THE IMPORTANCE OF SOIL SAMPLES

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:00:02 GMT

The More You Know with Ben:

Soil Sampling

Energy Curve's Chief Science Officer breaks down the science behind better farming.

There are plenty of things we could talk about when it comes to farming, but some topics have a much bigger impact than others. Topping that list is soil. We could spend hours talking about soil health, compaction, crop selection, or soil structure, but there aren't many places to find a simple, usable summary that doesn't require a degree or a week of reading.

My goal is to share what I know about soil and why it matters for your operation. These are the topics I get asked about most, and honestly, our scientific understanding of them has changed a lot in my career.

But for us to get on the same page, I need you to set aside a few common assumptions:

Balancing the pH in soil is the best way to control available nutrients
The “status quo” of your yield is as good as it gets
Grid sampling is the best sampling method
Soil can be improved in a day and results can we seen in an afternoon
If a little is good, a lot more must be better.

Let’s start with the basics: Soil sampling.

I always ask guys, "If you don’t know where you are, how do you know where to go?" It sounds simple, but it’s the truth. If we don’t know exactly what state your soil is in right now, we’re just guessing at how to improve it.

For years, the standard has been to rely on institutional soil readings as your baseline. To be honest, that practice is pretty dated, and it’s not doing you any favors. Technology has moved forward, and our understanding of soil science has caught up. We no longer have to rely on generic data from a farm that happens to be "similar" to yours; we can get your farm’s actual information.

You might be thinking, "Those general baselines aren't that far off." Let’s look at a quick example: Calcium.

We really need to look at Calcium in two different ways: the Calcium the plant needs, and the Calcium the soil needs. They affect your crop and your soil differently, and they don't always overlap. If you use a general baseline to decide how much lime to add, you might see a quick boost in plant health or pH for a season. But eventually, those results level off or head downhill. That happens because you were managing for "average" land instead of your specific ground.

overlap. If you use a general baseline to decide how much lime to add, you might see a quick boost in plant health or pH for a season. But eventually, those results level off or head downhill. That happens because you were managing for "average" land instead of your specific ground.

So, where do you start? I recommend moving to composite soil samples. It’s the best way to get real data across your entire acreage. And the good news is, you don’t need to do it constantly, only once over a long window, or if you have a major event like flooding or significant dirt work.

HOW TO USE QUICK-GERM

tsears@energycurve.com (ECT Vision) — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 18:41:54 GMT

How to use Benefit Quick-Germ

Press play to here Founder and CEO Todd Sears talk about the thought we put into Quick-Germ.

BREAKDOWN BIOMASS INTO NUTRIENTS

tsears@energycurve.com (ECT Vision) — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 18:29:41 GMT

Using Benefit Digest to breakdown plants.

When you are done with your growing season we recommend using Benefit Digest to breakdown what is left of the plant back into the soil as nutrients for next year. You can do this by pulling the plants and leaving them on top of the soil in your garden or you can start a compost pile and spray Benefit Digest. Either way the plants will break down into usable nutrients.

Spray Benefit Digest once per week and you will see the biomass breakdown week after week. The picture below is 6 days after applying Digest the first time.

ect-vision