How to carry out soil diagnostics of plant nutrition?

The 3rd year students learnt how to diagnose the soil in order to optimise plant nutrition during the agrochemistry training practice. 

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• Was the practice in agrochemistry interesting in the 3rd year?
• Yes, it was.
• What did we do during it?
• I'll tell you now.

So, we started the soil diagnostics of plant nutrition from the preparatory stage. Here, we looked at the factors that affect the size of the elementary plots for soil sampling, prepared a planning and mapping framework using Google Earth, digitised the site, selected a sampling scheme for the site and developed a route along the grid of elementary plots.
Then came the field stage. At this stage, we took soil samples and worked out the methodology for forming an average sample from an elementary plot.
At the next stage, the laboratory stage, we prepared the sample for analysis, drew up a programme of analytical tests for a specific soil type, and analysed them directly.

At the final stage, we processed our results, learnt how to build cartograms using modern software and developed the most optimal recommendations for fertiliser application, taking into account the analysis of technological maps for growing crops.

   Overall, the internship was interesting and exciting! It made it possible to understand the importance of soil diagnostics of plant nutrition for agricultural enterprises, to understand the entire diagnostic process, and to work with modern programmes.

So, we thank the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the opportunity to study in this difficult time and our teachers for the interesting practice!

Alina Turovnik,
3rd year student of the Faculty of Agrobiology