Soil Properties

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Soil Properties

• Essential Standard 5.00- Explain the role of
  nutrients and fertilizers.

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Objective 5.01

• Discuss Horticulture soils

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Soils and growing media

• Soils and growing media are made up of two types
  of materials
• Organic matter
• Inorganic compounds

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Organic Matter

• Dead plant or animal tissue
• contains carbon
• usually has diseases or insects

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Types of organic matter

• Compost
• bark-particles too large to use in seed
  germination media
• mulch-used to cover soil to help hold moisture
  and prevent weeds
• straw
• peat moss

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Composting
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Types of Organic Matter

• Sphagnum
• Sawdust-high carbon to nitrogen ratio makes
  nitrogen unavailable for plant use
• Wood shavings- high carbon to nitrogen ratio
  makes nitrogen unavailable for plant use

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Inorganic compounds

• Do not contain carbon
• usually sterile

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Types of inorganic compounds

• Soilless media-artificial soil
• Vermiculite-mica mineral matter used to start
  seeds and cuttings, helps hold moisture, has
  neutral pH
• Perlite-natural volcanic material that helps
  aeration and water-holding capacity

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Vermiculite
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Perlite
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Advantages of horticultural soils

• Sterile.
• pH is neutral.
• Disease and weed free.
• It is good for starting disease sensitive seeds
• Tomato
• It is easy to control the nutrient content
• Improves crop uniformity.
• It is easy to create a horticulture soil for
  particular plant needs.

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Disadvantages

1. Expensive
2. It is light weight

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Carbon Nitrogen

• Materials with a high carbon to nitrogen ratio
• Sawdust
• Wood shavings
• Makes nitrogen unavailable for plant use

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Soil Profiles and Sampling
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Objective 5.02

• Discuss the soil profile and soil sampling for
  surface and subsurface layers

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What is the physical make up of soil?
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Soil Profile

• Layers of soil are called horizons
• Typical profile
• A Horizon-topsoil
• most fertile
• most organic matter
• top or first layer
• B Horizon-subsoil
• C Horizon-bedrock

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Soil Profile
A Horizon
B Horizon
C Horizon
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Soil Profile
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Soil Structure

• How particles cluster together
• single grain
• granular (best for most plants)
• blocky
• platy
• massive

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Soil Structure
Single Grain
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Soil Structure
Granular
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Soil Structure
Blocky
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Soil Structure
Platy
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Soil Structure
Massive
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Soil Structure

• Soil structure is more important to producers who
  grow plants in natural soils
• Producers of container grown plants add
  ingredients to make growing media desirable

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Soil Texture

• Size of particles
• Types of textures
• clayey
• loamy
• sandy

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Clayey Texture

• Small particles
• Has a high water-holding capacity
• most common texture in western NC

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Loamy texture

• About equal parts of sand, clay and silt
• Ideal texture for most non-container outside
  plants

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Sandy texture

• Large particles
• Low moisture-holding capacity
• Most common in eastern NC

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Soil pH

• Measurement of acidity or alkalinity from 0 to 14
• Acid-less than 0-6.9
• Alkaline-more than 8-14
• Most organic matter is acid
• Most artificial media is neutral
• Ideal pH for most gardens is 5.5 to 7.0

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Physical Properties of Soils

• Permeability
• rate at which water moves through the soil
• Water holding capacity
• ability of a soil to hold water for plant use
• Porosity
• amount of air space between soil particles

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Physical Properties of Soils

• 50 of soil should be pore space
• 25 water space
• 25 air space.
• 50 of soil should be soil particles
• 45 mineral matter
• 5 organic matter

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Soil Makeup
Water
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Soil Sampling

• Soil sampling and testing is essential for an
  accurate fertilizer recommendation for growing
  plants.

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Soil Sampling Procedures

• Create a visual grid of the area to be planted.
• For gardens and landscapes, take 5-10 sub-samples
  
• Sample before the growing season.
• Use a stainless steel soil-sampling probe.
• Take the surface sample to tillage depth
• about 4inches for lawns
• 6-8 inches for crops
• Mix the soil samples together.

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Soil Sampling Procedures

• Remove any grass, rocks or other material besides
  soil.
• Avoid unusual spots
• Problem areas need to be sent in a separate box.
• Place soil samples in a box
• Obtain from the County Extension Office along
  with Soil Sample Information sheet
• Send the box and information to
• Agronomic Division Soil Test Lab in Raleigh for a
  free soil test.

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FFA Land Judging CDE