P R O G R E S S .......G R A P H
Soil And Leaf Analysis Laboratory Kashmir
Directorate of Hortculture, Horticulture Complex, Rajbagh, Srinagar
The Soil Testing Laboratory was established by the State Department of Horticulture in March, 1995, at Horticulture Complex, Rajbagh, Srinagar, with the aim of providing guidance to the orchardist community on scientific lines, with regard to the basic input of all horticultural activity. i.e...............
Soil is the basic natural source on which Agri-Horti production is dependent. Since the development of agriculture, the most important concept of soil has been as natural medium for plant growth. Soil is the interface between the living and the dead, where plants combine solar energy and carbon dioxide of the atmosphere with nutrients and water from the soil to form living tissue.
Basically, plants growing on land depend on soil for water and nutrients. Beyond this, the soil provides an environment in which roots can grow and function. We cannot think of a substance other than soil that has been more meaningful for humanity. Soil must supply water and nutrients to the plants in adequate quantities for completion of their life cycle and an environment in which roots can function.
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Soil testing is the widely used practice for soil fertility evaluation and fertilizer recommendations. It is equally helpful in understanding its potential and limitations. Soil sample collection is a primary but often neglected step in soil testing and is also a major source of error, representing 80-85 % of the total error, among all the steps. The importance of having a truly representative soil sample can be well realized from the fact that only a minute fraction of the huge soil mass is actually used for analysis in the laboratory. It is, therefore, essential that the sample so collected should be representative of the whole sampled area.
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