How accurate is on-the-go pH mapping?
Results from field and lab tests show that this method produces pH measurements that are highly correlated with laboratory analyses of soil pH. The main advantage to on-the-go mapping is the increased sample density. While lab samples are more accurate at the point where the sample is pulled, the interpolation process that fills in the gaps in the map has significant errors due to small-scale spatial variability. The only way to reduce the errors from this variability is to take more samples–the only affordable way to do that is with on-the-go mapping. Under controlled conditions, with lab-analysis of the identical soil used for direct sensing with the Veris system, the correlation is above .95 R². In extensive field trials, where soil samples were collected within 20’ of the sensor point, the correlation is still quite high, considering the lab and the Veris system are analyzing different soil samples.
