Logan seems to be the same price as Rutgers, but UMass is cheaper: $9 vs. $20, $13 vs $35. However it seems UMass, which charges $60 for soil texture, is more expensive unless their test is differet: Rutgers: Sport Turf Golf/ Sports Turf Fertility Test: Nutrients, pH, estimated CEC & cation saturation, recommendations $20 Golf/ Sports Turf Total Fertility Test: Nutrients, pH, estimated CEC & cation saturation, soluble salt level, organic matter content, soil textural class, recommendations $50 Sand-based Root Zone Test: Nutrients, pH, estimated CEC & cation saturation, recommendations, soluble salt level, organic matter content by loss-on-ignition, percentage fines, recommendations $50 *Organic matter content would be determined by Loss-on-ignition for golf course greens, as described by USGA guidelines. UMass: Soil Soil Testing Brochure as Adobe PDF document Standard Soil Test .....................................................................â ¦â¦â¦.....$ 9.00 Includes pH, Buffer pH, Extractable Nutrients (P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B), Extractable Heavy Metals (Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr), and Extractable Aluminum, Cation Exchange Capacity, Percent Base Saturation. Soil pH ...................................................................... ..............â¦â¦â¦.â¦...$ 5.00 Soil pH w/ Buffer pH .............................................................â¦â¦... ......... $ 5.00 Standard Soil Test w/ Organic Matter ....................................................$ 13.00 Same as Standard Soil Test with the addition of Percent Organic Matter by Loss on Ignition. Soluble Salts ...................................................................... .....â¦â¦â¦........$ 5.00 Includes a measure of the Electrical Conductivity of a 1:2 (soil:water) extract. Soil Texture ...................................................................... .â¦â¦â¦.......... $ 60.00 A determination of USDA Textural Classification by combined Hydrometer Analysis of silts and clay and Dry Sieving of sands. Title 5 Parameters also determined upon request at submittal. Results presented in Tabular Format. Soil Texture for Determination of Title V Sand.......................................$ 70.00 Soil Texture w/ Graphical Representation .............................................$ 70.00 Same as Soil Texture with the addition of a Grain Size Distribution Curve.

I've an auger bit that - I know it was cheap because I am - that fits into a battery powered electric drill. It is about two inches in diameter and will drill to about 14-16 inches deep. I've no idea what the thing was originally designed for, not the garden I'm sure as it was purchased at a hardware store in small town Nevada where nothing much grows because the town is on an ancient lake bed and everything is alkali. I used it to drill holes through the calichi so the raised beds would drain if over watered.

Removing the oxidation physically is probably the easiest way. I would skip the chemicals. HCl probably wouldnt protect your probe but actually convert a small amount of it to a metal salt and make a few hydrogen bubbles at the same time. Acetone shouldn't do anything the metal as far as removing oxides. But it would help clean anything else stuck to it. Then so would soap and water. Just making sure the probe is clean and dry when you store it to help prevent oxidation is probably the best approach. If you want to go a step beyond, storing it in contact with a sacrificial anode like they do boats would probably work. Wiping it once or twice with steel wool seems easier to me.

Besides a shallow soil, in the deeper areas it was very difficult to push the probe in and then to get it out. Very compacted soil it appears. Something's wrong with that first sentence but I get the drift. I don't think this is a very good test of compaction. It might be a test of dryness, but not compaction. Try this. Cover the soil with 3 - 4 inches of mulch for three months and try your experiment again. If you don't want to wait that long, put a black soaker hose on the area and let it run day and night for a week. Turn the faucet on so that only a trickle of water comes out at the faucet. This results in a v-e-r-y slow drip out of the hose. That's what you want. After a week if the soil is not more penetrable, let the water run another week. I have done this for three week periods and gotten soil that was so soft to walk on that it felt a little uneasy. It was not soggy at all, just soft.