 Well, I would like to welcome you, everyone, to this online training session on the standard operating procedures for handling and, yeah, I hope you can see the full mode now. Yeah, this online training session will be on, yeah, I hope now it's visible, can you confirm? Yeah, okay. So welcome, everyone. This training session will be on handling and preparation of some samples for chemical and physical analysis. So basically sample pretreatment. For those who don't know me, I'm Pilipo Benedetti, and I work at the Global Soil Partnership, when I'm supporting the activities of Global Soil Laboratory Network that was established in 2017 under the FAO, so the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. I will just give a brief introduction to the network before we start the training session. So basically, Global Soil was established in 2017 because there was a need to harmonize standards and protocols among laboratories. And to build the capacity of laboratories to improve the capacities in analyzing some samples. The network was established, and we focus on different areas of work. One of these areas of work is quality assurance and quality control. So Global Soil is supporting laboratories in performing internal and external quality control practices, and we also supporting labs in organizing proficiency testing. So Global Soil is organizing EPT, also called Ring Test or Intel Laboratory Comparison, that will be implemented also in 2021-2022. Then we are working to harmonize standard operating procedures, SOPs, and we're giving training to facilitate the implementation of these SOPs. So also these trainings are on other topics like health and safety, equipment, and many other topics. For instance, today's training is about this. So today we will present the SOP, the standard operating procedures for handling and preparation of a sample that was an SOP that is an SOP that was harmonized and published by Groceran two years ago. And this training aims to facilitate the implementation of this SOP in order to allow whole labs to perform sample preparation in the same way. Because this of course is a basic step before the analysis occurs. In a garden equipment, we are also working on that by giving training on key equipment for chasing use and maintenance and establishing and donation and marketing system, and also working on soil spectroscopy. So we're trying to build the capacity of soil laboratories worldwide regarding soil spectroscopy by giving training, producing documents and organizing meetings and workshops. This has been since last year on the harmonization of procedures to assess the quality of fertilizers and a sub-network was established. This is called INFA, this is the International Network on Fertilizer Analysis. The network has grown a lot in the last years since its establishment and as you can see, all the green countries are those registering in the network. So the network really increase a lot, and we have almost 800 soil laboratories registered from 151 countries. So we're really happy about this, this, the size of the network and we hope to increase even more. The network is structured in regional and national soil laboratory networks in order to better downscale the activities of the network. And as you can see from the bottom, in the bottom right corner of your screen, these regions have been established, these regional networks have been established, and now at different, like also they have quite a good and high number of labs registered in them. So we have SEALnet for the Regional Soil Laboratory Network for Asia, NIDA Lab for Near Eastern North Africa, AFRILab, that is the Regional Soil Laboratory Network for African Countries, Eurozolan Grouping Together Labs operating in Europe and Eurasia. Then we have ASPAC for the Pacific and LATSOLAN is the Regional Soil Laboratory Network for colleagues operating in Latin America and in the Caribbean. As I mentioned, GLUSLAN is working a lot on capacity development and we are organizing training sessions on different topics such as wet chemistry, dry chemistry and health and safety. There is this website, this web page is, if you go on GLUSLAN web page, you will find in the left menu, capacity development and you will find all the information on the trainings there. For instance, before a webinar like this of today with the step place, you will find all the information about the event and the link to register. Why after the implementation of the webinar, you will find all the material such as the presentation and the video recordings. So this means that you will be able to go through this training once again after today's session. So if you want to watch it again or if you miss a part of it and we want to share with a colleague, please, if you consult the website in a couple of days, we should be able to upload all the materials there very soon. As you can see, we implemented many different sessions. On the right you see all the sessions for science petroscopy while on the left side of the screen in this table are reported all the trainings that were organized on wet chemistry and health and safety as well. And these have been implemented in different languages. You see we have English but also Spanish, Arabic and French. For instance, today's webinar will be implemented in English, but the same topic so the same webinar of today will be implemented in French tomorrow. This means that if we have French colleagues today, you are invited to join tomorrow's sessions. Let me try to say it in French as well. Silia, the colleague in the country, Francophone. If you please attend the webinar, the Mano Si, it will be presented in French. So yeah, I hope I pronounce it well, otherwise you can reiterate this message. So this today the webinar will be in English but tomorrow this will be done in French as well. And as you can see we have other two sessions that will be implemented in the coming weeks. So next week, it will be a webinar on a sort of electrical conductivity measurement. And this will be done in English while a session on internal quality control will be done in French on 15 of December. And we'll try to implement the same session on internal quality control then in January in English as well. So please consult like visit the webpage so you can register for these webinars, because these are very good opportunities to share your knowledge with colleagues and make questions, raise questions to other laboratories, other experts and really a good opportunity to share the knowledge and improve our analytical capacity. So this training session, as I mentioned will be on SOP, the standard operating procedures for handling and preparation of soil samples for chemical and physical analysis. This document is available on the Glossner website, you can download it for free, as all our documents is already translated in English, Spanish and Russian and we will work to make it available also in French and Arabic and Chinese and so all UN official language. If you want to translate it in your local national language, you can do it, just contact us and we can work on that. Today's session, as I mentioned, this webinar will be implemented in two different days. Today's in English and tomorrow in French. So the lectures for today are Mrs. Lesego, Mouketsi Slepe from Botswana and Mr. Joseph Upponi from Nigeria. Let me briefly tell you that Lesego is also serving as current chair for the African soil laboratory network, while Mr. Upponi was the former chair of the African soil laboratory network, so Afilab. Tomorrow's sessions will be given by Mr. Sugeh, there is the current vice chair for the French speaking countries in Afilab and together with Mr. Mustafa Abdelaman that is the former vice chair for the French speaking countries in Afilab and currently serving as the glossolank vice chair. So without any further ado, thank you a lot for your participation through today's session. Now we will give the floor to the trainers of today. So, Joseph and Lesego, who will present this important training because again, this may seem very basic but I think it's very important session because I think before performing the analysis make sure and make sure that the sample is correctly prepared once entered the lab. After the presentation we will have time to, you will have time to raise questions directly to the trainers. You can even start writing your question in the chat or you can take the floor afterwards. We will have time to read all your questions, you can take the floor and share every questions to the trainers. So just feel free to save your questions for later. Yeah, I really want to thank Joseph and Lesego for your kind availability as well as Sugeh and Mustafa who will lead the French training tomorrow. I think this is very nice that I mean you give your time and availability to share your knowledge with other peers, other colleagues from all over the world. So today we have colleagues from Europe to Pacific region from Asia to Africa. So I think is a very nice opportunity to share knowledge of these procedures adopted in different parts of the world. And so thanks a lot for your availability. And once again, so please enjoy this training. Tomorrow we will have the same training in French. And now I will give the floor to I think Joseph you will present for the English session. I think you should be able to share your screen, Joseph. Yes, I will just share my screen. Thank you very much, Phillipo. Once again, welcome to all the participants. I consider it a great privilege to be able to share with one another at a time like this. And this presentation, we want to give credits to Sugeh for making the PowerPoints available, but this, like Phillipo has said, the SOP for the sample preparation is already available on the FU website. This is just to give some voice to it. I'd like to also acknowledge my co-presenter and my chairperson who has given me to go ahead to make the presentation on behalf of Madame de Subeau. So I will share my screen now and we'll start the presentation. Okay, where is it now? Sorry. Sorry, just a moment to share the screen. Share screen presentation. Can we see the screen now? Yes, yes. Okay. So this presentation is on handling and professional soil samples for chemical and physical analysis. Can you put in presentation mode so it's a little bit bigger? Yeah, thanks a lot. Okay. Like I said, the presentation has been prepared by Sugeh, what all of us have contributed and some moda people have contributed from moda places also. Right from the beginning I want to emphasize the importance of sample preparation and sample handling. If your samples are not well prepared, no matter how accurate your instruments are, no matter how well trained your personnel are, you will already be getting forced results. And that's why this is so fundamental to the quality of soil and plant analysis. So though it's so basic, yet it is the foundation on which the quality of any result we are going to get is based. So I expect that to take this very seriously. The overall aim of the SOPs to provide guidance on the handling and preparation of samples prior to chemical and physical analysis while ensuring that the samples are prepared in irreproducible and standardized manner. There are minor variations from place to place, but thanks to Glucola and the SEPINOS to harmonize so that we are sure we are all using the same procedures. Now it's a, there are rules that need to be played by different participants in the lab, the lab manager takes over all supervision, and he has to make sure that the different SOPs for handling the soil samples are available and the people who are handling those samples are adequately qualified and trained to use them. They should have been tested to be sure they are able to do it reproducibly. So that aspect of supervision is the responsibility of the lab manager. We should also ensure that safe handling and disposal of samples by staff is done. This is because soil samples by nature carry different other things apart from the soil, they have pathogens and things like that. And sometimes some samples are special, they may be radiated samples. So the lab manager should have prior knowledge for all such information so that the staff who are handling the samples are adequately prepared to handle them. He should also take responsibility to ensure that import or export restrictions on samples are taken into account. For samples, for laboratories that receive samples from different other countries, this is very, very important so that we're not transferring pathogens from one country to another. However, the lab member is responsible for actually carrying the sample preparation. It is very, very important that it should be adequately trained and it should be able to plan and organize all operations in accordance to the procedure without taking shortcuts or modifying things that have not been authorized. Now to be able to do the soil sample preparations, we need several apparatus. As simple as it is, there are basic things that we need, but all such equipment must be so that they minimize contamination. We know that soil analysis comes in various forms, there's physical analysis, there's microbial analysis, there is chemical analysis. Depending on the type of analysis that you want to do, it will influence the way the sample is going to be prepared. What one basic rule is that you must avoid cross-contamination while you are trying to prepare the sample for analysis. And also, oftentimes because the samples come from different fields, proper records must be kept, and in such a way as to be able to trace the samples as they go along the process of analysis in the lab. All due safety procedures also must be observed. In the picture here, where I'm moving my mouse, we see an example of a drain facility with metal racks and shelves in a well-erited place. That is a good requirement for a good provision for soil drain, for instance. But take note, the issue of making sure that samples are not contaminated is very, very important. So give enough space between the samples. Oftentimes, we may need some grinders in order to be able to crush the samples, especially some of the harder samples, clay samples, for instance, are very hard when they are dry, so you need to be able to crush them. The idea here is not to grind them to find powder as such, but just to losing them to their loose particles that enable us to be able to sieve them for analysis. I must point out at this instance that sometimes we need cold storage for not all samples need to be dried. For instance, if you are doing sample analysis for mineral nitrate, nitrate and ammonium, then the samples have to be stored fresh from the field. And then wades fresh like that for analysis. So to be able to do that, you need some freeze up facilities to be able to store the samples appropriately. Health and safety matters are very important. Make sure that you have done some proper risk assessment before the job is assigned and all the protocols written. In doing the risk assessment, you will consider the sample handling and preparation facilities like the type of described above already. You think of what to do with the remaining samples that you are not going to use, how you are going to dispose of them without littering the place or causing further contamination in other areas. So if you think of local regulations for disposal of samples and laboratory waste, all those things have to be taken into proper concentration to be sure that they are working within the rules. Once samples have come to the lab, it's very important that the samples be properly registered. So the receipt should be carried out by the primary laboratory contact who keeps records using appropriate sample registration forms. This may be in paper form or electronic format. Most labs are going paperless now. So you find them having some laboratory management systems installed that they can use for doing their sample registration. So what you are using is common, whether you are using paper or you are using the electronic one, it is very important that some basic information be captured. For example, the customer sample identification, because the customers may have their own special ID for the samples, you have to take note of that. The laboratory also has its own unique lab number or identification for every sample that comes into the lab to avoid misplacement of samples and crossing of results. And then the registration information should also include whatever preparations and analytical processes that are required. Some clients we require, we ask you to do some special preparations for them. You have to agree on those ones with your clients before the sample preparation is done. If they didn't give you any specific way to do it, then you follow the procedure for the lab, but keep the client informed that that's exactly what you have done. That communication between the lab and the client is very important to avoid misunderstanding. Then the total number of samples and the type of soft samples that are needed is also important. You know that for the various analysis we do in the lab, we do not use exactly the same kind of fraction for all the analysis. So you need to already take note of the number of soft samples that are needed. For instance, while you are using 2mm fractions for exchangeable cations and exchangeable acidity, you need final fractions for organic carbon and total nitrogen. So those soft sampling processes must have been documented for the people who are going to do the analysis for avoidance of mistakes and doubts. There should also be proper sample description. As the soil is being registered for analysis, they should be described as received basis prior to sample preparation. Now, if the samples are not in proper order or anything that you notice that is peculiar to the sample, you have to properly document it before the sample preparation. And I already mentioned that every sample must have its own unique identity. Each lab has their own way of giving unique lab ideas to their samples. This ensures traceability as the sample goes from one analyst to another. Oftentimes we may not have one person doing all the analysis. So as the sample is being from one analyst to the other, there is a need for traceability and good sample labeling and identification is very, very important. There are several preparation procedures and we are going to go through those procedures now step by step. Once you have identified that the samples have good integrity that is becoming containers that are not leaking. And you know, once they have good integrity, then you cannot proceed to the drying of the sample. The drying area has to be well ventilated, like I already said before, but sometimes you may not have such type of space and you need to dry in the oven. If you need to dry in the oven, you must dry at a temperature of about 35 degrees plus or minus five degrees centigrade, not higher. Because if you dry it at a higher temperature, you'll be causing some chemical changes in the soil. And it is very important to maintain that temperature preferably like that samples be air dried. Once the samples have been air dried, they will need to be disintegrated. To do that, you need to crush them on a clean surface. You can use a wooden pin roller or a pestle and mortar to crush them gently. You are not really grinding these to fine particles. You just want to loosen them very well so that you're able to see. Remember that our analysis is done on fine fractions. We want to remove separate the soil, the active soil fractions from the gravels and pebbles. So when you crush your mortar, you will then go to the process of sieving. For most soil analysis, we use two mm seed samples. So you should have your seed readily available, two mm seed, and then also 0.5 mm seed. 0.5 mm seed is used to get finer fractions that are used for organic carbon analysis and for total nitrogen analysis. Sometimes we need to do some very fine grinding if you are going into spectroscopy analysis. I'm not going to emphasize on that much now, but for spectroscopy purposes, you need very fine grinding. Now, you grind one sample at a time and you do thorough cleanup after each grinding to be sure that you don't have cross contamination from one sample to another. If you are preparing bulk samples, samples that are large that you are going to distribute to other labs, for instance, for analysis, you may need to be sure that the samples are properly homogenized before you begin to fraction the samples to other labs. To be able to do that homogenization, you may need a drum roller like this one in the picture here that I'm moving my mouse over. They are very easy to design. You don't need to get a very sophisticated one and then you roll them several times for two, three hours to be sure that your sample is thoroughly mixed before you begin to divide into fractions. Now, to divide them into fractions, you can use any of several methods, bulk materials can be divided by refill splitting. This is a refill sampler. It's readily available. It enables you to split the sample into different successions, or you can use the coating and quartering system where you keep the soil together and then in the cone and divide into four places and then you take some fractions mixed again and you keep coating and quartering until you have the size of sample that you need. This is necessary so that every sub sample is actually a good representative of the main sample. You can see that the person who is doing the refill sampling here is wearing gloves. That's important so that you don't contaminate the samples. You know your hand contains salts, especially sodium salts. Make sure that you wear the appropriate PPE to maximize the integrity of the samples. Now, once you have gotten the samples, it's important that they should be properly packaged and labeled. Now, labeling is very important. Once you miss the label of the sample, you are going to get wrong results and you are going to make wrong interpretations. Now, the type of label that you use should be so that it protects the sample from moisture from pets and from spillages. The use of buckled labels or QR labels is encouraged. That's the direction we should all go to. Now, if you know you are going to make three or four sub samples, it means that you will have printed triplicates of those labels so that as you are dividing the samples, you put the labels immediately for the avoidance of mixing up of samples. Once those have been, the samples have been properly packaged, storage is also important. Materials should be kept in not containers. You can use strong plastic bags, you can use bottles, you can use some other plastic containers also that are leak proof. Then store in properly designated areas with good storage facilities so that when you are looking for samples, you are able to locate them easily. It's very, very important that the place will be kept dry and free of pests and rodents so that they don't puncture your bags and they cause further cross-contamination. Once your samples are ready like this for analysis, the rest is actually a question of how the analysts handle the samples when they begin analysis. But this process of preparing the samples for analysis is so crucial to avoid mixing up of samples and cross-contamination of samples. I've just included here a little flowchart of what the sample preparation procedure is all about. So you receive the samples from outside. You dry them if necessary because I've said to us that for nitrate and ammonium mineral nitrate analysis, you need the first samples. So you need to be sure whether you need to dry the samples or not. For those that need to be dried, it should be air dried or oven dried at the appropriate temperature. This is the great samples as already mentioned and sieved through two MMC. And if you need to do further crushing to 0.5 mm, if you are doing nitrogen and organic carbon, make sure you do the sub-sampling properly. And then such sub-sampling is very crucial so that you don't mix up samples. Rinding by hand or mechanically, easy for total elemental analysis of organic carbon is recommended. Then create proper records and archival system so that these samples are required at other times can still go back and pick them. Once analysis are done, it's important how your samples are handled for disposal. So please ensure that you follow the regulations to your locality for proper sample disposal. But if they are meant to be archived or stored, then you send them to the appropriate archive. That's just a brief rundown on soil sample preparations. We are ready to take some questions now. Let's go. We'll lead the question and answer session so that we are free to make some contributions also. Thank you very much for the privilege of making this presentation. Good morning. Or good afternoon or evening wherever what part of the world you are in. Thanks. Thanks a lot. I'm sorry again, but I have probably been with my camera so I cannot play myself. But yeah, thanks a lot for the nice presentation. I think it was very clear, but now I will open the floor for questions and answers as you mentioned and this is easier also to help you with that. I'm trying to go through the chat to see if there are some questions. I think some of them you already answered for the first question I saw regarding the temperature of the oven for the drying of samples. And I think you really, yeah, they asked what temperature in terms of degrees is needed for soil drying, but I think you already answered this one and you can go through it again just to stress the point. Okay, yeah. I've mentioned already, for instance, that if you don't have a big dry facility and you need to use an oven 35 degrees centigrade plus or minus five degrees, it's okay. But the oven must be well ventilated so that the moisture is able to escape. Thank you. Okay, thanks. The next one I don't know if you would like to answer. It's about, it's from Izija, it's about what kind of greeners could you recommend for sample grinding if metal analysis are not the aim of subject. I didn't get that question. Yeah. Am I audible? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I was also looking at the questions in the chat. Yes, I'm looking at the grinding. What kind of grinders can you recommend for samples grinding if metal analysis are not the aim of subject. I think when we looked at the grinding we're saying to avoid contamination whether you are going to be looking at the metals or you're not going to be looking at the metals. I think we have to follow the standard procedure of preparing the sample in case since we prepare samples and then we keep them. Once thought, you might find that you need to do the test for the metals. So the recommended and the standard procedure is to use the pistol and the mortar, or to use the stainless steel grinders, so that you avoid contamination of the samples. I think that's what the standard is saying that we should use the pistol and the mortar and shouldn't be a metal. Even if you're not going to do the metal analysis, I think the best tool be to follow the standard procedure in case once the samples are stored you find that you need to do that the metal analysis. I think that one, I think I have answered the question. Someone was saying, I suspect that if I cash it will break the small stones, how do I avoid. I think when we do the analysis Joseph would you like to help on that one. Yeah, I've mentioned already, like, for instance, for relatively loose so as you can use a rolling pin, you're not supposed to crush them as if you're using a hammer to really crush the soil samples because the main idea is to disaggregate the soil. So we don't want to, we don't want to crush the stones, because then they give you false impression on the official in the particle size distribution. You can first of all crush with a rolling pin to make it easier. And then if you are using a pestle and mortar, you don't use all your force. Yeah, yeah. So you just force to just disaggregate the samples. That's very important. Then, just to add a word on the issue of the of the grinding. When we talk about pestle and mortar, it's possible to use a gate mortar in particular because that one will not cause cross contamination. So if you use a stainless steel grinder if you are using a grinding mill, or you use a gate pestle and mortar. That way you don't lead to cross contamination. I hope that that's adequately answered your questions. Yeah, sorry. And this is also covered in the SOP on page six. I think it's clearly stating what we should do. Yeah, indeed, let me put in the chat the link to SOP so participants can easily download the document and can go through it. And I will, I would like to agree to give the floor to Shulamit. I see he has the hands up. Shulamit, do you have a question? Yes, yes, I'm here. What did you ask? Can you please repeat? Sorry. What did you ask me? I see you have the hands up. Do you want to raise a question to the speakers? Yes, I wanted to, first of all, thank you for the answer for the stones because when I'm grinding the soil, I do not want to mix the soil with the stones. So you say that they have to take it out or something is what I understand. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. Okay, and another question if I'm going to analyze for pesticide, what are the special tools they have to avoid or to use in order to avoid contamination or to avoid the adsorb to the tools they're using? Now pest analysis is a very specialized analysis. That's not part of the routine analysis that goes on in the lab and requires very special procedures because you don't want additional contamination or you don't want also to lose the pesticides that are already in the soil. For instance, even the drain procedure, the temperature is too high, some of the pesticides even volatilize. So there are special standard procedure, standard operating procedure for preparing soils for pesticide analysis. And some of the precautions you need to take actually center on the, trying to make sure that you don't lose the pesticide that's already in the soil or even add any additional one to it. Like I mentioned, some of those pesticides are already volatile materials, so you don't want high temperature. And you need, you need a fine enough fraction in order to get a good surface area for the extraction. If it's not fine enough, you will not be able to extract all the material. And that's a real tricky one because when you are trying to make it fine, the tendency is that you may generate some weeds and lose some samples. But this standard operating procedure that has been put on the website, now they're not taking into consideration for pesticides. So for pesticide analysis, it would be good to consult our special SOPs that are prepared for pesticide analysis extraction. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for addressing the question. Thanks for the meat for freezing it. I invite all other participants to raise your question because I think this is a good opportunity you have two experts here just for you open to answer your questions. I see there is another question in the chat from Jose Ramon question. I don't know if Lesego or Jose, who wants to reply to this is about the slide about color chart. The question is, for say so one of the slides a color chart to compare the color with the samples. Are they available? Oh, whether the color charts are available. Yeah, I think you refer to that. I don't know if you want to take the floor or. Well, of course, they are available. They are for sale. They are commercially available. You can purchase the Montsello color chart from different organizations. We cannot begin to advertise those organizations now. Yeah, so I'm on circle charts are readily available for purchase. Thanks. Thanks, Joseph. Thanks. Really, I think I really invite particular to share your, I mean your experience in these procedures because you may have, you may adopt different steps or the life modificum process to this method so if you want to share your experience or if you use a different process, share it also with us because it's also a way to, to maybe improve the SOP we already harmonize or if you have any concerns or any challenges or many issues in preparing yourself samples before some analysis. Please let us know. We are here to support. I'd like to reiterate one of the points that they so go meet on the issue of sample preparation, oftentimes, especially for some for laboratories that have soil archives. It's, it's better to err on the side of caution by making sure that you do very thorough sample preparation. Not minding whether you are doing metal analysis or not. Now, for those who are just doing routine soil analysis for agronomic purposes for advisory purposes where the samples are returned to the clients. If you need to place for metal analysis. Okay, maybe you can use a simpler tools to use to do the sample preparation. But as a matter of principle of the course is better to always prepare for the analysis as if all the parameters are going to be analyzed. That way, in case you need to go back to do the analysis, you will not say, oh, we can use this sample because the process of going back to collect another sample is very cumbersome. The sample is already ready for all types of analysis than for you to go back now to resample when you need to do analysis that wasn't initially requested. Thank you. Many thanks. I don't know if there's anyone you have any other remarks or let's wait if someone has more questions. Let me just remind everyone that the same webinar of today will be presented tomorrow as well in French. Thanks to colleagues from Djibouti and Egypt. So, if some of you comes from a French speaking countries or you're more comfortable to attend anything in French. Please remember that tomorrow, the same time, so 10am GMT plus one will be the webinar on sample preparation in French. So, if you have any participants who want to do the analysis in French, I invite you to connect to the demand session in French. Well, there's another question. Yeah, there are two other questions. Yeah, I don't know if you want to go to it. Okay, let me tell you how many hours of soil sample to dry over temperature at 35. Okay, I think they are asking how long should you dry the sample if you are drying at 35 degrees centigrade. You will agree with me that the period of drying depends a lot on the type of sample. If it's something you say lomi or clay samples, the more clay you have, the longer it will take to dry. But on the average, usually if you are drying in the oven overnight drying or the whole day of drying, 24 hours of drying should do. But when you examine and you see that the sample is sealed with, especially for clay samples, you can extend the time of drying. Assuming that you have good enough drafts of air to be taken out of your dryer. Then there's a second question there. The importance of the topic on that discussion, I think the scope of this webinar should have expanded to involve soil sampling in the field. Yeah, I think that we have other SOPs on soil sampling also. This is mainly directed at the SOP on soil sample preparation. Hopefully another seminar we'll handle soil sampling. I think also we're trying to emphasize on the fact that we are looking at the practice in the lab. Because there are instances where we just receive samples from customers. We don't go to the field to go and sample. But at the same time, we do give guidance to the customer to say, when you bring the sample to the lab, this is the requirement for us to give you better results. We would like you to go and sample depending on what the sample is going to be used for. We'd like you to sample this way if this is what you need us to help you with in the sample. And today's lesson is just focusing on what we do in the lab, not what is actually being done at the field, but the guidance for the field part I think is there. It will be discussed at its time. I was going to also try and emphasize on the cleanliness of equipment. Because when we do soil preparation like Joseph was saying, they can easily be contamination. When we don't really take heat of the fact that we really have to be the equipment has to be cleaned thoroughly before you put in another sample. So that's the cleanliness. And as we take in new stuff and train them, it's very critical to mentor them on the sample preparation. Because like Joseph was saying, this is the very critical stage, we lose at this stage, the whole process is not necessary to be carried out. I think we need to emphasize those ones cleanliness on preparation of the samples and the other things that we have just been looking at. Everybody is saying I read that the air drying can be done at 50 degrees for 24 hours, which parameters would be necessarily affect negatively affected by this temperature. Oh, Joseph being the teacher, I think you can answer this one. Especially in two to one clay mineral soils. If you dry at higher temperature you may begin to include your, your cake can be trapped inside your lettuces. So the standard operating procedure says 35 plus or minus 40. So when they are recommending 50 degrees centigrade for 24 hours, it will depend on what type of analysis you are trying to carry out. But yes, there are a few parameters affected by high temperature. Somebody mentioned already for instance if you want to prepare soil samples for pesticide analysis right now you are going to 50 degrees centigrade you are losing some of your pesticides. If you are involved in environmental analysis, we have some of the environmental some of the elements that are a bit more volatile that affected by high temperature, even though those are very small concentrations, some heavy metals. So the higher the temperature the more you lose those volatile metals. Lastly, it's good to stick to the standard operating procedure to make your results comparable to what other people are doing other parts of the world. I hope that answers your question. Okay, thank you. Good. If there's someone want to take the floor. Again, you're all welcome to, to unmute and raise your question directly to your cell phone. Let's say go. Again, let me, maybe let me show you in the meantime while we're waiting for new questions where the file is available to download. Let me share my screen. As you can see this is the website. This is my screen. This is the website. I hope you are familiar with it. If not, well, you can just Google global celebrity network or blozolan or whatever. If you go here on soil analysis on the left menu, you will be directed to the webpage. If you click on standard operating procedures. You will find all the SOPs that blows my so far organizing parameters for instance for soil chemical parameters parameters you just click on the, on the element you're in on the parameters you're interested in. And you will find SOPs more SOPs will be uploaded very soon we are currently analyzing them. For instance, if you click on carbon, you will find the SOPs we are my suffering carbon, even some videos are available. For instance, there is here a training video on what claim back both titration and climatic method so just click here, and you will see outside video for the implementation of the procedures, you can select the subtitles in different languages here, and you can for instance, follow it in France, Spanish, Arabic, and so on. You can download the file here. Well, if you go back here to the SOP webpage, you will find an item called sample preparation the second it is uploading. On site characterization something and sample pretreatment that you will find here 1.3 sample sample pretreatment and you can find your SOP for handling and preparation of sample for chemical and physical analysis. Just click here, and you will find this document that is the one presented today. So you can download it for free just go through it as you want. So this is where the file is available. And then you and basically is the content that was presented today so you find all the steps for sample preparation. Let me also show you on this webpage, if you click here on capacity development. You will find all the information regarding losing on webinars so organized by categories so we have wet chemistry, dry chemistry and health and safety. A new section on quality assurance and quality control will be displayed very soon because as I mentioned there will be training in a week. And if you click on wet chemistry. You find all the all the webinars implemented so far on this topic. So you see we have phosphorus organic carbon measurement. So here we will upload soon in this in this in this part here we will upload soon the presentation and the video recording of the session. While this is the link to register to the tomorrow sessions in French, and we'll be still at 10 again. And also here we will upload the video recording and the presentation in French of tomorrow. Then we will have another presentation on solar conductivity on the 14 of December. We find your presentation presentation of the of the guest speakers and a short abstract of the session. And here you can register by clicking at this link. So I highly encourage you to go on our website because all the information are available there and to be updated about all the webinars that close learnings organizing thanks to the support again of all our trainers. So I think there are some more. There's a question on the chat from Vanya Chavez, maybe let me read it. It's about the ability. I mean it's about so it's something. If I got it when he's asking for that. Well, we are just working on that, and we will make some guidelines on sample collection. You see, this is a sample sample collection is something that sometimes is not really affecting celebrities of course we have to be sure that samples are collected. Well, but most of laboratories are not experts on so a collection because there are experts in analysis. So we are organizing just be with organizing is will, I mean, is organizing a working group to work on this, and we will be experts from Glozolan experts from the soil mapping part experts from different topics so we will try to work on a document on so it's something for purposes for analysis and different type of analysis and different so I'm mapping and so, because I think, as Joseph mentioned, where different analysis require different type of sampling and different type of size, size fraction, we know that, for example, density we need a certain type of sample that is different from other type of analysis. Maybe you can stress how important it's on something but again, is a little bit outside this presentation, but we will talk about this in a separate session. Okay, I'll try to post the link the direct link to the SOP on some sample preparation on the charts. Any more question. I see there are participants from all over the world. So, again, if you want to share your knowledge your experience about this methodology please feel free to take the floor up. We will, we look forward to hear from from your from your experience from your lab. How do you perform sample preparation. You say, please read the samples before analysis which kind of instrumentation you use. If you have any doubts, or if you are in need of suggestions from yourself for the Tego, please take advantage of these two experts because they are here just to answer your question or your question and consideration. So please, I really encourage you to take the floor in case you want to share your comments, your opinions. I received a question in the private chat asking about the material for soil and what to store the soil if plastic is more recommended that glass and jar like maybe you can clarify this point. Yeah, it depends on how long the storage is going to be for a lab that has a light throughput for advisory purpose for farmers where the samples don't need to be kept for long. Strong plastic bag is okay even some thick khaki cloth bag. It's also possible. But for longer term storage, it's better if you have some glass bottles or some possible Teflon plastic materials that can withstand the long term storage. Now some other type of plastic materials are very brittle over the years. So if you use some type of mature that is easily brittle and then after four or five years it begins to fall apart then you are going to lose your sample. So the length of storage is very important in determining the type of storage material that you are going to use. Of course, glass is the preferable one for very long term storage for those dry samples. The samples don't change so much in storage for most of the regular soil parameters. So of course you can store soil samples that are meant for pesticide analysis in plastic containers because the plastic containers will absorb some of the pesticides. So the purpose of the storage will determine what type of material you are using for the storage, especially the length of storage that you are going to be for three clay options, simple poly bags, ziploc bags for quick throughput samples, some paper bags also for quick throughput samples for long term storage, then you better use something like us or more resistant polypropylene containers if you are not interested in pesticide analysis. I hope that answers your question. So there is another question in the chat from Philippine, you say in their traditional way of grinding, you use wooden mallet to avoid crushing the soil completely during the process, would it still be okay? Yes, I think I mentioned that during the presentation that you can use rolling pin, even the rolling pin that you normally use for dough, ladies use for baking flour, things like that. Roll it over, yes roll it over the samples until the thing is completely, so yes wooden mallets can be used, but even wooden mallets can crush stones, you know, if you use so much force. Just keep at the back of your mind that you are not interested in crushing the stones, you just want to loosen the soil particles, so the wooden mallet is okay if you don't use too much force. You can also use the rolling pin, but whichever one you are using, make sure it is specifically for soil sample preparation, don't finish using it and go and use it for something else. Okay. The question is will answer, thanks. Another question I received in the private chat is about the time that the, how long the samples can be stored, even if in glass jars, before they can be performed, I mean like, are we talking about months or years even? Oh, we have samples that are stored in some cell repositories for 50 years plus now. So that's why I said it depends on the purpose for which is stored, if you, what is it now in the UK? Rotam State's station, they have samples from long term experiments that have been stored, so it depends on the purpose for which you want to store it. In my lab, for instance, we store samples for our regular clients for a maximum period of two months. After that time, if we don't hear anything from you, we are going to dispose of those samples. But our research samples are different, because some of our research samples are from long term experiments and those ones need to be stored for a much longer period. They have samples that have been stored for over 20 years. So it depends on the purpose for which you want to store it. But in any of those cases, just make sure you use the appropriate storage materials and in the appropriate storage environment. For soil samples, well ventilated or properly a conditioned environment is enough already. So as a rugged materials, you don't deteriorate too much in storage. Oh, thanks for the nice answer. And let's see if there are many more comments or questions from the chat or if someone needs like to take the floor. I don't know if they say go yours if you would like to share any other like given experience you have in the in your lab so far, especially regarding the methodology or the equipment you used to use adopting the past years. So if you have different procedures, rather than the one you're using now, or if you always feel comfortable with this, if you change like the methodology. Thank you, Philip. In fact, I was, I was going to add on what Jason said first about the storages and the containers. I was going to say that even though we'll be using gas bottles, we have to be sure that we release that we use. If it's going to be for for farming purposes, we have to make sure that the least that we use are not the metal metal leads. Because after some time, the little moisture that comes from the soil. The leads rust. And when you rerun the samples you'll be saying you have a lot of iron in the soil, while it's from the leads that trusted. And if you are going to be using throwing away the samples and re reusing the containers that you use for storing, you have to make sure that they are in a good state to keep the samples for long. And like you are saying when you have when you are using doing the storages for farming purposes like for example in our case, we say we can keep the samples for three years. Looking at the fact that we give farmers guidance on what fertilizer to use at what quantities and for what period. They are doing the dry land farming which is rain dependent. So over the three years we can still use the same samples to see to guide them on what to apply to the field. So when it comes to the, and what was I going to say I was looking at something here. The use of the rolling pins, the grinding I was going to talk about the grinding because we are talking about what about if you crush the stone and all that. We know that the soil is from the mother stone. And the reason why we just used rolling pins we are gentle with the soil is because we are interested with in the active, active particles of the soil. The stone is is when we do the extractions mostly is hard, you can't extract much from it. And when you look at the nutrients we are saying there has to be a site for them to clean to the soil. And when it's a hard stone, normally the sides are not active so you can't have much activity on the stone so well once you have gently ground or rolled a pin you just see and throw away the stones we don't need them. So we are interested on the, on the, on the soil part, the one that can be, can be used by the plant to extract something from it in the case of, of the family. That's the three years storage, and it can be shorter depending on, like Joseph was saying, on the need of the customer, if it's a commercial farmer somebody who is in the business, because they will be rotating the plants on the field, they will be more frequent, and maybe using the field the whole year. So the testing will be more frequent so we don't keep the samples, they bring the samples you test you throw that away. Then they bring a new sample because they are going to plant something new from what they had planted. So every time you advise on depending on what they are going to be using the results for. So the type of equipment that we have been using, we have been using the drying ovens we have been using the milling, the mechanical millers for preparation of our samples. And we have been storing in plastic containers for a short period, but most of the time we use bottles, the glass bottles for storage. And what are the experiences can I share. Do you see any other question that we can address. Well, just a little suggestion on moving forward. I can help in traceability of your samples and avoiding a sample mix-ups is to do barcode labeling or QR labeling. That's very helpful, because even if the sample drops off somewhere, once you see it with your barcode reader you can easily identify where the sample is coming from and things like that. So it's a good idea and now our days, even our cell phones can read barcodes. So it's easy, it's an easy technology to add, but it goes along with helping to maintain sample integrity in the lab. So that's just a suggestion. And when you talked about the referencing, it's very important, because mostly when the customers, like you are saying in the presentation, when the customers bring in the samples, they have their own reference, the lab is going to attach their own reference. And we have to make sure that both references are used in the sample. Because normally when we report, we give the customer, in most cases you will find that the customer gets the report excluding the reference. But it's very important to make sure that even in the report, you have your reference as the lab and the customer's reference. Because this customer reference helps the customer to identify the area of sampling where they got the sample. So it's very, very critical that when we record, whether manually or electronically, we keep both references for using them at a later stage or for aligning them with the test results that we get. Thank you, Philippa. Thanks to you. Thanks to you. Let me see if there is any more remark and thanks for sharing your experience. It doesn't look like we have any more comments. Do you see anything in the chat? No, there's not a point in the chat. Well, in this case, I think we can really nice overview of the world methodology. I want to thank you once again for the nice presentation and availability to give this training. And let me, so thank you once again. Because I think really this is the essence of the network now when colleagues meets and they are ready to share their knowledge, give their time and your commitment to share their knowledge to improve the capacity of the peers of the other colleagues in the world. So not only in their labs, not only in the region or country, but all over the world, we have colleagues here from all over the world for different regions. So I think many of them benefits from your knowledge, Josef and Diego, so I think this is really important because again this procedure is a basic step that has to be done very well before analysis otherwise the data may be not reliable. So thanks again for remarking the importance of this procedure. Thanks a lot for your time. Let me also remind that tomorrow we have the same meeting in French. So, if someone thinks to participate tomorrow, more than welcome. I think there's another question from the chat. Maybe we can answer this before closing is from Patrice don't go is which quantity of samples required after sample treatment. Can you go to it please. Okay, which quantity of samples right after sample treatment you are talking of at the end of preparation what quantity of samples should you now take to the lab. Well, it depends on the analysis but basically you need about 200 grams of soil samples, especially if you are going to do a particle size analysis where you need already 50 grams for, or they're about for the particles are analysis by hydrometer method. The reason you need to take enough samples is because in case you need to repeat or you run some samples, you still have enough samples left behind. So I recommend minimum quantity that you should prepare for the analysis should be 200 grams. Yes, I mean like let me also remark that in those lines of peace we're trying to mention all the samples amount quantities needed for each parameters. So we know that some required less amount like two grams some other has to mention even 200 grams. And let me or I think we can also stress the importance of these procedures. These samples for reference material, for instance, because part of the part of the procedures is maybe similar sample preparation and to prepare samples for internal quality control. I mean, this is also why this procedure is very important because really we have to be sure that the sample petrification is really done in the correct way. So thanks again, let me just see if there is any more colleague who wants to share their, their, their feeling they the commands, or they have any question. Right, or like in the, can we get regular training. This is this question from Pyagar Rajan. Can we get regular after training you mean about this topic on or other topics, because we're organizing different top different trainings on different topics as I mentioned so today is about sample preparation. Then next week there will be a training on electrical so on determination or soil electrical conductivity. So I think we can continue to join that one, but if you visit the gross on a web page on capacity development. You can, you can be updated about all the training session we're organizing so let me put the link in the chat, and you can follow you can register to all trainings there. On this web page will find all trainings information only information about the trainings we will organize. And both from dry chemistry so it's like spectroscopy and wet chemistry and also on quality assurance security control and health and safety, even if you miss this, this, the trainings that we have been held so far. In the next two weeks. If you go on this webpage at the link in the chat you are able to see the video recordings and download the presentations that were used so you can still follow the kind of follow the training once again just you can watch the video once again, and yeah, you can go to the training once again if you miss it. Jose Mauro Mercullo asked about salt salinity like which parameter you recommend to analyze our sample. I think this is disregard I really recommend you to follow next week training about soil electrical conductivity. I don't know if you also feel it's a goal like to add any more parameters so you know we have two SOP is already harmonized on Saturday base extract and soil electrical conductivity, because they're asking about soil salinity out which parameters to target. I don't know if you also for let's say we want to add something on that. What do you. Lameda do you recommend me I'm not a saline source for amateurs. Well I think like you already recommended to be good if the person can attend the seminar on saline source, but usually once, once we are dealing with saline source by interested in the salt concentration. So sodium calcium magnesium, electrical conductivity pH. Normal things that are required for saline source. Even even the water holding capacity, there are several other things that are of interest for saline source because the type of irrigation you will do that is not the regular type of irrigation. There are quite a number of parameters that are of interest for people who are dealing with saline source, and there are even some publications also on the FU website that you need to access that will give you more for that information. But once we are talking about saline source is about salts. So it's a question of how much sodium in particular, and then also other times calcium magnesium in particular. The relative concentration of those ones in the soil are relative to the moisture content of the soil so all those are very important parameters in addition to the regular soil test that you do for normal soils. So I'll add to the link to register for the webinar that will be dedicated on soil electrical conductivity is maybe one of the main parameters to assess salinity if I'm correct. So for say another colleagues I invite you to register for this webinar that will be next week on 14 December. Yeah, Garajan is asking if this PPT will be available. Yes. Today, we passed webinars, but we will upload this with the recordings and the presentation it was given today on the website of Glozolan, and we will try to send all of you who registered to this webinar a certificate of registration. We will try to do it as soon as possible. We are sorry, we are really late with that, but hopefully in a couple of days, maxing my week, you will receive the certificate of participation to this webinar. So I think so I think I just just keep in mind that yesterday was the worst day. So let me also wish you in delay at the worst day because this day will this year was totally, let's say the degree to salt salinity but of course, that is one of the main soil but of course we celebrate works or day also in the lab, as this is our main activity here in Glozolan so I hope you all have a nice work today and remember that your role as soil laboratories, people who analyze soil is to provide reliable data, these are the base to make then sound decision on sustainable soil management and soil mapping and everything like soil really is a basic of this and really need reliable, interpretable and comparable data. That's why so laboratories plays an active role in that. And this is also why during the work for the celebration here at FPU at quarters we present the global assessment of soil laboratories worldwide, because just to stress the importance of soil laboratories are playing in the management part for it. And as we don't have any more questions I think in the chat, let me before closing the webinar, let me show you a video that was produced for the worst day I don't know if you have even in case you didn't attend the at quarters celebration in Rome online, a video was created about sustainable soil management of saline soils, very short video from the artistic perspective. So I would like to share with you again just to close the meeting in a different way. So let me share the screen before we close the meeting, let me try to share the video, I hope this is visible. This was just, just to close the meeting with a different ways. So I see someone is asking for the video, you can find it on YouTube, let me put the link in the chat. So again, happy worst day. You can celebrate it in your lab of course, because you deal with soil every day. You are those providing data and knowledge of the soil so what the video show as the magic boots so the way the boots with the ice can see the soil is basically the work of the soil laboratories know you can really analyze the soil and provide the nice answers on its characteristics. So, this was also to gain some time to get to get time to the people to ask more questions but I don't receive any more questions in the chat. So once again, the link for the presentation will be available soon on the website of gloss around on the capacity development webpage. We'll put now the link once again in the chat. After this training, we will upload the presentation and the video recordings online. So, I invite you to, to, to consult this webpage I just put the link. If you want to rewatch the recordings or the console the presentation the presentation, while the SOPs for this. So the standard operating procedures for sample preparation is available. This new link input. So you can download it for free and go through it. I don't know if you also have and let's say you will you feel like comfortable to add your email address in the chat. So people if they have more questions they can write to you directly maybe. Okay, so if you have any more questions or if you feel like contacting them in the, in the, in the, in the future, you can find the email address of yourself and say going to chat, adding them now. So please feel free to contact them if you have any more questions. And yeah, I invite you to register to that coming training session of gloss around. And I thank once again, Joseph and the Sego for the nice presentation for the nice support through the session. I invite you to attend tomorrow's meeting in French, if you are from a French speaking country. Yeah, well, all the best then thanks a lot to Joseph and the Sego your, your, your support is was really highly appreciated. And the nice support I think really was inspiring for all laboratories what hand from all over the world. So many thanks to you and if you want to have any closing remarks. Thank you very much. And thanks to everyone who attended and the contribution that everybody made. As I have said in the message I think it was a good for everybody it was a learning process, even if we are the facilitated you are still learning from the group. This was wonderful to be in today. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you all. Also, it's been a privilege to share knowledge with us. We look forward to seeing you at the other presentations. Thank you for your good organization. Thanks. Thanks to you. Thanks to you guys for your support really without your support of these experts with this webinar cannot be implemented so I really also take the advantage of to take the opportunity to encourage all participants who feel like to service if you want to share your knowledge to please contact us so you, we may organize training sessions on other topics according to your expertise. So if you feel like serving as trainers please contact me or look at your original chair, and we can organize together different webinars. Thanks to you once again. This was really important also because this topic so sample pretreatment was highlighted identified as a main need of for training subject from different regions. During the regional meeting so I think this was very important to implement this training today. Again, this was really the basic step in finalize this because regarding pretreatment so very important step. Again, we will try to disseminate the certificate of attendance in the coming days. So basically by next week I hope you will receive it. Thanks you for your for participating thanks everyone and I wish you a good rest of the day or evening depending where you are. Hope to see you soon. Thanks again. Thank you. Bye. Bye.