What does the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) measure?
Essentially it is a measure of the ability of soil to hold nutrients. Think of it like a bucket. The bigger the bucket, the more it will take to move from one level of fullness (say half full) to another level (say 3/4 full). So, for instance, a soil with a lower CEC will take fewer nutrients or less time to make a certain degree of change compared to a soil with a high CEC. Because of this, high CEC soils have what we call a greater buffering capacity, which means that we can do more acid forming things to it, for instance, before it moves from 6.9 clear down to 6.5. Why does it cost so much less for soil tests when I have 5 or more samples? Each soil test that CRL runs requires extensive sample preparation. If we can process a group of samples together there is considerable cost savings and we pass that savings on to you, our customer.
