Improving the Soil – Ventilation,Processability,Color and Water Holding Capacity

Ventilation: Ventilating the soil not only improves drainage but also makes roots and underground organisms breathe. Ventilation can be achieved with most of the methods that improve drainage.

Processability: Heavily clayed soil is hard to work on. To improve this, drainage methods can be used together with adding organic materials that the soil lacks.

Color: Color of soil will change depending on for how long it’s been worked on. While the color of soil depends on the kind of rock it originated from, the amount of organic matter also has an effect. It can be said that the dark colored soil has been used in agriculture for centuries. Dark colored soil absorbs the heat faster and it will lose it slowly. This means they start getting warmer earlier in Spring. As such, improvement of color means darkening it. In old days, this was done by adding ventilated ash to soil, but nowadays we use organic mixtures.

Water Holding Capacity: Soil with too much sand in it has too good drainage, water disappears before the roots can absorb it. To improve water holding capacity of soil, as much organic matter as possible must be added. This will improve the situation and let the roots absorb water when the moisture is low.

Tagged as: Agriculture, ash, centuries, drainage water, organic materials, Organic matter, organic mixtures, organisms, Soil, ventilation