The Albuquerque Master Gardeners seem to recommend the Colorado State University lab, looks like they do a nice full analysis or a basic for a few less, and then tests a la carte as well:
There’s also this cool new local lab through a nature center in Los Ranchos, they look like they’re doing great stuff there:
https://www.losranchosnm.gov/agcenter
Flyer_SoilsLab_RequestService.pdf (211.7 KB)
AW sorry to see the 907 twins go but totally understandable! I like the respect 🫡 given to lay them on side!
I really cannot wait to see the structure of your 907’s as they grow. Super pumped. Sending good vibes man.
@Dirt_Wizard you really are a wizard! 
I didn’t find the Los Ranchos one in my search. CSU was the option I was hearing about but I wasn’t sure what the turnaround time would be. I wanted to know ahead of time so I can modify without impacting my plant date. I may send a sample to both, just to see. It would be interesting to compare the results, I have this MySoil Test Kit seeing as it was essentially the same analysis less EC, CEC and OM. I should have those results in < 1 week. I can determine EC and OM at least here with high enough accuracy. At least I can figure out how those other labs work for next year.
@ColeLennon I prefer when they look like little trees 
@LD50 Thanks for the vibes, directing them to the still-undersoil 907 and IBG 
Went out and turned the pile of soil all around, mixed up real nice. Started filling a bucket from different spots, and WOW. This looks, to me anyway, absolutely fantastic. I remember last year we went to the botanical garden and I was feeling soil in miscellaneous planters just getting an idea of what good soil even looked like. This is reminding me of that.
Here’s what I collected
Somewhat closer up
WAY closer up (USB microscope works better on trichs than soil)
After gathering my sample, I rewrapped the tarp and letting it get back to its business.
I’m letting the sample dry out so I can sift some of it through a kitchen strainer and perform the following tasks later today or tomorrow:
Jezuz, I feel awful for just throwing shit in a pot. 
LOL I’m just nerding out on the soil this year. Last year I basically just threw seeds in the pot. I like simplicity too, sometimes.
We’ll see how it goes. It’s a deep rabbit hole.
Living soils what’s up brother. 
OK, so few more things to add today
LusterLeaf #1663 pH/N/P/K Testing
Used small, well agitated sample of the sifted base material widely collected from multiple points of my dirt pile.
pH test indicating basic, I’m not sure I believe this.
I went ahead and did a pH paper test. About 5mL soil material, fill with distilled water to saturate material, mix around and dip strip. I believe this is called a slurry test.
N test indicating somewhere on the low-adequate scale. Unfortunately, pretty subjective here. Ran twice, same color, hoped one of the tests would be easier to read.
P test showing sufficient. This one is pretty clear to read.
K test is the worst in terms of intelligibility. I don’t know why they didn’t just print pictures of representative cloudiness levels. They should have an addendum printed card that shows pictures of real results. Based on the “instructions” for interpretation, I am somewhere above sufficient but below surplus. Repeated this test twice hoping it would become clear to me how to read this.
LusterLeaf #1663 pH/N/P/K Test Results
MySoil Test Sample Prep
Super easy, I’ll drop this in the dropbox when I run to the grocery store in a little bit. Comes with pre-labeled return bubble mailer I just drop the sample jar into. Figured I’d document the process in case anyone is curious.
Thank goodness, this box is to “Grow Healthier Plants!” - EXACTLY my goal 
Soil Texture Test Results
Heading to grocery store to grab some borax to settle my suspended clay. For the record, I have 2mL of clay settled but still a darkly opaque water layer. Update: Borax horked the whole thing up and sunk most of the organic matter.
Using this image, I’ve got a total of 108mL.
Clay = 2mL = 1.9%
Silt = 55mL = 51%
Sand = 47.1%
General Summary of 2023 Soil Neuroticism
I think I may indeed be going way overboard with all of this. My office looks like a makeshift drug lab, probably not a good one even because everything is brown. I’m beginning to question my own sanity, probably how most aspirant meth “chefs” may have thought themselves.
I’ll wait for the MySoil results to come back and we’ll see if everything is congruent there. If I’m indeed a bit low on N I’ll add more worm castings, I’ve still got some of the craft blend as well. I went pretty light on the initial application. If my pH is screwed in one direction or the other, I’ll deal with that as needed. Maybe some humic/fulvic if I’m too alkaline, maybe lime if I’m too low. If I’m actually N deficient somehow, correcting that will probably balance me out anyway. I don’t have a precise pH target anyway - I think anywhere between 6 and 6.5 would be ideal, is that reasonable?
Gets me to thinking, maybe I should test my organic material for N. Maybe sifting the bulk of that decomposing shit out is skewing my results - my N should come from my compost.
On the pH front, yes that’s totally reasonable to me. I know that for garden veggies the general recommendation is to run a ~neutral pH to limit heavy metal / arsenic uptake. Of course, that pH will swing around over the year and across the dry-downs, but I guess my take is I’d like to see it higher than lower if you’re monitoring over a season.
On the N front I think you’re right there… I have not much experience here; do you know what compound the N test is measuring? Ammonium would be my guess but maybe not? I googled and found a variety of ways to indirectly measure N content, since ultimately the N available to the rootzone is provided by microbial outputs as a function of temperature.
There is a husband and wife that run a living soil only farm in Cave Junction, OR
Sprout Update
Current status: 3x healthy Indiana Bubblegum, 3x healthy 907 Blue Genes, 2x healthy Panalawi. 1x sick of each cultivar, and duds for IBG and 907. Also two very vigorous Atlantic Giant pumpkin starts. Two empty pots on standby (top row).
So, I’m concerned about a few of my seedlings (all in the center row there, moved them there so they’d have the best light). There was 1 each IBG and 907 that just never made it above dirt. I dug them out this morning and replaced with new seeds - they were semi-popped, just failed to launch. They looked “dead” for lack of a better term, I don’t think more time would have helped. So, mixed the soil up a bit and saturated with water. Those replant beans are the ones middle row, depressions but no plants. Watered everything today.
Anyway, onward with my sick ward:
Indiana Bubblegum ‘E’: Seems to have crusty cotyledons, this one had a tough helmet experience and I manually removed it.
907 Blue Genes ‘A’: One of the conjoined twin seeds. Seems a little mutated with weak leaves and looking at the pic could well be overwatered the way those seed leaves are drooping like that.
Panalawi ‘B’: Another conjoined twin seed, seemingly same sort of issue as 907 ‘A’. Weak.
Some history, I’ve only watered once or twice in the last week, the vents in the little greenhouse are open. I turned the heater mat off about a week ago because of the amount of condensation it generated, and temperatures in the high 80s. The next day, I set it up on a timer 30 mins on/off whenever the lights are on to have about “half heat”. This kept the temperature in the low 70s during day, probably around 60 or so at night, this is directly on my tile floor in an area of the house which stays pretty cool. Suspecting the temp was too low, I threw my LITFA straight out the window and plugged the mat back in this morning, because the others did indeed seem to start strong this way. So we’re back to the low 80s right now.
I’m worried about only having 3 good examples of IBG and 907 (in the event I get no females), so I’m starting some more beans.
Worse come to worse, I’ll just replace my sickies and non-starts with freshly-cracked weed eggs.
Any ideas? Am I doing classic newb stuff way overwatering and obsessing?
They look good. Having a few more sprouted can’t hurt. I obsess also. That’s exactly why I use coco. You’re doing more than fine man. 
maybe. obvs a little hard to say you’re if overwatering…(what is the media?) you’ve changed conditions for the kids three times inside a week, perhaps a skosh sub-optimal. if it were June, i could see getting a little antsy, but it’s April. keep it mellow!
i’m actually excited for the pumpkins. 
what’s next for them? they look good + eager!
same!
@noknees Thanks guys, I’m going to stop dicking with 'em and we’ll see how it goes. I don’t know why I’m so antsy. Like waiting for my newborn to start walking or saying “dadda,” although nowhere as serious as those things. I think once we cross the seedling threshold I’ll be just fine as last year, I look back at my log from then and it has a similar frenzy. Part of the rush is that I wanted to sex test these and thin them out quickly. Regular seeds are mostly a new thing to me. But you’re totally right - I don’t have to be in a hurry, and I don’t need to rush.
In other news, I’ve been seeking legit IBG to try, maybe reduce some of my antsy nature. @ColeLennon sent me a care package with some. HOLY SHIT. I didn’t know this sort of weed existed. It smells crazy. Legit like this:
Anyway, I’ve learned that indeed I do love the smell and effect of IBG, I’m very hopeful I find a pheno even close to this, and that my meager grow skills produce a result somewhat similar. I found the high incredibly pleasant, relaxing but not tranquilizing. Ate a pint of ice cream, watched a documentary on Saudi Arabia and went to sleep. A+ night, facilitated by A++ herb, provided by A+++ dude. Much gratitude there for offering me a tester and delivering a bomb load of stuff. Thank goodness it didn’t fit in my mailbox, the pole would have broken
What a guy. Now thats a care package
No joke. Legit. I’ll be passing on the good karma!
Wait until you eat 5 MGS of the I.B Gummie and then smoke the same I.B.
Sounds like you’d better have your helmet and cup on before takeoff
The amazing thing about the I.B is even though intense, it’s not overwhelming. It’s totally like that rocket ship above.
