in a plastic bucket. Use a clean plastic bucket; metal or chemically contaminated buckets can give false results on the soil analysis. After all subsamples have been collected and thoroughly /nixed in the plastic bucket, place at least one i(C?i>iug cupful of the sci! is 2 M5> pie box. Soil sample boxes can be obtained from your local county Cooperative Extension Service of fice. Follow instructions on the box and fill in the adjoining information sheet, then return filled sample box es to your county extension office. Several weeks after turning in your soil samples, you will reccive a computer-generated N.C. Department of Agriculture Soil Test Report This report can be quite in timidating to the uninformed For beginners, zero in on the soil pH and the "Suggested Treatment for the First Crop." The pH is the measure of soil re action. If the pH is not correct for plant growth, then the fertilizer you apply to the soil is wasted. The pH will determine the ability of the soil to make nutrients available for plant growth. Plants cannot extract nutrients from soil that is too acid or too alka line. Unless the pH is adjusted to the correct level, adding extra fertilizer or other amendments is a waste of time. Soil pH is adjusted with either limestone or sulfur. Limestone neu tralizes acid soil. Sulfur acidifies al kaline soil. Use powdered dolomitic agricul tural limestone for adjusting pH of new ground or when tilling old plant debris into the ground. Either pel letized or powdered lime is fine for applying to the surface of estab lished lawns or gardens. Most soils in the Cape Fear region arc very acidic due to the leaching effect of 50-plus inches of annual rainfall. Some sandy soils can acidify quick ly by dropping by as much as 0.5 pH ALL STAR FLAGS 1-800-868-FLAG Flags ? Banners Pennants Holiday Flags & Banners FREE Catalog & Del 101 Aviators Lane ' Burgaw, NC 28425 Catherine Moore, Owner THE POWER HOUSE "DITTOS" GIFT CLUBI Join the HOT "RUSH LIMBAUGH" DOWNLINE! Join us in this exciting FAST mov ing program under "Rush" and earn up to $166,250.00. "DITTO HEADS* are unrtingi Do something for yourseif & AMERICA! Send this ad A LSASE to: Lsona Simmons, Dept. BB 1570 Otd Mill Creek Rd. SE Winnabow, NC 28479 ?RUSH"1 unit in a single season. Extreme care should be used if applying sulfur to acidify a soil, since sulfur has other side effects on the soil in addition to acidification. Sulfur is converted to sulfuric acid in the soil and tends to strip away many nutrients from the soil parti cles. Excessive or improper suifui application often leads to all sorts of trace element deficiencies in plant growth. The soil test may also recommend fertilizer nutrients. Numbers on the fertilizer bag represent the percent ni trogen, phosphorus and potassium contained in the fertilizer. A hundred pound bag of 8-10-12 fertilizer con tains 8 pounds of nitrogen, 10 pounds of phosphorus equivalent, and 12 pounds of potassium equivalent You c