Good read on how to determine and correct soil health

[Jim Timber]

http://extension.psu.edu/business/s...soil-quality-introduction-to-soils-fact-sheet

This is very helpful at explaining what different soil types actually do and why they're good or bad.

 

[SD51555]

Good find Jim. I always pick up a gem or two when I read a soil article. I wish my teachers in highschool would have tied chemistry and biology to deer hunting through soil management. I've found that all the subjects I didn't like in school, I'm having to refresh and reteach myself. Well worth it. This is gonna be the deal maker/breaker if a person gets a good plot in a tough year.

 

[Jim Timber]

I've been on a quest to find out why my sandy sub soils are so moist, while other's are excessively drained. When Stu was over, I showed him the bottom of a blow down stump which to me looked like solid sand - but I've discovered it's not. If that were the case, it not only wouldn't have turned to near rock once it dried, but it also wouldn't remain suspended in defiance of gravity. There's more silt/clay in it than that - so now I'm wondering exactly how much?

I'm also trying to learn if there's a way to "pull the cork" on my swamp since the township is un-motivated to remedy my excessive water table (caused by a poorly placed culvert). When the DNR guy did some deep samples, he pulled out a layer of green clay beneath the muck which had sand under it. I'm contemplating doing a little auger probing of my own to see about making it better drained. I'm losing my mature trees due to the water table being raised a foot higher than it's been in the past 50 years anyway. The swamp acts as a run-off sediment basin before running into the lake, but since the road has dammed it, there's a lot of water retained that shouldn't be there.

 

[sandbur]

Jim-when I look at the forest in your area, I know it is not sand.

 

[Jim Timber]

It's pretty sandy though. There's a lot of coarse granules when you palm it. I just don't know what the ratio is with the other stuff. What I really have going for me is a substantial organic layer above the glacial till with minimal compaction. Some areas are very much clay in the upper layers, but others make me scratch my chin.

The neighbor on the lake barely has enough "clump" in his sand to keep grass where it's growing. His lawn pulls out shuffling your feet on it.

 

[SD51555]

What's wrong with the culvert? I had a talk with a CO once about being allowed to dig out a low spot to increase the amount of water it could hold. He warned me that if I punched through the clay pan, and into sand, it could drain just like a sink.

 

[TMIL]

Have you checked out your County Soil Report? My kids think I'm crazy because that's the kind of book I read. Haha!!

 

[foggy]

^^ Good read Jim. Thanks for posting.

 

[SD51555]

Have you checked out your County Soil Report? My kids think I'm crazy because that's the kind of book I read. Haha!!

I've tried to find mine. I did find something from one of the federal agencies, but I couldn't make sense of it. Do you know where a guy goes to find it?

 

[foggy]

SD.....I did a google and found surveys for most of the state HERE: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/surveylist/soils/survey/state/?stateId=MN

 

[TMIL]

I've tried to find mine. I did find something from one of the federal agencies, but I couldn't make sense of it. Do you know where a guy goes to find it?

I picked up a copy years ago at the Conservation office.

 

[Jim Timber]

What's wrong with the culvert? I had a talk with a CO once about being allowed to dig out a low spot to increase the amount of water it could hold. He warned me that if I punched through the clay pan, and into sand, it could drain just like a sink.

Draining like a sink would be far more like this land should be. They filled in a low spot to build the beach road, then at some point they replaced the culvert with one substantially undersized (per the DNR's own expert in an on-site visit), that culvert has frost heaved up at least 6" in the past 10 years and it's flooding my land and killing my black ash type 7 swamp. I've lost roughly half an acre of trees in the last 4 years, and more are dying every month.

Poking holes in the clay would solve the problem of the township refusing to fix the culvert. There's enough organic matter in the low spot now that it'll still behave like a swamp even if it's not holding standing water.

 

[Jim Timber]

According to this site: http://www.sandyloamsoil.com/ I hit jackpot. :)

Soil survey says we're sandy loam, and that would make sense with what I've found in the various spots I've dug.

 

[SD51555]

Time to run for township supervisor.

 

[Jim Timber]

Nah, I don't have any chance of winning. I own 1.5 acres in that township, and my property taxes are $9. They feel no obligation to me and it shows.

My other township isn't much better. Been trying to get the application for a cart way for 3 years - still haven't seen one.

 

[foggy]

According to this site: http://www.sandyloamsoil.com/ I hit jackpot. :)

Soil survey says we're sandy loam, and that would make sense with what I've found in the various spots I've dug.

I've got sandy loam topsoils too. The soil grows reasonable crops but does not retain water for long. Fortunately, the water table on my land is just a few feet under the surface....so deep rooted stuff does just fine. Normally, I can make a "snowball" with my soil....but if I three it too hard it would fall apart.

One thing I learned early-on.....was to not deep-plow this soil. The better soil lays on top.....and gets more sandy as you go deeper. Turning it over is counter-productive. Now I generally only work the top 2 - 3 inches.

I'm beginning to see that less tillage in this soil is often better. Still, you gotta incorporate fertilizer and reduce weeds and crop residue sometimes.

 

[Jim Timber]

I've been amazed how much water is retained in the sand/loam layer under my top soil every time I've put a shovel in it. I don't plan to ever do deep tilling or ripping on my place. I'm probably never going to get to where I could plow or disk without hitting rocks anyway. Throw and grow has worked reasonably well when I've tried it, and I'm going to bring in topsoil and compost when we do raised beds for the garden (eventually). I won't even try to cut through the roots that are in the top 6" of my dirt.