look out for a lab that does Reams testing. Carey Reams didn't come up with the test. It's just a Morgan extract developed by (oddly enough) Dr. M.F. Morgan at the University of Connecticut. Calling it a Ream's test gives credit where none is due and completely ignores the creator. Also, when looking for a lab, most that run the test will call it a "Morgan extract" so searching for a "Ream's test" will exclude a lot of labs that do perform that test. Of course, Reams came up with her own interpretation critera. However, they are based on a prescribed lbs. per acre formula. ie. she wants 400 lbs. per acre of phosphorous. This is the next best thing to useless because the amount of nutrients that would be sufficient in a sandy soil are worlds away from sufficient in a heavy clay. (and a myriad of other factors play a role) You also aren't limited to Morgan extract to gie an idea of what is actually available rather than the total that you would get from a strong acid extraction. In fact there are many valuable weak acid extractions that follow the same basic principle. Mehlich 2, Mehlich 3 and DTPA are other examples. However, the best method will vary with your soil type. Following one "guru" style type of testing rather than choosing the correct method of analysis and interpretation (which touches on the whole religious mind set without the thinking to back it up scenario that has been such a popular topic lately) can result in poor information and results.

Where in the world you are can be of tremendous assistance to some of us, although my soil is sand while my sisters soil (6 miles west of me) is clay. Usually sand atop a clay base indicates that someone dumped some sand there in an attempt to have a soil kind of easier to cultivate then the clay would be. The clay, under that sand, will keep that sand from draining properly, two different soil types with vastly different drainage capabilities. I would talk with the people at your local office of your state universities Cooperative Extension Service to find out what your soil type shoulld be.

Depends. If the soil has ample amounts of organic matter now and an active Soil Food Web mixing in a high carbon source of material might have little to no adverse affect. However, if the soil lacks adequate amounts of organic matter and an active Soil Food Web, mixing a source of high carbon into the soil can result in the soil bacteria getting busy digesting that carbon and temporarily causing most of the available Nitrogen to be tied up. Once that carbon is digested, or mostly so, that N will be once again available to the plants.

Many kinds of maples are adapted to heavy soils and are planted in them by the thousands, as along streets for instance. It is the Japanese maple that is unusually touchy about drainage. If this planting site is big enough your best bet would be to excavate the clay soil and replace with lighter soil. If it is a narrow strip and the area becomes quite wet even that may not work, water coming in from the sides. Planting a tree or shrub over loosened soil is not a good idea because as the soils settles after planting the new specimen may sink to a level below the desired depth. Digging organic matter into a heavy soil will not have a lasting effect on the texture of the soil as the organic matter will gradually decompose and disappear. Even when non-decomposing amendments such as sand are used to alter the texture of backfill if the planting area is a small one there will still be the problem of how water moves into and out of the planting area being affected. Small areas of one soil texture surrounded by a much larger area of another are often a setup for problems. A large bed of soil amended with sand or similar material will also pose the problem of what to do when the dug over area rises up like a loaf of bread after the amendments are dug in - unless a soil already has a fairly high sand content a huge amount must be used to alter the texture of the finished bed significantly. If you can't excavate and replace a wide area of soil there or put a layer of more suitable soil over the top then it many just be that you can't safely plant Japanese maples in that particular spot. However, since you are in a fairly mild climate zone possibly it would be acceptable to plant them in suitably large tubs and place these on top of crushed rock or other covering in the same location.