There are three main types of soil: clay, loamy, sandy. Loamy soil is considered ideal for agriculture. Knowing what types of soils exist, their characteristics, properties, advantages, disadvantages, are one of the main conditions for the proper cultivation of vegetables and fruits on your site, as well as increasing their productivity.
Soils, at least most, consist of a combination of three main components: sand, silt, clay. It all depends on what percentage of clay, sand, silt is present in it. Depending on the size of the particles present in it, it is divided into various types. The soil is the top layer of our planet. This is the environment from which plants receive nutrients. Below is a classification of soil types, their characteristics.
Soil type: sandy
Advantages:
- warms up quickly
- good air mode
- well absorbs precipitation,
- can be processed.
Disadvantages:
- cools quickly
- low moisture capacity,
- the ability of subsoil capillary irrigation,
- manure decomposes very quickly;
- mineral fertilizers are washed into deeper layers of the earth,
- plants need frequent watering.
How to fix:
- use only cow or pig manure,
- mineral fertilizers to use in small quantities, but often,
- decomposed manure or peat should not be mixed with the ground, but laid out on a surface.
Type of soil: sand-humus
Advantages:
- heats up quickly
- cools slowly
- easy to handle
- good air properties
- well absorbs mineral fertilizers,
- good moisture capacity
- considered very good for growing vegetables.
Disadvantages:
- in dry weather, silty particles are blown out of it, which is very harmful to plants;
- the surface of the earth dries quickly.
How to fix:
- use only manure, make mineral fertilizers in small quantities, but often;
- Do not put decomposed manure or peat into the ground, but lay it out on a surface.
Soil type: sandy loam (medium-bonded)
Advantages:
- suitable for almost any vegetable
- moisture capacity and ability of subsoil irrigation are good,>
- Mineral, organic fertilizers are fully used by plants.
Disadvantages:
- heats up more slowly than sand-humus;
- low moisture capacity.
How to fix:
- it is better to use cow or horse manure;>
- mulching is very important, limiting the loss of water due to capillary evaporation.
Soil type: loamy (medium connected)
Advantages:
- suitable for almost any vegetable
- moisture capacity and ability of subsoil irrigation are good,
- sufficient aeration
- dung is used well.
Disadvantages:
- if regular application of humus is ensured, no significant deficiencies are noted.
How to fix:
- mulching is recommended, thanks to which labor on irrigation, cultivation is saved;
- for liming it is better to use slaked lime.
Soil type: clay
Advantages:
- moisture capacity and ability of subsoil irrigation are very good,
- mineral fertilizers are slightly washed out of the earth,
- manure is used very well
- with a high content of humus - this is the best garden land.
Disadvantages:
- weak aeration
- surface crust tendency,
- it warms up rather slowly in the spring,
- hard to handle
- requires intensive cultivation.
How to fix:
- mulching can limit the tendency to crust, which improves aeration;
- horse manure is best used,
- Regular use of quicklime also improves aeration.
Soil type: peat
Advantages:
- absorbs water very well,
- especially suitable for plants growing on peatlands;
- mineral fertilizers are not washed out of it,
- the use of manure is unnecessary.
Disadvantages:
- most often sour
- poorly ventilated
- often very cold, especially with clayey soil.
How to fix:
- dig or shovel on three bayonets of a shovel to improve the structure of the subsoil layers;
- limp profusely
- coarse-grained sand is added to the upper part of the earth.
Thus, any soil can become suitable for growing garden crops. During 10-15 years of intensive cultivation, application of humus, liming, and the proper alternation of crops, the land will completely lose its original properties and acquire the characteristics necessary for growing garden crops.
The type of soil in the garden plot can be relatively accurately determined using the “finger method” (manually) according to the following scheme.
The scheme for determining the type of soil "finger method" in the field
Step 1. Try to roll it by hand into a pencil-sized sausage ...
- if it doesn’t slip, then it belongs to the “sand” group,
- if rolled down, then it belongs to the groups “sandy loam and clay”.
Step 2 Viscosity test with thumb and forefinger:
- if not viscous, i.e. does not spread between fingers - go to step 3;
- if viscous, i.e. smeared between the fingers, it contains 14-18% clay and is of the type: loamy sandstone.
Step 3 Rubbing the soil in the palm of your hand:
- if nothing remains on the lines of the palms, then it contains 0-9% clay and is of the type: sand;
- if there are traces of it on the palm lines, then it contains 10-13% clay and is of the type: weakly loamy sandstone.
Step 4 An attempt to roll the soil manually into a sausage half a pencil thick:
- if it does not slip, then it contains 19-24% clay and is of the type: strongly sandy loam;
- if it rolls, go to step 5.
Step 5Rub the sample with your thumb and forefinger near the ear:
- if strong crunch is heard, then the soil contains 25-30% clay and is of the type: sandy loam;
- if you hear a faint crunch or there is no crunch, go to step 6.
Step 6 Evaluation of slip when crushing the sample with your fingers:
- if the sliding surface is matte, then it contains 30-44% clay and is of the type: loam
- if the surface is shiny, go to step 7.
Step 7 Checking the soil with teeth:
- if it crunches on the teeth, then it contains 45-65% clay and is of the type: loamy clay
- if there is no crunch, and the soil has an oily consistency, then it contains more than 65% clay and is of the type: clay.
The “finger method” is a method that is used for analysis not only in garden areas, but also in laboratories. For a more accurate analysis, screening and analysis of the silt fraction is carried out.
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How to improve the soil on your site, increase fertility, if the type of loam or loamy clay? Such soil needs cultivation.
To do this, you can use manure, compost, humus, sawdust, crushed bark. But be patient, it will take a long time, not one year.
If heavy soils are not flooded with groundwater, the process of cultivation consists in a gradual increase in the thickness of the arable layer due to the underlying layers and the addition of organic and mineral fertilizers.
The addition of sawdust or crushed bark to heavy soils requires the obligatory application of nitrogen fertilizers, since the decomposition of these materials occurs under the influence of nitrogen-absorbing microorganisms. Sawdust is good to make not fresh, but lying in a heap for one to two years. Better yet, skip them through the compost heap.
Clay soils have a good absorbing complex, that is, they contain in their composition a sufficient amount of nutrients. By fertility, they are better than light, loamy sand. On the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, all types of soils are found that are characteristic of the European part of Russia, from primitive high-altitude soils of the Caucasus Mountains to the most fertile heavy-duty chernozems of the Azov-Kuban Lowland. These are soils of flat steppes (chernozems), piedmont forest-steppe (gray forest-steppe), foothills and mountains (gray forest, brown forest, podzolic brown forest, sod-carbonate, brown, meadow forest gray, mountain meadow), soil of steppe depressions, river deltas and valleys (meadow-chernozem, meadow, meadow-bog, alluvial), saline (salt marshes, solonetz, solods), rice-soil (rice), wet subtropics of the Black Sea coast (yellow earth).