These Example Soil Test Reports are in the same format as you'll receive from the University of Minnesota Soil Testing Laboratory. One example contains recommendations for a Home Lawn and the other example contains recommendations for a Vegetable Garden. The reports cover two very different situations and our discussion of them will help you to understand your own report no matter what type of plants you are growing. You will probably find it helpful to open the Example Reports and print copies, so that you can refer to them as we go through their various sections. Example Soil Test Report – Home Lawn (PDF), Example Soil Test Report – Vegetable Garden (PDF).
There are five sections in a University of Minnesota Soil Test Report. We will go through them in the order they appear on the report:
- Header
- Soil Test Results
- Interpretation of Soil Test Results
- Recommendations
- Explanation of Soil Test Report
The Header, SOIL TEST RESULTS, INTERPRETATION OF SOIL TEST RESULTS, and RECOMMENDATIONS sections are on the first page of the Soil Test Report. The “EXPLANATION OF SOIL TEST REPORT” section is on the second page. In this exercise, we will not go through the information in the Explanation section in great detail, but we will refer to parts of it as we go through related information in the other sections.