Soil - the Basic of Life

Soil the basic of life

Found at the upper layer of the earth crust where most of the plant will root on, absorbing mineral and water. Different environment will cultivate different kind of soil and from the look of the soil we can tell a story of the land.

Good soil will produce good plant, if you want your plant to flourish its worth to spend some time to study the soil that your plant is growing on.

You might ask, why is soil so important? This is because plant get food from the soil if the soil is unhealthy your plant will also be unhealthy. Once you know how to feed your soil, your plant will naturally benefit from it.

Normally soil is divided into 3 section, Topsoil, Subsoil and Substratum
Topsoil - dark brown in color, full of organic activity. Richest in mineral thus liken by the plant.
Subsoil - contain mainly rocks particles. little organic activity thus limited mineral, only water is available.
Substratum - layer of rocks and stones.

Before you feed your soil, you need to identify type of soil so you can know how to improve it. There are 5 main types of different soil commonly used, Sandy, Clay, Loam, Peat and Silt.

Sandy - as the name mention is sand, the holes between particle is very big, unable to hold together, this promote good aeration but mineral also drain off fast. Good aeration drys and warm the soil fast. Since its unable to hold on together, is better to protect it with some mulch. grain size - 0.05 to 2mm

Clay - the same characteristic as clay, the particle is small and stick closely. Does not allow aeration but hold mineral well. However, these characteristic also keep the water in place causing a lot of water logging issue. If dried, it will be hard as stones. grain size - 0.002 mm

Slit - is a mixture of sand and clay has each material characteristic but overall has a good structure. grain size 0.002 to 0.05 mm

Loam - is a mixture of sand, slit and clay (40%, 40%, 20%). This is a good mixture that utilities the pro of each individuals material and eliminate the con.

Peat - mainly decay vegetation, very fertile, very good aeration and draining system.

The main different is the particle size of each material and how to mix the different size particle to achieve a better result. Each soil have it own strength and weakness that fit into different plant requirement.

Refer to my other post on feeding the soil.