Determine the density of the soil in your garden plot

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Any more or less knowledgeable gardener will tell you that in order to succeed in the economic field, you need fertile soil. The better the quality of the soil on the site, the better the cucumbers will grow, and the envy of the neighbors will grow stronger at the sight of huge watermelons. Therefore, it is important to know at least in general terms what the density of the soil is, to have an idea about its mechanical composition and moisture content. The good news is that most soil properties in any garden plot can be determined by simple field methods.

Everything is known in comparison. Therefore, we will begin our workshop by arming ourselves with soil samples from sites of different quality. Enough narrow three-centimeter strips of arbitrary length and depth of about half a meter. It is on them that we will learn how to determine the density of the soil and other characteristics.

All types of soil can be divided into sandy and clay. They are also called "light" and "heavy". True, in their pure form they are rare, and basically in any area they are present in a harmonious symbiosis. What kind of soil dominatesyou, it is easy to find out: just look at its mechanical composition and determine the size of soil particles. All operations, for greater accuracy, it is desirable to carry out only on fresh sections.

Take a small lump of soil and rub it between your fingers. From what happened, fish out pebbles, plant roots and other relatively large particles. You should get a homogeneous earthen powder. After that, so much water must be added to it to form a paste that can be easily crushed into a cake. The main thing at this stage is not to overdo it with water: the resulting mass should easily roll into a ball and back into a cake.

After that, in fact, you can begin to determine the density of the soil. There may be several options:

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  The mass is loose, crumbles and forms with difficulty. This means that sandy soil prevails in large quantities on your site.

• The mass is easily formed, effortlessly rolls into a ball in the palm of your hand, crumbles only for the third time. The density of the soil in this case is higher, and the composition of the soil is sandy loam. Almost everything can be planted on such land - from potatoes and onions to apricots and peaches. An exception can only be called some vegetable crops that react to such soil density in different ways. For example, fiery red beans may not produce a very good harvest, but there will be no problems with ordinary beans.
• The mass easily rolls into a ball or cake, at first withoutlabor is formed into a thin sausage, and then falls apart into pieces. In this case, your soil is light loamy. Or medium loamy, if the sausage can be bent into a ring, and there are small kinks on its folds. Loams are also great for almost all types of vegetable and fruit crops.
• Finally, if the ring of soil mass is even, without kinks, and cracks appear only with repeated attempts to bend, the density of the soil is high, and the soil itself is clayey. Provided that such a site is properly processed, legumes, cabbage, spinach, berry trees and many other crops will grow well on it. You can also grow potatoes on clay soil, provided there is enough top dressing.

This is how determining the soil compaction factor in your area will help you plan your horticultural work so that they bring the most benefit.