01ContactOne address for every job
Write to the lab before you dig
Tell us how many samples, which test, and whether you’ll post or drop off.
Femke replies the same working day with posting or drop-off details. Messages that arrive after 16:30, or after 12:30 on a Friday, are answered first thing the next working morning.
Three things to put in your message
-
01
How many samples
One bag is a normal job here. If you are testing a whole allotment site, say so: ten or more identical tests take 15% off the per-sample price, and batches of 20 or more pay 25% when the bags arrive.
-
02
Which test
The basic soil check at €38, the market garden panel at €74 or the compost maturity test at €62. Mention old buildings, kiln walls or bonfire spots and Femke will ask whether the €45 metals screen is worth adding.
-
03
Post or drop off
Posted bags are welcome from anywhere in the Netherlands and Belgium. Within 25 km of Wageningen you can also bring them to the lab door, or ask for a sampling visit on a Tuesday or Thursday.
02Hours
Four and a half days at the bench
Samples are received until 15:00, or until 12:00 on Friday, so they can be logged and set out to dry before the lab shuts.
- Monday to Thursday 08:30 to 16:30 Samples received until 15:00.
- Friday 08:30 to 12:30 Samples received until 12:00.
- Saturday and Sunday Closed
- Dutch public holidays Closed
- 20 December to 4 January Closed Reopening on 5 January. Anything posted in that fortnight waits in the cold room.
03Where we are
Wageningen, Gelderland, Netherlands
A two-room lab on the edge of town. Most bags come from Gelderland and Utrecht, and the rest arrive by post from across the Netherlands and Belgium.
By post
Send 500 g of soil, about two mugfuls mixed from 12 cores, in a freezer bag. Compost needs 1 litre. There is no need to dry either one first, because the lab air dries every sample at 30 degrees before sieving.
Write your name, the bed name and the date on the bag in marker. Femke sends the posting details with her reply.
At the lab door
Drop-offs come to the door between 08:30 and 15:00 Monday to Thursday, and until 12:00 on Friday. Directions come with your reply.
Reports are printed and posted, or you can collect yours from the lab. Each one carries a bank transfer slip, payable within 14 days.
Sampling visits within 25 km
Tuesdays and Thursdays. A €45 call-out covers up to 8 beds sampled, plus the test fees. Road distances from the lab:
- Wageningen the lab
- Bennekom 4 km
- Renkum 7 km
- Doorwerth 9 km
- Ede 11 km
- Rhenen 13 km
- Arnhem 18 km
- Veenendaal 19 km
- Wijk bij Duurstede 22 km
Further out than 25 km, the post is the way in. A well-taken bag tests just as well as one Femke dug herself.
04Winter closure
Closed 20 December to 4 January
We shut from 20 December to 4 January. The ground is usually frozen or soaked by then anyway, and I would much rather you sampled in February.
Anything that turns up in the post that fortnight goes in the cold room and is the first thing on the bench on the 5th.
Femke
Back at the bench
5 January
Every other week of the year
- Monday to Thursday08:30 to 16:30
- Friday08:30 to 12:30