DIY Soil Health

About this special report

An eight-part series on ensuring good soil health on-farm.

How to do a visual soil assessment on-farm

In the eighth and final piece in our series on soil health tests you can do on farm, the VSA Field Guide is even easier to use – and ease of use was the point from the start.

A close up of a test tube full of soil in a person's hand.

Hot water extractable carbon

In the seventh piece in our series on soil health tests you can do on farm, we go off farm for a laboratory test that doesn’t cost much and is worth a lot.

I think I’ll go count worms

In the sixth in our series on soil health tests you can do on farm, we discuss the three types of worms in most soils, living at different depths, eating different things, and doing different jobs.

Using the slake test to aggregate stability

In the fifth in our series on soil health tests you can do on-farm, first catch your clump.

How to do an infiltration test

In the fourth in our series on soil health tests you can do on farm, we learn how to find out where the rain goes once it hits the ground.

The microbial workers: soil your undies

In the third in our series on soil health tests you can do on farm, you don’t have to soil your undies, but you can if you like.

How to check your soil health using the spade test

In the second in our series on soil health tests you can do on farm, make friends with this cutting edge bit of kit: the Soil Pedology Active Diagnostic Evaluator.