" Before you gather your gardening tools and stick that fork into the ground, have you ever considered the type of soil you have, and whether the minerals and nutrients are adequate for your planting needs?

Healthy soil equals healthy plants. Therefore, the biggest benefits of soil testing is optimising crop production, protecting the environment from contamination by run-off, and leaching of excess fertilisers, among other things.

Nathan Henderson and his team have designed a ‘Soil Check’, soil-analyser system that allows for low-cost, quick, user-friendly testing of soil quality for all major types of soil locally. According to Henderson, an electronic electrochemical testing device checks for elements present in the soil.

“The prototype is a two-part system: a soil-sampling probe, which allows for automated collection of water-based soil samples from farmland, and a centralised testing module, which uses a mixture of chemical and electronics techniques to determine the presence and amount of various elements in the soil – each of which is proven to be important for proper plant growth and function,” Henderson said. "

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