University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

The most valuable part of the mother earth is soil, which as a resource base for life on the planet. Thus, we have to maintain this important natural resources for our own survival. For this, the deficits generated on various accounts have to be made up. This is only possible when we know about the real situation prevailing at a point of time. Soil analysis come into picture here. Soil, Plant and water are the major ingredients of agriculture system. Analysis of soil and plant as natural resources is of utmost importance for conservation strategies. To make things easy for students, we have attempted to bring all pertinent information together in this handbook. It has been compiled to give students through training the principles and methods of soil and plant analysis along with calculations and conversions of the values.the handbook is equipped with the estimation of mechanical and chemical analysis of soil and plant samples. the principles involved in various determinations have been explained and substantiated with modern concepts, giving chemical equations, wherever necessary. the handbook contains simple and reliable procedure which can be useful to students, teachers and scientists of agricultural sciences.

Includes Appendix

Laboratory safety measures -- quality control and assessment procedures -- Laboratory glassware and tools --I. Soil analysis -- Soil sampling -- Soil sampling for precision farming system -- Mechanical/ Physical analysis of soil -- Bulk density and particle density of soil -- maximum water holding capacity and porosity of soil -- Organic matter content in soil -- Soil pH -- Electrical conductivity of soil -- Total nitrogen in soils -- Available nitrogen in soil -- Ammonical and nitrate nitrogen in soils -- Available phosphorus in soil -- Available potassium in soil -- Cation exchange capacity and total exchangeable bases of soil -- Available sulphur in soil -- Available micro-nutrients in soils -- Gypsum requirement in alkali soils -- soil acidity and lime requirement of acidic soils -- critical levels of nutrients in soils -- II. Water analysis --water sampling and processing -- pH in irrigation water --Electrical conductivity (EC) of irrigation water -- Total dissolved solids (TDS) in water --Total suspended solids (TSS) in water -- Nitrogen in irrigation water -- Total nitrogen in irrigation water --Phosphorus in irrigation water -- Total phosphorus in irrigation water -- Potassium in irrigation water -- sodium in irrigation water -- Calcium and magnesium in irrigation water -- carbonates and bicarbonates in irrigation water -- Chloride in irrigation water -- Sulphate in irrigation water -- Boron in irrigation water -- SAR and RSC of irrigation water -- III. Plant analysis -- Essential nutrients and its functions -- Visual diagnosis of plant nutrient deficiencies -- Sampling, handling and preparation of plant samples for analysis -- Plant analysis for the estimation of -- Total nitrogen in plant samples -- phosphorus in plant samples -- Potassium in plant samples -- calcium and magnesium in plant samples -- Sulphur in pant samples -- Micro-nutrients in plant samples -- Chlorphyll content of leaves -- preparation of acid and alkali standard solutions -- Fertilizers and it composition -- Important terms and definitions -- Conversion factors