Health Plant Foundations: Soils and Fertility

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Health Plant FoundationsSoils and Fertility
Doug Soldat Turfgrass and Urban Soil
Scientist Department of Soil Science University
of Wisconsin - Madison
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Outline

• What is a Soil?
• Soil Forming Factors
• Soil Physical Properties
• Texture
• Structure
• Surface Area
• Soil Air
• Soil Water

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Outline (continued)

• Soil Chemical Properties
• pH
• Organic Matter
• Cation exchange capacity (CEC)
• Available nutrients
• Managing soils

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How will this information be useful?

• Soil is the foundation for growing healthy plants
• Diagnose and alleviate physical and chemical soil
  problems
• Understand how different soils can affect the
  environment

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What is soil?

• Take 3 minutes to arrive at a group consensus.

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Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

• Main Entry 3soil, noun1 firm land EARTH2
  a the upper layer of earth that may be dug or
  plowed and in which plants grow b the
  superficial unconsolidated and usually weathered
  part of the mantle of a planet and especially of
  the earth3 COUNTRY, LAND ltour native soilgt4
  the agricultural life or calling5 a medium in
  which something takes hold and develops

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Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil

• Soil is material capable of supporting plant
  life. Soil forms through a variety of soil
  formation processes, and includes weathered rock
  "parent material" combined with dead and living
  organic matter and air.
• Soils are vital to all life on Earth because they
  support the growth of plants, which supply food
  and oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide and
  nitrogen.

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discoveryschool.com

• Whats the difference between soil and dirt? Dirt
  is what you find under your fingernails. Soil is
  what you find under your feet. Think of soil as a
  thin living skin that covers the land. It goes
  down into the ground just a short way. Even the
  most fertile topsoil is only a foot or so deep.
  Soil is more than rock particles. It includes all
  the living things and the materials they make or
  change.

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discoveryschool.com, contd

• There is no soil on Mars or Venus. How come?
  Those planets have plenty of rocks. Mars has
  windstorms that erode rocks into dust. Venus has
  an acid atmosphere that cooks rocks into new
  chemicals. But there's still something missing.
  Without life, there is no soil. Living things
  haven't just made a home in the soil on our
  planet. Life actually made the soil as we know it.

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Definition, Soil Taxonomy, 2nd ed.

• Soil is a natural body comprised of solids
  (minerals and organic matter), liquid, and gases
  that occurs on the land surface, occupies space,
  and is characterized by one or both of the
  following horizons, or layers, that are
  distinguishable from the initial material as a
  result of additions, losses, transfers, and
  transformations of energy and matter or the
  ability to support rooted plants in a natural
  environment.

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Definition, Soil Taxonomy, 2nd ed.

• The upper limit of soil is the boundary between
  soil and air, shallow water, live plants, or
  plant materials that have not begun to decompose.
  Areas are not considered to have soil if the
  surface is permanently covered by water too deep
  (typically more than 2.5 meters) for the growth
  of rooted plants.

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Definition, Soil Taxonomy, 2nd ed.

• The lower boundary that separates soil from the
  nonsoil underneath is most difficult to define.
  Soil consists of horizons near the earth's
  surface that, in contrast to the underlying
  parent material, have been altered by the
  interactions of climate, relief, and living
  organisms over time. Commonly, soil grades at its
  lower boundary to hard rock or to earthy
  materials virtually devoid of animals, roots, or
  other marks of biological activity. For purposes
  of classification, the lower boundary of soil is
  arbitrarily set at 200 cm.

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Outline

• What is a Soil?
• Soil Forming Factors
• Soil Physical Properties
• Texture
• Structure
• Surface Area
• Soil Air
• Soil Water

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Soil Formation
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• gt 700 different
• soils in Wisconsin

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Five Factors Affect Soil FormationClimate,
Parent material, Organisms, Topography, Time
Deciduous
Coniferous
Prairie
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Soil Formation Parent Material
Granite P.M.
Organic P.M.
Limestone P.M.
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Soil Formation Climate
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Climate affects soil formation by a process
called weathering

• Physical Weathering
• freezing, thawing, wetting, drying, organisms
• Chemical Weathering
• dissolved minerals moved in water
• soil horizons formed
• 1 inch of soil can take 500 years to develop

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Soil Formation Topography
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Soil Formation Time
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Soil Formation Living Organisms
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URBAN SOILS
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