oSIST prEN 13039:2025

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-november-2025
Izboljševalci tal in rastni substrati - Določanje organske snovi in pepela
Soil improvers and growing media - Determination of organic matter content and ash
Bodenverbesserungsmittel und Kultursubstrate - Bestimmung des Gehaltes an
organischer Substanz und Asche
Amendements du sol et supports de culture - Détermination de la teneur en matière
organique et des cendres
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: prEN 13039
ICS:
65.080 Gnojila Fertilizers
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

DRAFT
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
October 2025
ICS 65.080 Will supersede EN 13039:2011
English Version
Soil improvers and growing media - Determination of
organic matter content and ash
Amendements du sol et supports de culture - Bodenverbesserungsmittel und Kultursubstrate -
Détermination de la teneur en matière organique et Bestimmung des Gehaltes an organischer Substanz und
des cendres Asche
This draft European Standard is submitted to CEN members for enquiry. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee
CEN/TC 223.
If this draft becomes a European Standard, CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations
which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

This draft European Standard was established by CEN in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other
language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are
aware and to provide supporting documentation.

Warning : This document is not a European Standard. It is distributed for review and comments. It is subject to change without
notice and shall not be referred to as a European Standard.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2025 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. prEN 13039:2025 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
1 Scope . 4
2 Normative references . 4
3 Terms and definitions . 4
4 Principle . 4
5 Apparatus . 5
6 Sampling . 5
7 Procedure . 5
7.1 Safety . 5
7.2 Test sample . 5
7.3 Determination . 5
8 Calculation and expression of results . 6
9 Test report . 6
10 Validation of the method . 6
10.1 Validation in accordance with ISO 5725-2. 6
10.2 Performance characteristics. 6
Annex A (informative) Performance characteristics of the method . 7
Bibliography . 10

European foreword
This document (prEN 13039:2025) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 223 “Soil
improvers and growing media”, the secretariat of which is held by NEN.
This document is currently submitted to the CEN Enquiry.
This document will supersede EN 13039:2011.
— the scope has been adapted.
— the temperature range for the drying has been expanded.
This document has been prepared under a standardization request addressed to CEN by the European
Commission. The Standing Committee of the EFTA States subsequently approves these requests for its
Member States.
1 Scope
This document specifies a routine method for determining the organic matter and the ash content of soil
improvers and growing media.
NOTE The loss on ignition (LOI) is often used as an estimate for the content of organic matter in the sample.
Inorganic substances or decomposition products (e.g. H O, CO , SO , O ) are released or absorbed and some
2 2 2 2
inorganic substances are volatile under the reaction conditions. Thus, a conversion to the organic carbon content is
not possible.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
CEN/TS 17732:2022, Soil improvers and growing media – Terminology
EN 12579:2024, Soil improvers and growing media - Sampling
prEN 13040-1:2025, Soil improvers and growing media — Sample preparation — Part 1: Sample
preparation for chemical and physical tests, determination of dry matter content, moisture content and
laboratory bulk density
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in CEN/TS 17732:2022 and the
following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
3.1
organic matter
carbon fraction of a sample which is free from water and inorganic substances
3.2
ash
residual mineral matter remaining after the destruction of organic matter/material by controlled burning
4 Principle
The test portion is dried at 105 °C ± 2 °C, then ashed at 550 °C ± 25 °C. The ash is determined as the
residue on ignition. The organic matter is taken to be the loss of mass on ignition. Both are expressed as
a percentage by mass of the dried sample.
NOTE 1 Loss on ignition (LOI) is an empirical parameter, thus in principle there is no interference connected to
the determination. However, for some purposes the determination of LO
...