Soil Analyses
The fertility of your soil is of crucial importance for the cultivation of healthy crops. Soil analyses will help you to maintain a high quality of nutrients in the soil and to achieve high yields of crops of a good quality. Normec Groen Agro Control offers various types of laboratory analyses that helps to improve your yields, reduce expenses and reduce possible hazards for the environment.
General soil analyses
Normec Groen Agro Control is able to perform soil analysis to determine the nutrients in the fields of arable farming, horticulture, outdoor vegetable cultivation, grassland, fruit orchards, vegetable orchards, ornamental gardens, sports fields and horse and sheep pastures. For a general soil analysis, the following parameters are determined: phosphate, potassium, magnesium, sodium, nitrogen, sulphur, pH, organic matter, sludge / lutum, carbonic lime. Moreover, additional analyses can be requested: the trace elements copper, manganese, boron, zinc, iron and molybdenum, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), Spurway analysis. These analysis can be requested by using the order form: agricultural research.
Phosphate differentiation and Derogation
Our laboratory is accredited (RvA, L335) for the analyses required for derogation and phosphate differentiation. For these studies we need additional information about your plots. Submitting a request for analyses for derogation and phosphate differentiation can be done by contacting our product manager agriculture.
Sending soil samples
Questions?
Organic matter
Sustainable agriculture
The amount of organic matter that is required by your fields can be calculated with this tool. The annual degradation of the organic matter content is calculated on the basis of the outcome of soil analysis. Our organic matter calculation tool calculates the contribution of the crops to the total amount of the effective organic matter content. You simply calculate how much extra organic matter you give in the form of straw plowing, addition of green manure or addition of compost, to compensate for the degradation and to further increase the organic matter content.
Normec Groen Agro Control supports the development of flowering field edges for sustainable agriculture.
Leaf stem analysis in potatoes
Precise fertilization adjustments by means of leaf stems in potato plants.
During the cultivation of potatoes, monitoring the nitrogen fertilization is important for a constant growth of the crops. The assigned application standards for nitrogen fertilization are often experienced as strict. In order to work with these strict standards of application standards, we search for instruments that indicate whether the potatoes have been fertilized on a sufficient basis. By picking leaf stems and analyse them for the nitrogen content and other minerals you will gain more insight in the nutritional status of the crops during cultivation. Some growers follow the growth of the crop through drone images. Often drone images do not provide the sufficient information. The outcome of leaf stem analsyis can help with the interpretation of these images.
During cultivation, the weather conditions can be very favourable for the growth of the crops. The plants uses the full potential of the minerals present in the soil. This can be measured in the leaf stems. On the other hand, heavy rain can result in a low nitrogen concentration in the soil. In that case, it will be visible in the leaf stems within a few days. Constant growth is achieved through optimal fertilization and good water supply of the crop and is good for the quality of the potatoes. The aim of leaf stem analysis is therefore to monitor the nutritional status of the crops and the need for additional nutriënts.
Normec Groen Agro Control has several nitrogen fertilization standards for a number of potato varieties in different soil types, which guarantees an appropriate fertilization advice. Are you interested in the concentrations of more elements in the leaf stems? However, the target values are not yet sufficiently clear. We can also measure the elements K, Na, Ca, Mg, PO4, and the trace elements Fe, Mn, Zn, B, Mo and Cu in the leaf stems.
Questions?
Leaf stem analysis in Sprouts
In the cultivation of Brussels sprouts, nitrogen fertilization is important. Sufficient fertilization gives a good yield and crops of good quality. For sprouts, this also means a crop that is easy to harvest. Leaf stem analysis will provide a clear insight in the nutritional status of the crops and helps you to grow the sprouts in a controlled manner to the desired length. Leaf stem analysis accurately visualizes the growth pattern of the sprout plant. A major advantage of these analyses is that we can adjust the nitrogen fertilization according to the needs of the crops.
During cultivation, weather conditions can be very favourable for growth. Making the plant fully use the fertilizer and the mineralization of the soil. You can measure this in the petioles.
On the other hand, due to heavy rain, the nitrogen content in the soil can become very low. This can also be measured in the petioles after a few days.
When you can see visual signs of weakness in the crops, it is often already too late to start with increasing the amount of fertilizer that is given to the crops. The ‘condition’ of the plants is then already too weak which can be seen in the growth pattern of the plant. By monitoring the nitrate content by using leaf stem analyses, the need for extra fertilization can be determined 10-14 days earlier.
It is also possible to remove the tips of the plants. It is advised to do this when the nitrate content falls below 5,000 mg NO3 / kg dry matter.
Please contact our product manager Agriculture in case you are interested in leaf stem analyses.