Your Handy Guide to DIY Soil Sampling

Know your soil status – taking good quality soil samples means accurate results and helps you to apply the right amount of lime to the right place, to achieve the optimum pH.

A low pH e.g. 5.6 or less will cause key nutrients to become less available to the growing plant, even though you have applied fertiliser it cannot do its job, by raising the pH to 6.0 – 6.5 the growing crop can absorb these key nutrients easily.

A person wearing brown boots inserts a soil probe into dry, straw-covered ground, likely for soil sampling or testing as part of agronomy services Scotland provides.

Equipment required

Small and large bucket
Sampling tool (eg. Probe/Soil Auger/Soil Corer)
Sampling bags (can be provided by SoilEssentials)
Marker pen
Record sheet

When & Where to sample

To get the best results, here’s when you should take your samples:

Same time of year annually, from harvest to spring
Fallow (no growing crop), ploughed land, grass
Small field > whole area
Large fields > split into zones (by eye) based on:
- Old field boundaries
- Change in soil type
- Change in cropping or previous inputs

When not to sample

So now you know when to take the samples here’s when you should avoid sampling:

FYM, slurry, henpen applied within past 3 months
Straight after mob grazing
Within at least 1 year of lime being applied
After recent applications of Nitrogen or other compound fertiliser

Areas to avoid

Gateways – historic dumping ground for lime, this could skew the average result
Dung heaps and areas of any run-off
Areas where livestock congregate eg. feed troughs

How to collect good samples

Two women in black and green shirts stand next to a red ATV, a piece of essential farm machinery, in a grassy area. They smile slightly while examining something together in a small white bucket—possibly collecting samples for soil sampling.

Our Precision Agronomy Manager, Catriona has shared her top tips to help you get your samples right first time. The key things to remember are:

25 cores should be taken from the whole field, mixed will be a far more representative sample in comparison to 2 or 3 spades of soil.

Stay 15 metres clear of the field boundary and stay away from gateways.

Ensure your Auger is twisted into the soil to sampling depth and pulled out. Soil should then be transferred directly to the bucket.

Recommended Sampling Depth:

Permanent grass – sampled to a depth of 10cm/ 4”
Arable Land/ Short-term rotation grass – sampled to a depth of 20cm/ 8”

Zig Zag Soil Sampling Path

When collecting samples from different areas of the field, follow a zigzag path as shown in the diagram below.

Two diagrams compare soil sampling methods. The top shows evenly spaced dots in a zigzag, with a green checkmark, reflecting best practices in agriculture. The bottom shows uneven dots with a red cross. Text highlights correct and incorrect SoilEssentials techniques.

Next Steps

Before you fill the sample bags, please ensure that all details are written on the sampling bag. This includes:

Farm Name
Field Name
Sample Bag Number

Once you have sampled the whole field/zone, mix the soil thoroughly in the bucket before taking a representative sample from the bucket and putting it in the sampling bag.

A hand holds a clear plastic bag filled with soil, labeled for Soil Sampling, while other bags with white handwritten labels from SoilEssentials rest on a surface nearby.

Two people examine soil—one with bare hands, the other in a red glove holding a clump over a white bucket. In the blurred background, green grass and farm machinery are visible alongside a hint of red.

Remove any large stones, roots, and plant material before placing soil in the bag

It is advised to sample separately, areas which have been manured differently, or have different soil types or topography. Please ensure that these samples are done separately and not mixed with all the soil from the field.

Don’t forget to clean/wipe equipment before next zone.

What to do after you have finished sampling

So you’ve got your samples, there’s three simple steps you need to take to get them ready for testing:

Fill in your order form and check that the paperwork matches with the field names and ID numbers on the bags of soil.
Take a copy of what you have sent for your own records.
Get in touch to arrange a soil drop-off at SoilEssentials.

Access Your Results

Soil samples will be promptly dispatched to a trusted lab with results taking around 1-2 weeks.
Results will be emailed to you so please ensure you have left a current email address.
You’ll also receive your invoice from us in the post.