Steps for plant sampling

We would like to help our farming partners supporting targeted nutritional supply through leaf analysis tests, with the following ideas!

Sampling tools:

• Map of 1:10 000 scale of the farm (on the map 1 cm = 100 m on the terrain), where the following items are indicated:

the boundaries of the individual lands,
signs of lands,
the area of the lands,
as well as the types of cultivation indicated with map signs

• You can also use sampling code-maps used for soil sampling to take plant samples, as soil sampling units are also used to determine plant sampling units. The unit of plant sampling may be equal to the unit of soil sampling, or it should be a multiplication of it.

• Auxiliary maps

When sampling plantations, especially when take samples from a cordoned plantations, it is necessary to know the planting design for designing sampling stages.

• Sampling accessories:

stainless steel scissors, knife, lawn scissors, pruning shears etc.

When sampling cereals, ½ or 1 m long bars are required to designate sections

How to execute plant sampling:

• The sample is collected in 30x40 cm etamin or paper + plastic mesh.
• Before sampling begins, a sample ID ticket must be placed in each bag.
• The sample ID ticket is placed in a bag made of polyethylene made for this purpose, in the sample collection bags.
• do not take muddy, wet samples after rain

• sampling should be carried out preferably prior to pesticide and other spraying
• no samples should be taken for 2 days after heavy rain or rainfall-like irrigation. If this cannot be avoided, it has to be noted in the minutes how many mm precipitation was in the area within the last 24 hours

Sampling of traditional plantations

• The sampling unit is made up of a 6 ha area, which is always the same as soil sampling.
• Two average samples are taken from the sampling unit using a parallel sampling method, preferably along the two diagonals.
• A sampling unit must always be of the same kind. It is always the variety of the plant that decides the design of the sampling unit.
• If the plant type makes an area less than 6 ha, then this area is relevant if it is more than 6 hectares of uninterrupted area, then sampling unit is of more than 6 ha, but should never be larger than 12-15 ha.

FOR GRAPES

• Take one leaf from each vine – take a nice, healthy leaf opposite the first bunch without its petiole (without the stalk).
• One sample consists of 100 leaves on average. We collect up to 200 leaves from areas more than 6 ha.

* Depending on variety and vintage

FOR ORCHARDS

• You should collect two leaves from a tree, from the two aisles sides of the tree, and from the lower third of the foliage.
• Always take the sample from the surface of the foliage (so-called light-exposed leaf) from the centre of thefruiting branches.
• One sample consists of 100 leaves on average.
• For leaf analysis, you should usually collect healthy, healthy leaves typical of the breed (variety).
• If there is a deficiency symptom that affects the whole plantation (all over the sampling area), then you should take such leaves to the average sample as well.
• If ill leaves with deficiency symptoms are present only in patches, then you should exclude these parts from the sample, but later those patches should be sampled separately. The phenomenon is recorded in the auxiliary minutes.

* Depending on the type and the vintage

FOR PLANTATIONS OF MIXED STOCK

• The main type of species is sampled
• The leaves of different types of plants should not be collected and treated as an average sample.

Sampling of wire-cordoned plantations

• For wire-cordoned plantation, samples are collected from6-hecatre, type-identical units of land as in case of traditional plantations.
• What is described above for traditional plantations, in terms of how average samples are treated, the variety unit and the extent how the areas cultivated are all applicable.

The arrangements of land units and hedge cultivation do not allow diagonal crossings. Here, you should use the following method to make average samples:

• In the non-crossable plantations, instead of real diagonal sampling, multiple sampling accepted in the soil sampling practice is applied.
• The length of the useful sampling path to be surveyed is approximately equal to the length of the two diagonals.
• For a square near a square, at 3 rows, if the size of the unit along the lines is less than half of that of the side across, pass through 4 or 5 rows.
• Since a diagonal of 300 x 400 m 2 has a total of 1000 m, the length of the useful sampling path can also be determined that for sampling units of about 12 hectares it is 1000 m.
• On this sampling route, the collection of 100 leaves should be collected from at least 50 specimens of the crop.
• In the multi-line sample, two samples of each half of the road to be surveyed should be collected.
• The averaging of the results of the two samples reduces the deviation due to the test error and the two samples will show if the area is heterogeneous.
• Do not take samples from the 3-5 rows along the sidelines to avoid "wind effect", just the same way, sampling is to be avoided at the first span between the columns in an aisle (grapes) or from the first 3-5 trees (orchards).

SAMPLING OF ARABLE CULTURES

• When sampling arable crops, the sampling unit is 12 ha in accordance with soil sampling.
• The sampling unit is selected based on the 1: 10,000 scale map and knowledge of the location.
• If the soil is sufficiently planed, and the preliminary plants cultivated is the same, the plant stock is even and the variety is identical, the sampling unit may be increased by 12 ha-s, but should not exceed 48 hectares.
• Different preliminary plants and species variation are decisive in sampling.

* Depending on the type and the vintage

If you have any questions regarding sampling or as to how samples should be sent to your lab, please contact our consultants