Why a soil test matters
Lawn care advice is meaningless without knowing what your soil actually has. Lime, sulfur, potassium, and even some nitrogen recommendations all depend on numbers from a real soil test, not eyeballing the grass. A $25-$50 Logan Labs or Waypoint test pays for itself by telling you exactly what to apply (and what NOT to apply).
How this analyzer works
Upload your soil test PDF. We support Logan Labs, Waypoint Analytical, and most other US lawn-test labs. The PDF is processed by AI to extract values, then discarded; the original file is never stored.
Tell us your grass type, ZIP code, and lawn size. Your grass type changes everything: pH 5.8 means "lime now" for Kentucky bluegrass but "perfect, do nothing" for centipede. ZIP picks your regional climate, and lawn size lets us do the bag-buying math.
You get a prioritized action plan with specific product recommendations, lawn-size-adjusted amounts, and citations to university extension sources. Premium ($7.99/month) saves the test to your lawn profile and reminds you when it is time to re-test.
How to read your results
- High-priority actions need attention this season. Most commonly pH adjustments (lime or sulfur).
- Medium-priority actions are real but less urgent. Potassium gaps usually fall here.
- Low-priority actions are optional or context-dependent. Phosphorus and organic matter live here.
- Informational items are baseline context. We display micronutrient values but Phase 1 does not issue micronutrient recommendations — they require tissue tests, not soil tests, to confirm.
How we handle your PDF
Before any AI call, the system strips your name, mailing address, and any account numbers printed on the lab report header. Only the soil values reach OpenAI. The original PDF is never stored. We log lab name, parse confidence, and error class for telemetry — we never log the extracted text or PDF contents.
What this tool does NOT do
- Recommend nitrogen applications from soil-N readings. Soil nitrogen tests are notoriously unreliable for turf timing. Use the fertilizer calculator for N planning.
- Replace your local county extension office for severe imbalances, sports turf, or commercial properties.
- Recommend chelated micronutrient applications from soil values alone. Iron and manganese deficiencies should be confirmed with tissue tests.
- Process scanned reports printed and re-scanned by mail. Most labs deliver text-based PDFs that parse cleanly; scanned images fall back to manual entry.