Subject: Re: SOIL TESTING
From: [email-masked] (DAVEH)
Date: 29 Jun 1994 16:24 CDT
Newsgroups: bionet.plants

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] writes...
>The tests that I conduct are
>as follows: NITROGEN, PHOSPHOROUS, pH (I guess pH paper, wide range, would do
>the trick here), and finally POTASSIUM.   These are all simple colour reaction
>tests where you match up the reaction colour to the colour on the chart they
>supply with the kit.   

The CRC of Chemistry&Physics should contain the necessary info on 
what reactions with the above list would produce a color change.  The 
problem here is you don't know what concentration should be used to give the 
right amount of color change.  I would think that you could set up some 
tests of various concentration and compare them with the kit results.  One 
other problem may be that unless you really do 1000's of them, it may not be 
any cheaper.  This is because the same  company might sell you the chemicals 
and will also have a high mark-up.  Now, if you could use items from the 
local grocer....:)

Good luck and let me know what you think.
Dave.