Disclosed is a method for achieve certain soil condition. The method comprises installing a suction probe (106) at a depth within a soil substrate (106)； inducing hydraulic conduction of aqueous solutions from the soil substrate (106) into the suction probe (106) by drawing a vacuum on the suction probe (106)； extracting an aqueous sample from the suction probe (106) after applying the vacuum for a predetermined period of time. Then a chemical composition of the aqueous sample is determined by analyses the aqueous sample. The chemical composition comprises concentrations of one or more marker ions, which are present in the soil substrate (106) at the depth. The method further includes determining nutrient utilization based at least in part upon the concentrations of the marker ions and determining a corrective measure of the soil substrate (106) based at least in part upon the determined nutrient utilization.
