You can test your soil for as little as twenty dollars. This is a very small investment that will keep your food plots in the best shape they can possibly be.
June 05, 2025
By Alex Gyllstrom
Whether you're establishing a new plot or an area you've previously planted, a soil test can save you time and money. At the basic level, a soil test is a detailed breakdown of the soil you want to plant to determine pH and nutrient levels. It's your guide to understanding what condition the soil is in, how conducive it is for growing healthy plants and how it needs to be amended for optimal growth. If you think you just want to plant some food to benefit and attract deer to your property and don't want to get technical, I get it. The good news is that taking a soil test is one of the easiest parts of the food plot process.
For the record, I am not an agronomist or soil expert. If you're expecting a scientific breakdown of all the details of soil types, I'm sorry to disappoint. I'm just a DIY, sweat equity kind of guy who uses whatever I can get my hands on to get the best results possible. However, through a bit of research, conversations with the right people, and trial and error, I have learned an effective way to inexpensively get the information for success from the soil I want to plant.
When you consider even the most cost-effective forms of planting a food plot, it doesn't make sense to guess. Seed companies may recommend soil amendment for their products, but you should draw your own conclusions about your dirt. Manufacturers don't know the exact soil you're planting in, and it's not something to leave to chance, especially if you're establishing a new plot. With a few simple steps, a little time and a few bucks, you'll have the information you need to give your seed the best chance for success.
A Test Kit Buying an inexpensive soil test kit from your county extension office, a university ag department, or a few of the food plot manufacturers is the starting point. I like to use one test kit per food plot for the most accurate results, and it shouldn't cost more than $15 per kit. Consider adding another kit for any plots or food sources four acres or larger. It should include an information sheet about your application and the intended seed type you want to plant. Also included will be a small bag for your soil; this will help guide the process and gather the correct information.
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Next, you'll need a clean bucket or container big enough to hold a few pounds of dirt. I've found any relatively clean five-gallon bucket you have in the garage, shed or barn will work fine. Try not to use anything containing residues like oil, gas or paint. I use a standard garden spade or small round-nose shovel to extract the soil. A product called a soil probe takes deep, precise amounts of soil for the best testing results; those are about $40 and will most likely need to be purchased online.
Taking The Sample When extracting the soil from the area you want to plant, you want to make sure the soil is dry. Your results can be skewed if the soil has too much moisture. I learned this the hard way, unfortunately. Once the soil conditions are right for sampling, you'll want to get good samples from the entire area. My general rule is the larger the plot, the more places I sample. Since I have very little equipment and smaller planting areas, most food plots I plant are no bigger than a couple of acres. I like to sample from six locations around the plot's perimeter and four to six more from the center for 10 to 12 samples for one plot. Try to space your samplings out evenly to get general coverage from the entire area. I try to take soil three to four inches deep with each sample. Again, depending on the plot size you are planting, don't be afraid to take more samples for a single planting area.
Once all soil samples from the plot area are gathered, mix them together in the bucket. Be sure to remove any large debris like clumps of grass, leaves or rocks. Taking these pieces out will help with testing accuracy.
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Applying the Results The goal of the results is to determine how much lime and/or fertilizer are needed to amend the soil to the ideal target pH level. This is determined by a numerical scale from 0 to 14, with the lower end representing acidic levels and the higher numbers representing alkalinity. Without a test, it's impossible to know what pH level you're planting in, thus knowing how to amend the soil to reach the proper pH level.
A healthy soil pH allows plants to absorb essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients like calcium. This helps with root development and the overall ability of the plant to grow effectively. The general pH you're shooting for is between six and a half and seven and a half on the pH scale for a neutral level. Most fallow or unplanted soils are below the neutral level, which is likely acidic and prevents plants from accessing the soil's nutrients.
If your soil pH level is in the acidic range and you fertilize and plant your food plot without testing for the proper amount of lime needed, the plants can only access about half of the nutrients from the applied fertilizer. Different plant types require different amounts of fertilizer, so if you spent a couple of hundred dollars on fertilizer, you just wasted about a hundred bucks by not knowing the proper lime amount needed. On the other side of the pH scale, you don't want your soil to be alkaline. Overly wet conditions most commonly cause this or if the area drains poorly. I have never had to deal with alkaline soil, but a few farmers have told me the key to the fastest pH correction is a heavy application of elemental sulfur. I'm no expert with alkaline soil, so I highly recommend consulting an agronomist or specialist if you see high pH levels in your test results.
There are a few different ways you can test your soil sample. Some test kits come with capsules or solutions to guide you to the pH level. There is also a reader known as a prong tester that intends to provide the current pH level of the soil. The benefit of these tests is they provide instant results. The downside is they don't deliver the accuracy or all the needed information. Sending your samples to a lab for testing is the best way to get accurate, detailed results. Not to say the other testing methods can't be effective, but if I spend hard-earned money and time on seed and fertilizer, I want the most accurate results. Lab results provide the exact fertilizer quantity needed for the desired forage and precise nutrient levels for lime. Most lab-based test kits turn results around in an email in a few days, so you don't have to wait for the postal service to return results. With lab-tested results, you know exactly where you stand with the soil conditions you want to plant and exactly how it needs to be amended for the best results.
As a general rule, the lower your soil's pH, the more acidic it is, so you'd want to be prepared to add lime to make the soil more neutral. If your soils come back with a high pH level and are more alkaline, you'll want to add peat moss and/or fertilizer to the soil for more neutral conditions. When it comes to how much time, energy and money serious whitetailers put into the ground we hunt, $20 is one of the best investments we can make with a straightforward soil test to ensure we're giving our food plots and, ultimately, the deer, the best chance to thrive.
