Plant Tissue Testing - Diagnosing deficiencies: All fields contain variations in soil and landscape. Nutrient deficiencies normally mirror some of these patterns in the field - texture, organic matter, etc. Therefore, deficiencies start to show up in some areas before they do in others. When a farmer sees these areas, he wants to know if it can be fixed. The first step is to diagnose the problem. Plant tissue analysis, particularly in combination with soil analysis, can be a powerful diagnostic tool.

Plant Tissue Testing - Monitoring plant nutrient uptake: Maintaining the proper nutrient balance is critical not only to getting a good yield, but perhaps more importantly, for attaining good quality. For many crops, quality is as important as yield in determining revenue per acre. Tissue analysis is an effective means of tracking nutrients in the crop throughout the growing season and correcting imbalances before they affect yield or quality.

Plant Tissue Testing - Evaluating a fertility program: Even when nutrient deficiencies cannot be corrected in-season, tissue analysis results can be helpful. Finding out that an imbalance or deficiency exists this year provides an opportunity to improve your fertilizer plan next year. Plant tissue analysis works best when specific plant parts are sampled at appropriate growth stages. We can analyze for various combinations of the following plant nutrients: N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Zn, CI, Cu, Fe, B, Mn, and Mo either as total concentrations or for some applications as nitrate-N or sulfate-S. Additional non-nutrient elements are available on request. Our staff can provide you with details on the available plant tissue analysis packages as well as sampling guidelines for the various crops.