Determine the density of soil in your garden plot
Any knowledgeable gardener will tell you: To achieve success in the economic field, fertile soil is needed. 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 when you see the huge watermelons. Therefore, it is important, at least in general terms, to know what soil density is, to have an idea of its mechanical composition and humidity. It is encouraging that most of the properties of the soil in any garden orchard area can be clarified by simple field methods.
Everything is relative. Therefore, we will begin our workshop with the fact that we will arm ourselves with soil samples from various areas of quality. Enough narrow three-centimeter strips of arbitrary length and depth of about half a meter. Here we will learn how to determine the soil density and other characteristics.
All types of soil can be divided into sandy andclayey. They are also called "light" and "heavy". True, in the pure form they are rare, and basically on any site are present in a harmonious symbiosis. What kind of soil prevails in you, it's 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 conduct only on fresh sections.
Take a small lump of soil and rub itbetween the fingers. From what has happened, you will find pebbles, plant roots and other relatively large particles. Should be a homogeneous earth powder. After that, you need to add so much water to it to form a paste, which 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 the ball and back into the cake.
After that, in fact, you can begin to determine the density of the soil. There may be several options:
- The mass is easily formed, effortlessly slides intoa ball in the palm of your hand, crumbles only for the third time. The soil density in this case is higher, and the soil composition is sandy loamy. On such a land, you can plant almost everything - from potatoes and onions to apricots and peaches. An exception can be called unless some vegetables that react to such a density of soil in different ways. For example, fire-red beans may not yield a very good harvest, but with ordinary beans there will be no problems.
- The mass easily slides into a ball or cake,at first it is easily formed into a thin sausage, and then falls to pieces. In this case, your soil is light loamy. Or medium loamy, if the sausage can be bent into a ring, and on its folds there are small kinks. Loams are also very suitable for almost all types of vegetable and fruit crops.
- Finally, if the ring from the soil mass is flat,without breaks, and cracks appear only when repeated attempts to fold - the density of the soil is high, and the soil itself is clayey. Subject to competent processing of such a site, beans, cabbage, spinach, berry trees and many other crops will perfectly grow on it. It is possible to grow potatoes on a clay soil, provided that there is a sufficient amount of additional fertilizing.
That's how determining the coefficient of compaction of soil on your site will help plan orchard works so that they bring as much benefit as possible.
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