Paid $400 for a soil analysis and it was a complete waste of money

I hired a company to test the soil around 12 mature oaks on my property in Ohio. They came back with a 20 page report full of fertilizer recommendations and pH adjustments. I followed every step to the letter over 6 months. Two of those trees are now dead and a third is looking rough. My neighbor who does nothing but rake leaves has all his oaks thriving. I think these soil testing places just want to sell you products you don't need. Has anyone else had better luck ignoring the science and just letting trees do their thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahhernandez8d agoMost Upvoted

Wow, that's rough losing two oaks after all that work. I gotta push back a little though. Soil tests can be super helpful but only if you're working with someone who actually knows trees and not just lawn care. The problem might not be the test itself but the recommendations. A lot of those companies treat oaks like they're a lawn or a garden vegetable. Oaks don't need heavy fertilizer or big pH changes, they've been growing wild on their own for centuries. Your neighbor's success could be because his soil was already fine for oaks and he just didn't mess with it. Maybe the takeaway isn't to ignore science but to find a certified arborist who's not just selling a product.

derekp708d ago

Ngl I gotta hard disagree with you here. Soil tests are pretty standard stuff for anyone who knows what they're doing, and a lot of the time the issue is just that people follow bad advice from the same folks pushing fertilizer products. But saying oaks don't need any changes is ignoring that urban soil is way different than wild forest floor soil. Your neighbor's tree might have just gotten lucky with decent dirt, but my yard is basically construction fill and clay, and if I didn't test and amend it, my oaks would be stunted and yellow within a year. Honest to god, I've seen certified arborists recommend the exact same treatments that the lawn care guys do, so it's not some magic bullet.