It is essential for farmers to ensure that the soil in which they grow their crops plants can produce a good yield. Determining the influence of factors such as soil texture, pH and salinity is vital to ensure such a high yield.
Soils are physically a mixture of inorganic particles of different sizes, water, decaying organic materials and air. Particle size analysis (PSA) refers to the determination of particle size distribution in soils and the separation of a soil into gravel, silt, sand and clay size fractions. Soil texture is related to a range of physical soil properties like water holding capacity, bearing capacity, absorbing power, surface area and shrink and swell phenomenon. The textural classification of soils is based on composition of various particle fractions. A qualitative method for PSA is the estimation of different particle sizes by feeling between the thumb and forefinger (Gupta, 1998).
Soil pH is the degree of soil acidity and basicity. The pH of soils must be checked before growing crops so that pH can be adjusted if required. If the soil pH is less than 7, the soil is acidic and if it is greater than 7, it is basic and if it is at 7, soil is neutral. pH variations could affect a broad range of biological and chemical properties of the soil. Variations in the surrounding chemical environment, influences uptake of essential plant growth elements and nutrients and may induce uptake of harmful soil toxins. Furthermore, essential soil microbes like bacteria and soil earthworms may not survive acidic or basic pH. Soil fertility and eventually the crop yield would be drastically affected by pH variations (Brady & Weil, 2008).
[...] Did the ring crack? can a thread form from the ball? Sandy loam Light clay Yes No Could a ring be formed from thread? Yes Sandy feel prevailed? [...]
[...] So clay was the best soil in terms of low salinity. Sample calculations of the conversion of electrical conductivity from mScm- 1to dSm-1for the Loam replicate 1 value. Electrical conductivity in mScm-1 = 1.7 mScm-1 Conversions 100mS = 1dS , 1cm = 10-2m 1.7 mS = x x = 0.017 dS Therefore = 1.7 dSm-1 DISCUSSION Soil texture results showed that the soil had a light clay texture with a rough feel. The percentage of clay was high and percentage of silt was low. [...]
[...] This might be due to experimental errors such as insufficient shaking of the soil or soil clumping. So as clay had lowest salinity it was the most ideal in terms of salinity (NSW DPI, 2004). CONCLUSION The soil sample provided for texture analysis was light clay. Moreover, the clay soil sample was found to be the most ideal soil, as it had a high residual activity due to high carbonate content and also had very low salinity followed by loam soil. The 2.5 soil-water ratio was the best dilution factor for soil samples. [...]
[...] (450 words) OBJECTIVES This experiment aimed to study the texture of Malaysian soil samples using the field feel guide and determine the pH of the samples at different soil-water ratios in the presence or absence of CaCl2. Furthermore, the soil salinity was also determined from the soil extracts. (45 words) METHODOLOGY Soil texture A handful of given soil sample was obtained and roots, gravel and seeds were removed. Then some water was added and mixed until the soil sample just began to stick to the fingers. [...]
[...] John Wiley and Sons, Inc . Gupta, R. P. (1998). Soil Water Measurement. Theory and Practice in Agro- physics Measurements Kolbe, H. (2007). Designing crop rotations in organic and low-input agriculture: Evaluation of pre-crop effects. Pflanzenbauwissenschaften, 82-89. Department of Primary Industries, New South Wales government. (2004). "Mango Growing." Agfact H Medium/heavy clay Sticky sample obtained Sand No No does it form solid ball? [...]
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