• Choose Standard Nutrient Analysis with pH if you want a practical baseline and fertilizer/lime guidance. This is the most popular test offered in the lab and the default starting point for fertilizer/lime recommendation, diagnosing soil problems, or determining whether the lead level is elevated in the soil.  
• Choose Comprehensive Nutrient Analysis if you want “standard + more detailed soil health parameters” (includes soluble salts, organic matter, and soil available nitrogen).  
  • Add-ons (pick when they match your question): 
    • Organic matter if you are focused on soil health, water holding, and long-term management. This analysis provides the percent organic matter in soil or compost, determined by loss-on-ignition.  
    • Texture if you need sand/silt/clay class for planning drainage/irrigation, sports turf construction, or interpretation context.  
    • Soluble salts if you suspect salt stress, over-fertilization, compost/manure over-application, or greenhouse spillover.  
    • Soil pH only if all you need is lime/sulfur guidance (quick check, lowest cost). 
• Choose Pre-Sidedress Soil Nitrate Test (PSNT) if you want to estimate immediate nitrogen needs when the plant is actively growing. The PSNT measures plant available nitrate-nitrogen in the soil and is used by commercial silage corn, sweet corn and pumpkin growers. Turf growers may also find this test useful. From June 1st until mid-August soil test results are ready by the next business day and the grower is contacted with the results and nitrogen fertilizer recommendations via email, fax or phone. 
• Choose the end-of-season cornstalk test to indicate whether below optimum, optimum, or above optimum amounts of nitrogen were applied to the corn during the growing season. Cornstalks collected in a prescribed manner at harvest are analyzed for nitrate-nitrogen. This test is often used in conjunction with the PSNT. 

This analysis is appropriate for soilless greenhouse media or potting mixes containing 20 percent or less mineral soil. Samples submitted for the Saturated Media Analysis are analyzed for pH, soluble salts, plant available calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, boron, iron, manganese, and zinc. It also estimates nitrate-nitrogen and ammonium-nitrogen.  Recommendations for commercial crops can be requested by the University’s Extension Specialist for Greenhouse Crops. 

This test is used to monitor plant nutrient status and help identify nutrient deficiencies and imbalances. This test determines the total tissue concentrations of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu, Mn, and Fe. Nutrient values of leaf (or petiole) tissue are reported alongside “sufficiency ranges” to determine the health of the plant.  Sufficiency ranges are derived from research and represent the nutrient levels of healthy plants. 

ple, based on how much detail you need and what decision you are trying to make: 

• Compost Basic: Includes pH, electrical conductivity (EC, a salt indicator), ammonium-N and nitrate-N (NH₄-N/NO₃-N), plus water-soluble nutrients. This package is designed for routine screening and quick checks of whether a compost is likely to be too salty, too acidic/alkaline, or potentially “hot” from excess ammonium, which can affect plants right away. 
• Compost Intermediate: Includes everything in Basic, plus a maturity index. Choose this when the main question is how finished and stable the compost is, especially if you’re worried about immaturity-related issues like nitrogen tie-up, odors, or inconsistent performance. 
• Compost Comprehensive: The most comprehensive package provided by the lab. It includes the Basic panel and adds plant-available nitrogen, maturity, total carbon, and total nitrogen, C:N ratio, moisture, and bulk density. This is the best fit when you need a full “label-style” characterization for product development, QA/QC programs, larger composting operations, municipal or regulatory programs, or buyers who require detailed specifications. 

Rule of thumb: 
Use Basic for quick routine screening, Intermediate when maturity is the key unknown, and Comprehensive when you need the most defensible, decision-ready profile of the compost. 

Choose the Total Sorbed Metals test when you need a screening of heavy metals in soil or other planting media. SNAL uses US EPA Method 3050B (acid digestion with heat) to estimate “total” metals, meaning the portion that could potentially become available over time. 

• Total Sorbed Metals Test I: Measures cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), and zinc (Zn) 
• Total Sorbed MetalsTest II ($60): Test I + arsenic (As), molybdenum (Mo), and selenium (Se)