Preparing tissues for analysis: do it right to avoid trashy data

Nutritional analysis of turf tissues can yield valuable information. But test results can be wildly inaccurate if the samples are not prepared properly.

The most common problem in preparing tissue samples occurs when they are contaminated with sand. When samples contain sand, the lab analysis of iron will zoom upwards to numbers as high as 600 ppm or even 1,000 and 2,000 ppm (normal tissues rarely have more than 300 ppm). In fact, if you see an analysis that shows…