With the cooperation of more than 60 public and private soil testing laboratories, the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) has completed a summary of results of tests performed on approximately 4.4 million soil samples collected in the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010.

The 2010 summary contains information about phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), chloride (Cl-), and pH.

"The summary can be viewed as an indicator of the nutrient supplying capacity or fertility of soils in the U.S. and Canada," notes Dr. Paul Fixen, IPNI senior vice president and director of research. He coordinated the efforts of IPNI North America staff and others in collecting the data and compiling the report. The 2010 summary is probably the most comprehensive evaluation of soil fertility ever conducted in North America.

The new summary offers a snapshot view of soil test levels in the U.S. and Canada in 2010, but also provides a comparison to the previous two summaries which were completed in 2005 and 2001. Since the 2010 summary is the third in which laboratories were asked to complete frequency distributions of soil test results, temporal changes in soil test level distributions can be viewed for the second time for states and provinces.

The 42-page publication (Item # 30-3110) is available for purchase for USD 25.00. An accompanying CD-ROM contains a PDF file showing the pages of the report, a PowerPoint file of all figures and graphs in the report, and an Excel workbook of the major tables to facilitate construction of custom graphs for regions of interest. The CD alone (Item # 82-3110) is available for USD 10.00. The combination of the publication plus the CD (Item # 90-3110) is available for USD 30.00. Shipping and handling costs are added.

For more information or to order, contact: Circulation Department, IPNI, 3500 Parkway Lane, Suite 550, Norcross Ga., 30092; phone 770/825.8082. E-mail: [email protected]. More information about the report is also available at: http://info.ipni.net/soiltestsummary.