EXERCISE 1:

Field Sampling
Plant
Tissues:
leaves, bark & roots
By: Group 5
 Reporters

Frezeil Roche Rey Clark Ruba Shanaine Mosende Ivy Gwen Paguia
 BACKGROUND
• Plant analyses are useful to diagnose nutritional problems and to
monitor the fertilization program. Tissue testing is most effective when
used together with soil testing.
• Nutrient concentrations change as plants grow and also differ between
plant parts. It is therefore important to sample specific plant parts at a
particular growth stage.
• Archiving the results from the analyses allows tracking changes in the
same field over time. Plant analyses together with soil analyses and
nutrient budgets allow evaluating the fertilization program on the long
term.
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When plant development differs within a

field, the field should be divided into different
management areas with similar characteristics and a sample from each
area should be taken. To facilitate interpretation,
fields are best divided into the same areas
as is done for soil samples

Randomly select plants throughout the field

or management area and sample the correct
plant parts. For plant parts and number
of plant parts to sample,
Table 1: Sampling procedure for
major field crops
Table 2: Sampling procedure for
major vegetable and berry crops
COLLECTING FROM
LEAF PLANTS
TISSUES
Recycling
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• Determines if the plant has had a

sufficient supply of essential nutrients.
• Confirms nutritional deficiencies,

Why do a •
toxicities or imbalances.
Identifies hidden toxicities and

Leaf tissue
deficiencies when visible symptoms are
not present.

analysis?
• Evaluates the effectiveness of fertilizer
programs.
• Provides a way to compare several
fertilizer treatments.
• Determines the availability of elements
not tested for by other methods. Leaf
tissue analysis tests all the factors that
might influence nutrient availability and
uptake.
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LEAF SAMPLING CONSIDERATION

• Leaf samples must be taken at the correct time of year
because nutrient concentrations within leaves

Timing
continuously change
• The best time to collect 4- to 6-month-old spring flush
leaves is July and August. If leaves are sampled later in
the season, summer leaf growth can be confused with
spring growth.
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LEAF SAMPLING CONSIDERATION

• One leaf sample should represent an area not to exceed 20
acres. The sampler should make sure the selected trees are
representative of the average within the block being
sampled.
Techniques
• Each leaf sample should consist of approximately 100
leaves taken from nonfruiting twigs of 15 to 20 uniform
trees of the same variety and rootstock that have received
the same fertilizer program.
• Use clean paper bags to store the sample. Label the bags
with an identification number that can be referenced when
the analytical results are received.
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LEAF SAMPLING CONSIDERATION

• Avoid immature leaves due to their rapidly changing
composition.
• Do not sample abnormal-appearing trees. Also, trees at the

Techniques block’s edge or at the end of rows should not be sampled

as leaves from these trees may be coated with soil
particles and dust.
• Do not include diseased, insect-damaged or dead leaves in
a sample.
• Select only one leaf from a shoot, and remove it with its
petiole (leaf stem).
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LEAF SAMPLING CONSIDERATION

Handling the leaf • Protect leaves from heat and keep them dry. Place them in
a refrigerator for overnight storage if the leaves cannot be
samples washed and oven-dried during the day of collection.

For micronutrient determinations, leaf samples should be washed by

For macronutrient analysis,
leaves do not need to be
washed. (Macronutrients
include N, P, K, Ca and Mg.)
hand soon after collection and before the leaves dehydrate. Leaves should
be rubbed between the thumb and forefinger while soaking them in a mild
detergent solution and then thoroughly rinsed with distilled or deionized
water. It is difficult to remove all surface residues, but this procedure
removes most of this contamination.

• Dry the leaves in a ventilated oven at about 140°F.

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The equipment needed

Waterproof tags Knife

Permanent felt Leather gardening

markers gloves

Plastic and paper bags News paper

of various sizes
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Do’s and Don’ts of Leaves Sampling

DO’s
● AVOID mixing leaves from different cultivars and from plants
of different ages.
● In cleaning leaf samples, gently and lightly scrub the leaves
together in a mild detergent solution (most dish washing
detergents are satisfactory).
● Use distilled water, available at most drug stores, for washing
and rinsing the samples.
● Place leaves in a dry paper bag or envelope and immediately
label the bag.
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DONT’s
● DO NOT let leaves to stand in water – complete the
Polar Bear
washing and rinsing process in one minute or less.
● When shipping the samples, place the samples in a
paper sacks.
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Components of a tree can be used for

various purposes, each component

Bark
serves a different purpose, from the
leaf down to the root.

Extraction
The same goes for the bark. The bark,
like the leaf and root, also has its

Procedure
unique substance from within in
constitution. Take for example,
cinnamon. A cinnamon’s flavor comes
from the bark of a cinnamon tree. Its
unique flavor and concentration
cannot be found at the leaves and bark
extraction is easier compared to a
cinnamon root extraction.
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How can a
Bark be
sampled?
Start now!
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Equipment for proper sampling of Bark

Knife Used to pry off the bark from the tree

Safety Gloves Used to prevent accidents when handling a knife and

bark of the tree, avoiding splinters.

When bark is pried off, it is important to note that there may be

Safety Glasses flying debris. It is important to wear protective eyewear to avoid
any mishaps.

A paper bag is a good container to carry the

Paper bag/food-grade samples so as to keep the sample fresh, one can
obtain similar results by carrying it in a food-
container grade container
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Bark
Sampling

Choose a tree that is in
good health condition,
with no visible infection,
no attached parasitic plants
and insects, and the bark
itself is not damaged in
any way.
Collect a bark sample that is
approximately 1.20 meters
from the soil. This is just so
that the sample collected is
bark. If the experiment calls for
it, one can also harvest the
inner bark of the tree.
Next
Suggested to sample trees
that are in rural areas or in a
local forest so as to avoid
contaminants and other
exterior/uncontrollable
factors.
Place it in the container
afterwards.
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Do’s and Don’ts of Bark Sampling

DO’s
● DO properly label your samples in this particular order:
 date of sample collected
 Tree Bark sample name
 Sample location
 Inner or outer bark
● DO make sure to have a companion while collecting these
samples.
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DONT’s
● DON’T place the bark on the ground, it must be
Polar Bear
placed directly in the container so as to avoid
contaminants.
● DON’T randomly select a tree, the tree should be
visibly healthy and void of any parasite and/or
disease
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PLANT
ROOT
Sampling
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• Is executed to improve the insight in the

possibilities for root growth (depth and
concentration) of the root system of trees

Root
and plants.
• It is important to all plants to have a

research
dense and extensive root system in the
soil. An extensive root system allows the
plant to benefit from a large volume of
soil. If sufficient quantities of nutrients
and water are present the absorption will
be larger if the root system is more
extensive.
• Measuring the root system also is a useful
means of localizing physical and/or
chemical barriers in the soil profile.
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The equipment needed

Soil probe Permanent marker

Tape measure Rubber gloves

Plastic baggies
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Procedure

1
1. Collect three soil cores (subsamples) from each tree. Select
roots from different sides of the tree (e.g., North, South, etc.).
Fragments of finer roots that can be found close to the soil
surface that can be unearthed manually should be added to
the core.

The distance from the trunk of the tree

Trees under 2 ft. tall: 4-10-inches

Trees 2-5 ft. tall: 10-15-inches

Tree over 5 ft. tall: 15-inches or more depending on the

size of the tree
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Procedure
2 Use a soil probe to collect root samples from the tree for
analysis and evaluation.

3 You should see roots in the sample.

4 Place the sample in a plastic bag.

5 Each subsample should be placed in a clearly labeled ziplock bag.

SEAL THE BAG COMPLETELY.
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