Soil Test

I have had professional soil test done previously but not in the last few years. I decided to try one of the home soil test kits sold at many hardware stores and nursery outlet stores. They are both pictured and I used both with similar results.There was a green vial in both test for ph also and I had already done that part when I took this pic. The tests are quick and simple. Both had detail instructions on the inside of the card. They are not as accurate as a professional test of course and simply give a low, medium ,high reading on the NPK portion and go from5.0 to 8.0 in four steps on the ph portion of the test. NPK is nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash. A full professional test would also check many other trace elements such as copper and magnesium. Acidity or alkalinity are checked in the ph test with 7.0 being neutral ,lower numbers more acidic, larger numbers more alkaline. The test did show that the lime I put on last year had brought my ph up to near 7.0. The phosphorous and potash readings were in the medium range on all my test. Nitrogen in the main gardens was in the medium range but my new garden areas need a lot of nitrogen. Fortunately, nitrogen is easy for me to apply, llama droppings are a great source and the llamas considerately put them in communal piles!