Soil Health Tracking keeps your soil's numbers across seasons so that change becomes visible: pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and organic matter, recorded each time the soil is tested, in one place.
A single soil test is nearly useless on its own. It tells you where you are, not which way you are going — and the direction is the thing that matters. Organic matter falling slowly over four seasons is the most important fact about a farm and is invisible in any one report.
Most farmers lose this information not because they never test but because the reports are on paper, in different formats, from different labs, in a drawer. This records them in one form so that seasons can actually be compared.
It is clear that it records and compares; it does not test. The numbers come from a real laboratory, and the value here is in keeping them somewhere they can be read together years later.
It pairs with the Soil Test Report reader, which turns a lab sheet into a fertiliser plan, and with the crop calendar, because a soil trend only becomes actionable at the point in the season when something can be done about it.
It is one of the paid tools, and it is the one whose value compounds — a farm with four seasons of comparable soil data is worth more than a farm without, quite literally, to a buyer or a lender.
How to use Soil Health
What it is. A record of your soil over time rather than a single reading: log each soil test against a named field and a date, map it to the spot it was taken from, and watch the trend. Once there are two tests for a field, the comparison unlocks.
When to open it. Every time a soil test comes back. The value is cumulative and it starts at the second entry, so the first one is an investment.
Have ready.
A field or plot name.
The test date.
The lab measurements you have: pH, EC, organic matter, N, P, K, calcium, magnesium and the micronutrients.
Optionally the extraction or test method, the crop or rotation, and the coordinates of the sample point.
Step by step.
Press 'Log Soil Test' and name the field. Use the same name every time — this is what links the tests into a series.
Enter the date the sample was taken, not the date the report arrived.
Enter the measurements. Any subset is accepted; at least one is required.
Record the extraction or test method. Two labs using different methods produce numbers that are not comparable, and this is the field that lets you know.
Map the sample to its spot. A soil test is about a point, and a field varies across itself.
Log at least two tests for a field to unlock the comparison, then read the trend rather than the reading.
What it will not do. It records and compares what you enter. It does not test soil, does not know your local fertiliser recommendations, and states no dose. Where a reading is compared against a guide, that guide is general — your crop, your yield target and your district's extension advice are what turn it into a decision.
Every setting in Soil Health, explained
Field / plot name
What links one test to the next. How to choose: Exactly the same spelling every time. This is the whole mechanism. If it is wrong: 'North field' and 'north field' become two series of one test each, and the trend never appears.
Date
When the sample was taken. How to choose: The sampling date, not the report date. They can differ by weeks and the trend is about the soil, not the post. If it is wrong: The series is dated wrongly and seasonal changes get attributed to the wrong part of the year.
Extraction / test method
Which laboratory method produced the numbers. How to choose: Copy it from the report. Olsen and Bray phosphorus, for instance, are different numbers for the same soil. If it is wrong: You compare this year against last year and see a change that is entirely the laboratory. This is the single most common way a soil trend is misread.
Coordinates / map this sample
Where in the field the sample came from. How to choose: Map it. Soil varies across a field more than most people expect, and a series from different corners is not a series. If it is wrong: You compare one part of the field against another and call it a change over time.
Crop / rotation
What was grown between this test and the last. How to choose: Record it. It is the explanation for most of what the trend shows. If it is wrong: You see potassium fall and have no record of the crop that removed it.
The measurements
pH, EC in dS/m, organic matter %, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in kg/ha, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper and boron in mg/kg, moisture %. How to choose: Enter what the report gives. Anything not tested stays marked as not tested rather than as zero. If it is wrong: Entering a blank as zero puts a false point in the trend line, and a trend line is exactly what this is for.
A worked example
The same field tested in three successive Aprils, same laboratory, same method, sample mapped to the same corner.
What goes in:
Field: North field
Three April dates
Organic matter 0.9%, then 1.1%, then 1.3%
What comes out:
A latest health snapshot, with each reading marked in guide range, above guide or below guide.
A trend across the three, which a single reading cannot give you.
Priority field actions and recommended actions from the current position.
An exportable soil health report.
Organic matter rising from 0.9 to 1.3% over two years is a slow number and a large result — it is roughly a 40% increase in the fraction of the soil that holds water and feeds soil life. No single test would have told you that, and this is the only thing in the app that could.
How to read what it gives you
In guide range, above guide, below guide: these are general agronomic guides, not your crop's requirement and not your local recommendation.
The trend is what you came for. A single soil test is a photograph; three are a direction, and the direction is what management changes.
The AI interpretation is generated from the logged measurements and is commentary, not a prescription.
A measurement you did not take shows as not tested, and stays out of the trend rather than being interpolated.
What usually goes wrong
Changing laboratory or extraction method between tests and reading the difference as a change in the soil.
Sampling from a different part of the field each time.
Sampling straight after fertiliser or manure has gone on. The result describes the application.
Testing once and expecting insight. The tool says it plainly: log at least two tests to unlock the comparison, because that is where the value begins.
Questions people ask about Soil Health
How often should I test my soil?
Once a year, at the same point in the rotation and preferably the same month, is enough to build a usable trend for most fields. Testing more often than the soil changes mostly measures the laboratory; testing less often than every two or three years means you notice a decline several seasons after you could have acted on it.
Why can I not compare my two soil tests?
Usually because something other than the soil changed between them: a different laboratory, a different extraction method, a different corner of the field, or a sample taken shortly after fertiliser. The tool asks for the method and the map point precisely so those differences are visible rather than mistaken for a result.
Is rising organic matter really significant?
Yes, and it is the slowest and most valuable thing to move. Organic matter holds water, feeds soil biology and improves structure, and it changes by tenths of a percent over years. Going from 0.9% to 1.3% is about a 40% increase in that fraction — invisible in any single test and only readable as a series.
What is the difference between this and the Soil Test Report tool?
The Soil Test Report interprets one laboratory report in depth, against published standards, and tells you what to do about it now. This keeps the series, so you can see whether what you did worked. Use both: interpret each test as it arrives, log every one of them here.
Want to use Soil Health for real, right now? Open Soil Health in the Laisha app → Ten days free, no card. After that 10 US dollars a month, one price worldwide.