I want to test my soil in a new garden bed I am reviving but not sure I I should do a home kit style test or take samples and send it out some where? I know UMass at Amherst did sample testing but not sure if they do anymore. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I guess it would depend on how far you want to go into reviving your soil. I used Logan Labs for a comprehensive analysis but I had already planned on remineralizing my soil. If you want a simpler test for just the basics, you could use a university extension facility.

I agree with:
>> you could use a university extension facility.

I think some of them have reasonable prices. I have a link to co=op / ag extension services in my signature block:

~~ Coop Extension Finder
https://nifa.usda.gov/partners...

I bought one of those soil-test kits but haven't used it yet. Eyeballing a color change didn't seem likely to give me accurate or reliable results.

I also want to "blend" the soil in most of my tiny raised beds before testing each separately. try to get similar soil in each bed, test once, then amend them all similarly.

Rick - I always wondered how accurate the soil test kits were. I think I tried one once (can't remember the brand) and the colors in the test tubes were so muddy (ha ha) that I couldn't quite match them to the kit charts. If you find a kit that's somewhat accurate, please let us know.

I trust those "pH sticks" that have 2-4 small squares of color. Each square changes color at a different pH, and I think they are accurate to something like +/- 0.2 pH units.

And you remove the little plastic "stick" from the liquid before reading it. If I mixed soil with distilled water and then read the pH with one of those "sticks", I would pretty much believe it.

Rick - is there a specific brand of test kit that you prefer?

Nope. Even the semi-pro nursery-supplies-wholesale place I go to only had the "colored capsule" style of kit.

My rules for fertilizing are:

1. My beds always need more compost, lots more compost.
2. I may add a LITTLE chemical fertilizer a few times per year, the first year or two, while I'm still amending a bed.
3. After that, I'll probably add only compost until I see some heavy feeder with too many yellowing lower leaves, or "looking poorly".
4. Hopefully, the frequent rain we get will wash any any excess nutrients.

4. "Some day" I may average out the soil in my little beds by swapping soil and tilling. THEN I might take a collective sample and have it tested. Until then, the soil in each bed was amended as a separate batch, so each bed is probably very different. But, since the soil has LOTS of clay, I expect it to be a "nutrient magnet" with more ability to hold mineral io ns than loamy or sandy soil. Clay is a good holding buffer for plant nutrients (mineral ions).

I don't make enough compost to amend my beds but I am trying to continually top-dress with shredded leaves. I don't do much digging as a rule but I did dig in some nutrient amendments back in the spring. My main bed for growing a few veggies, perennials and shrubs did test at 7.1 before amending so not too far off center although I did want to lower it a bit to release the calcium and magnesium from my clayey soil.

>> I don't make enough compost to amend my beds but I am trying to continually top-dress with shredded leaves.

Mulch is just a slow form of sheet-composting! The organic matter in your leaves will wind up in your soil, and deep in your soil, eventually. Worms and eluviation carry small particles and dissolved material downwards.

Also, top-dressing with "browns" doesn't cause nitrogen deficiency in soil or root zones. If you had turned the same amount of chopped leaves under and mixed them well, bacteria would make your root zone a "Nitrogen-free zone" until they finished digesting all the excess C in the leaves.

You and I are on the same page about digging in browns.

Once I bought the cheapest ""soil conditioner"" that HD would put in a bag. Mostly wood chips. I thoguht they would last longer in the soil than most things.

They did last for almost two years: as a huge mass of ugly fungus that nothing would grow on top of.

Then I read about "Nitrogen deficit". Never again. Wood chips are for top-dress mulch!

Although I knew someone, I think in Cubits, who made usable soil from clay, gravel, wood chips and some N source like manure. He said it worked for him from the first year forward. (My guess is: more manure than wood chips, and maybe the chips were large.)

Sounds feasible and would make for an interesting experiment. I guess it would depend on what type of manure as well.