Soil salinity can cause salt burn, affect crop quality and reduce yield. Incorrect soil nitrate levels affect crop growth, quality and yield and excessive nitrogen applications are wasteful and can result in contamination of water tables and waterways.

It is essential that soil salinity and nitrate levels be monitored throughout the crop cycle to ensure optimum crop growth.

The extraction and analysis of soil solutions is a quick and easy way to monitor both soil salinity and nitrate levels.

The sample can be analysed on site using an electrical conductivity (EC) meter and nitrate test strips.

Topics covered by this factsheet includes:

• What is the soil solution?
• How can monitoring the soil solution help irrigated crop management?
• What are the limitations of soil solution analysis?
• Soil solution sampling devices
• Maintenance
• Installation
• Analysis methods
• Interpretation of results