Carefully place this cross-section in your mixing bucket. Always use plastic mixing buckets and either a shovel or a soil probe. Avoid brass, bronze or galvanized tools since they can contaminate samples. Clean the bucket and tools before collecting samples. Even small amounts of lime and fertilizer residue can distort test results.
Zigzag patterns help ensure that samples accurately reflect overall field conditions.
Figure 3 illustrates proper sampling depth. This is the zone in which you incorporate lime and fertilizer. For established pasture and turf as well as for established minimum-tillage operations sample to a depth of 4 inches. Prior to establishing these systems, however, sample to an 8-inch depth. To ensure a representative sample, avoid taking cores from small areas where soil conditions differ markedly from those in the rest of the field for example, wet spots, severely eroded areas, old building sites, fence rows, spoil banks, burn-row areas, and old woodpile or fire sites.