Garden Soil - Analyzing It's Health
by John Yazo
To achieve a good healthy organic soil structure in your garden, evaluation is very important. Studying and analyzing it's existing composition is the beginning to improving it's health.
Soil structure, the way mineral particles are bound together and the proportion of solid matter, along with pore space. To have a healthy garden soil, these proportions of solids and pore space should each take up about 50 percent of the total volume. A good soil structure will allow plant root systems to penetrate the soil easily, retain moisture well, drain properly, retain air and retain the nutrients needed for plants to thrive. Organic matter is the key to a good healthy soil structure, there are four simple tests that can help you determine the health of your gardens soil.
First check your gardens soil for drainage by digging a hole about 1 foot deep and 1 foot in diameter. Once the hole is dug, fill it with water. after the water has drained, refill the hole again and watch to see how long it takes to drain. The water should drain gradually into the surrounding soil within 8 hours to have a good drainage. If the soil drains quickly, it means it wont retain the moisture or nutrients needed to benefit your plants, amendments can be added to improve the structure of sand type soils.
Evaluating the soil profile of your garden next is also very important in assessing the health of your gardens soil. Pick a location in your garden and dig a trench about 3 feet long and 2 feet deep, leaving one of the 3 foot sides smooth and vertical when digging. Once you have finished digging, examine the smooth side, is the top 4 to 6 inches of soil a dark rich loam, is there organic life in the soil like earthworms and are there signs of root systems penetrating deep into the soil. The absence of living organisms in the soil is a good sign of a poor soil health.
Feeling and smelling the soil is another way to determine if the soil is healthy. Take a loose handful of soil, rub it in your hand and smell it. The soil should feel spongy and have a pleasant, earthy aroma if it is a healthy organic soil. If it has a sour or vinegar smell then most likely it's ph level needs some attention.
With these few simple tests, you can get a basic idea on the condition of the soil you are working with.
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