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Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I. Definition Of Soil

A collection of natural bodies on the earth's surface, containing living matter, and supporting or capable of supporting plants.


Does anyone want to wager how many & what they are?

Steve

11/19/2003 2:41:43 PM

Montoursville, PA

I think I read somewhere that there are 60 or more minor trace elements. In my wildest dreams the living soil would have endless known and unknown parts.

11/19/2003 5:21:03 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

There are Twelve Dominant Orders of soils:

Alfisols, Andisols, Aridisols, Entisols, Gelisols, Histosols, Inceptisols, Mollisols, Oxisols, Spodosols, Ultisols, and Vertisols.

Based on certain characteristics, these are them broken down further into Sub-orders which are then further broken down into Great Groups.

Inceptisols are probably the most common in the "Orange Zone" & are the dominant order in the SE Hew Hampshire area that we all know & love.

11/20/2003 12:40:19 PM

Kuna, Id.

Hey I new that Steve, you sent me to the site that talked about it. I just had no idea what you were asking........lol

11/21/2003 12:34:58 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

It's a sort of trivial subject and has little to do with growing since we all amend our patches like crazy anyway. This is more of a geological classification than an agronomic one. But we can crawl backwards to this point when things get goofy & work our way back to the actual root zone we're after when certain challenges arise.

We sometimes forget that soils got their start as minerals. Rocks that were broken down over the ages into many finer parts. Then as higher order plants began to grow, their dead & dying parts began to change the Earth's upper crust. So we now apply organic science to the geological one & soil science results.

11/21/2003 7:07:07 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

where can I get a couple truckloads of inceptisols??? LOL

11/21/2003 8:51:55 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

The US Dept of Agriculture has the entire United states all mapped out by soil type. The effort began as far back as the Lewis & Clark expedition & today is a thorough topographical survey.

Go to the following URL. Click on the colored topo map. Fing where you live & see what color it is. The legend is over on the right hand side. It's a little hard to read unless you fool around with your screen. But most folks should be OK.

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/meta/m4025.html

Steve

11/21/2003 10:40:09 PM