Instruments used in Soil Science laboratory for soil plant and water analysis.

1. Department of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry
(SSAC)
TOPIC:
Instruments used in
Soil/Plant/Water
Analysis Shubham Pal
● 18212AGC142
● BSc.Ag. Part 4; 2nd Sem
SSC-421 Soil, Plant, Water & Fertilizer Analysis
Submitted to :
Dr. PK Sharma
Dr. YV Singh

2. List of Instruments
• pH meter
• EC meter
• Hot air oven
• Muffle furnace
• Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
• Visible Spectrophotometer
• Flame Photometer
• Rotary flask shaker
• WaterBath
• Kjeldahl Digestion And Distillation Unit
• Kjeltron
• Deionizer

3. pH meter
pH meter, electric device used to
measure hydrogen-ion activity (acidity
or alkalinity) in solution.
Fundamentally, a pH meter consists of
a voltmeter attached to a pH-responsive
electrode and a reference (unvarying)
electrode. The pH-responsive electrode
is usually glass, and the reference is
usually a silver–silver chloride
electrode.
0-14 scale
Soil / Water samples

4. EC Meter
The electrical conductivity indicates the amount of
soluble (salt) ions in soil.
Soil EC can be measured via electrodes inserted
directly into the ground or by extracting soil water
using a lysimeter.Soil: Water suspension - 1:2.5
EC is measured in units called Seimens per unit
area e.g dS/m or mmhos/cm
Higher the dissolved material in a water or soil
sample, the higher the EC will be in that material.

5. TDS Meter
● A TDS meter is a small hand-held
device used to indicate the Total
Dissolved Solids in a solution, usually
water.
● Since dissolved ionized solids, such
as salts and minerals, increase the
conductivity of a solution, a TDS meter
measures the conductivity of the
solution and estimates the TDS from
that reading.
● 50-150ppm

6. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
(AAS)
Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)
is a technique which is helpful to
measuring the quantities of trace
elements present in soil samples.
Atomic Absorption Spectrometry is a
useful technique to analyze a wide
range of environmental samples (e.g.,
water, soil, sludge, and sediment) for a
large number of elements (e.g., heavy
metals).
Atomic absorption spectroscopy is based
on absorption of light by free metallic ions.

7. Visible Spectrophotometer
The most common types of spectroscopy used in
agriculture are:
Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy
Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy
Atomic Absorption (AA)
Atomic Emission (AE) spectroscopy.
Application of ultra-violet (UV), visible (VIS) and
near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for prediction of soil
properties offer a cost and time effective approach for
evaluation of soil structural quality.
Another application of UV-Vis spectroscopy in agriculture is
the determination of fertilizers’ components, such as nitrates
and phosphates, in soil samples.
Soil quality, SOM and clay content.

8. Flame Photometer
Compressor
● Flame photometry is one of the branches of
atomic absorption spectroscopy. It is also
known as flame emission spectroscopy
● Flame photometer can be used to determine
the concentration of certain metal ions like
sodium, potassium, lithium, calcium and
cesium etc.
● Alkali and alkaline earth metals (Group II) -
excited & emits certain wavelength

9. Hot air oven
It is used to dry glassware & moist
soil, sterilize general instruments.
It helps in calculating various soil
physical properties. ( For chemical
analysis - air dried soil is used)
Oven drying of soil is done at 105 °
C for 2 hours.

10. Muffle furnace
1. Muffle Furnaces are used for
high-temperature testing
applications such as loss-on-ignition
or ashing.
Temperature 🌡 ~ 1200°C
2. Resistance muffle furnace dry ashing
process is commonly used for plant
tissue sample analysis. It takes from
four to eight hours to complete the
ashing process. Microwave muffle
furnace, however, can reduce ashing
time to about 20 minutes.

11. Rotary flask shaker
1. Rotary Shakers are ideal for mixing
and development of cultures,
chemicals, solvents, asseys, etc.
2. A shaking incubator works by evenly
distributing nutrients throughout your
sample. They make use of an orbital
agitation at different speeds.

12. Water Bath
1. Water Bath is laboratory equipment
made from a container filled with heated
water.For heating flammable chemicals
instead of an open flame to prevent
ignition.
2. It is used to incubate samples in water
at a constant temperature over a long
period of time. UPTO 99.9 °C
Above 100°C - Oil/Sand/Silicone Bath is
used

13. Kjeldahl Digestion And
Distillation Unit
Kjeldahl unit is designed to determine protein,
nitrogen and ammonia content.
N & P Determination. SOIL & PLANT ANALYSIS
It is single equipment combined with digestion
and distillation units fitted in a single metallic
frame.
Each unit has 3 or 6 heating mantles with individual
energy regulators, supporting rods and clamps and
a fume duct.

14. KjelTRON
FULLY AUTOMATIC KJELDAHL SYSTEM
KjelTRON™ - Rapid Automatic Protein Estimation System (Protein
Analyser) KjelTRON by “TULIN EQUIPMENTS”
Fully automatic touch screen dual distillation system enables
analysis of two samples at a time.
Automatic addition of boric acid addition, dilution, KMNO4
addition, Alkali addition, Steam addition, Residue removal,
Aspiration of receiver residue with Inbuilt delay time features.
Automatic Reagent level sensor with alarm for reagents.
Inbuilt Automatic Printer with communication software for
documentation of results without connecting to PC
The results will be calculated automatically in terms of
percentage of Protein, Nitrogen, Total Nitrogen, available
nitrogen, etc on input of titre value.

15. Deionizer
Deionization is a chemical process
which uses specially manufactured
ion-exchange resins which exchange
hydrogen ion and hydroxide ion for
dissolved minerals, which then
recombine to form water.
Applications for deionizers include
waste water processing, potable water
creation, etc
Deionized water also called
Demineralised water

16. Mridaparikshak/ ‘मृदापरीक्षक’
● ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal has
developed a mini lab named Mridaparikshak' which can
assess the soil health and can be used in the
preparation of soil health cards.
● It is a digital mobile quantitative mini lab to provide soil
testing service at farmers' doorsteps. It comes with
balance, shaker, hot plate, and Smart Soil Pro, an
instrument for determining the soil parameters.
and displaying of fertilizer nutrient recommendations.
● It determines all the important soil parameters i.e. soil
pH, EC, organic carbon, available nitrogen, phosphorus,
potassium, sulphur and micronutrients like zinc, boron
and iron.