The University of Illinois Extension presents a weekly educational series for the small farm community. This series will provide practical knowledge on emerging topics which advance local food production in Illinois. These online presentations will give small farm producers a look at how leading practices in production, management, and marketing enable operations to improve profitability and sustainability. The complete list of topics and speakers is included below. 

February 27, 2020   Saturated Media Extract    Zack Grant

For decades the Saturated Media Extract (SME) test has been a routine method used for greenhouse bench crops growing in soil-less mixes and also in irrigated arid production systems. Many protected culture growers and high compost input farmers grow in media or soil that can exhibit very high nutrient levels above the capacity of the soil or media to retain those nutrients. SME represents an option to monitor and manage nutrients at the water-soluble level.