Samples MUST be submitted in an official NCDA&CS soil box. These are available from NCDA&CS Agronomic Services Division office in Raleigh, an NCDA&CS Regional Agronomist, county Cooperative Extension offices, or some counties may have hardware stores that have boxes.

To take a soil sample, you need a clean, plastic bucket, and a stainless-steel soil probe, shovel, spade or garden trowel.

Do not use brass or bronze tools because they will contaminate samples with copper. Galvanized buckets or tools will contaminate samples with zinc.

1. Collect 15 to 20 cores per sample. Avoid combining areas of different soil types & fertilizer histories into one sample. Avoid fertilizer bands & ends of fields.
2. A core should be 0 to 8 inches deep for plowed fields and 0 to 4 inches deep for no-till or pastures. 
3. Break up cores and mix soil in a plastic bucket. 
4. Use a waterproof marker to label a soil box with your name, address and a unique sample ID that will help you remember where the sample was collected. If you have a set of samples from the same farm, then you will want to group them together by adding the same Farm ID to each sample box.
5. Fill the sample box up to the red fill.  Do not overfill. Do not put tape on the soil box.
6. Do not put soil in plastic bags.
    

How deep should samples be taken?

* Note: If you are taking a sample to diagnose a suspected nutrient problem, take the sample within the plant root zone.

While soil moisture does not impact soil test results, extremely wet soils are difficult to collect and mix. Therefore, allow soil to drain before sampling. Soil too wet to till is too wet to sample. Your soil samples do not have to be completely dry to submit.