SOIL IS A DYNAMIC SYSTEM
Soil building is a dynamic process. It takes time to build a good soil. These are the processes involved in soil building:
*Addition – roots etc /decomposition/bacteria and other microbes
* Removal – lose surface from storms, lose nutrients from plants
* Transformation – rocks will break down sand silt clay
* Translocation - [I didn’t have anything in my notes here. I am presuming is something like the processes of streams, flooding – but I’m not certain – basically I take it to mean things are moved and must be slightly different in meaning to the addition and removal processes. TXO]
COMPOSITION OF SOIL He showed a pie chart graphic with the following percentages:
*Water – 25%
*Air – 25% He said, “You don’t want to lose your air!” He noted that too much water will take away the air.
*Minerals – 48% These are the sands, silts, and clays.
He showed us an inset graphic showing the relative amounts (no numbers) of those components of the 48%
Imagine here a circle about a nickel size: SAND
Imagine here a circle about .5 cm: SILT
Imagine here a dot: CLAY . . . . [Except for TEXOKIE’s yard! LOL!]
*Organic Matter – 2% He noted that the Minnesota pic shown earlier with the 2 feet of fertile black soil was about 5% of organic matter. The farms in Oklahoma can be 1%. We need to do our best to increase that percentage to the 2-4% and that puts us in a good soil range.
A student asked about lime addition. He said that the question anticipated him, but that it is for the neutralization of the acids in the soil. He said that taking abundant samples and testing them will help in learning what amounts to use to make that amendment.
SOIL PROPERTIES
* TEXTURE – relative proportion of the grain sizes
* STRUCTURE – arrangement of particles into small groups, or aggregates
Texture and Structure are PHYSICAL PROPERTIES, and those are difficult to change.
*FERTILITY – how nutritious is the soil for supporting plants
*pH - soil acidity and alkalinity
*SOLUBLE SALTS – sodium, chloride, but also other mineral salts as well can precipitate / leach out of the soil depending on what minerals are present.
[TXO’s thought of an example: In limestone areas, can get calcium salts (travertine) – that is certainly common in our area! Ground water is full of it – so it’s in the soil too!]
Fertility, pH, and Soluble Salts are all CHEMICAL PROPERTIES and actually ARE things we can change.
*BIOLOGICAL – microorganism populations and other life in the soil. This includes bacteria, worms, fungi, etc.
He had a triangle graphic showing the different types of soils. I got most of it, but cannot really reproduce it here.
SOIL TYPES Imagine a triangle with the base having the caption :
SAND %
The left ascending leg has an arrow pointing up to the top:
CLAY %
The right leg has an arrow pointing downward to the base with the caption:
SILT%
Arranged inside the triangle showing the appropriate percentages are the various kinds of soil such as “Clay, silty clay, silty clay loam, sand, mixtures of sand and clay and silt [which TXO missed] and loam [the sweet spot in the middle], sandy clay loam, sandy clay, clay loam.” He wasn’t so concerned that we get the exact percentages, just that we see the principle of that range of the kinds of soil you get with the three ingredients, sand, clay, and silt.
APPROXIMATION OF WATER HELD BY THE DIFFERENT SOILS:
SOIL TEXTURE: SAND
has the water holding capacity in .5-.7 inches/foot of soil
has the rate of irrigation of .75 in inches/hour; bare soil
SOIL TEXTURE: LOAMY SAND
Has the water holding capacity of .7-1.1 inches/foot of soil
Has the rate of irrigation of .75 in inches/hour; bare soil
SOIL TEXTURE: LOAM
Has the water holding capacity of 1.0-1.8 inches/foot of soil
Has the rate of irrigation of .35 in inches/hour; bare soil
SOIL TEXTURE: CLAY LOAM
Has the water holding capacity of 1.3-2.1 inches/foot of soil
Has the rate of irrigation of .25 in inches/hour; bare soil
SOIL TEXTURE: CLAY
Has the water holding capacity of 1.4-2.4 inches/foot of soil
Has the rate of irrigation of .15 in inches/hour; bare soil
Installment 2 on SOIL ends. Again, Have a Happy (Remaining) Easter, yall!
Thank you!