Assessing soil structure with two simple methods : Spade Test and mini 3D soil profile

The spade test and the mini 3D soil profile are diagnosis tools to assess soil structure. Both tools are a simplified version of the soil profile diagnosis method that quickly provides information to the user and helps for decision making (e.g. tillage operations). The spade test only requires a spade and a tarp whereas the midi soil profile requires a telescopic loader with a pallet fork. The video presents the two different tools and their related guideline document. The leaflets explain how to extract a soil block and interpret the observed soil structure. Both leaflets contain an interpretation table for scoring the soil structure based on the observation of the clods. The tools are applicable both for organic agriculture and conventional agriculture and the tests are applicable in all European pedo-climatic conditions