Plant analysis for vegetable crops - A practical guide to sampling, analysis and interpretation

Report developed by the Soil Wealth Integrated Crop Protection project.

The problem

Don’t leave crop productivity and quality to chance – monitor to manage using plant analysis.

Use plant analysis to monitor a crop’s nutrient status and identify deficiencies early before yield and quality are reduced. Make sure that your crops can access available nutrients from soil or substrate: just because nutrients are in the soil, it does not mean they are accessible to plant roots.  Don’t wait for visible symptoms of deficit, by then yield and quality are already compromised. Manage early and maximise the value of your vegetable crop!

The solution 

The Plant Analysis for Vegetable Crops Guide explains how to use plant analysis to monitor and manage vegetable crop nutrition, benefiting your production system by achieving balanced, site specific nutrient management. The Guide covers how this approach can be used for vegetables and explains how to interpret results for optimum outcomes. Purposes and types of plant analyses are covered, aiding in your selection of the right tools for you and your crops. Sampling methods, desirable nutrient concentrations and interpretation of results are all discussed.

At an early stage of growth, a plant analysis is done to correct any current deficiencies or imbalances. If done at later stages, e.g. at flowering or around harvest, the information may still be useful for the current crop and for the next season’s crop. At a later crop stage it will be hard to ‘fix’ deficiencies or imbalances to have the desired effect on the yield and quality of the current crop.