How to preform an in-field soil health test

In this installment of the Soil Works video series, Glen Rabenberg highlights the importance of an in-field soil health assessment. Glen describes how to perform and interpret the results of a soil health test.
For more information and resources, visit www.soilworksllc.com or call us at 605.260.0784.
Glen's Tools (penetrometer, EC Meter, BRIX Refractometer): www.soilworksllc.com/home-too...

[@aptorres01]

Growing healthy soil is the answer.

[@gsmscrazycanuck9814]

You can determine biological vs chemical energy very easily. wait till the following day after a rain. If the EC goes up, it's biological energy. If the EC goes down, it's chemical energy.

[@1975CEES]

What is the optimal ec

[@courtneyheron1561]

Thank you!

[@gsmscrazycanuck9814]

Has anyone using the EC meter for the past 10 years noticed the energy flip in the soil?

[@derekschraefel1941]

Explain

[@gsmscrazycanuck9814]

@@derekschraefel1941 for years every organic field read around .5-.7 and every conventional field read .9-1.1+. In 2017, those readings flipped The conventional fields read low and the organic fields read higher.

[@MrBob58o]

How does the EC meter compare to C.E.C. or TEC, or MEC (from logan labs). I use peat based potting media (commonly called soil-less media). There is some confusion as to what CEC means in a soil-less media. Does the humus (from worm castings) or rock dust or rock phosphate that I add have any exchange capacity? Are there colloids? Or does everything I add go directly into a soil solution. Not exactly sure what base saturation % means without colloids. It is really just telling me a total of everything in the soil, isn't it?

[@gilgoofthegrove5072]

i hope you got this answered!

[@davidkottman3440]

Terms describing soil, like CEC, is basically meaningless in soilless production. Probably need to analyze for ppm in solution? I know farms, not pots....

[@MrBob58o]

@@davidkottman3440 I’ve been using Logan Labs for soil-less peat based media. I do a “standard” M-3 test and a saturated paste test. The saturated paste test is a slurry test. It tests for what falls into solution when the media is “drenched” with irrigation water. The saturated paste shows “soluble salts” in ppm and the M-3 text shows “EC.” I don’t pay any attention to “Exchange Capacity.”

[@crazysquirrel9425]

Fun fact: generally speaking, when the settlers discovered this country, we had up to 12 FEET of good topsoil.
Now we barely have a scant few inches.
CO2 + H2O = Carbonic Acid (also called acid rain). It can acidify your soil. It can also eat away the mortar holding your bricks together.
Heavy clay soil is hard to aerate. Tilling in organic matter helps. So can using pelletized gypsum.
Hmm 12v car battery, jumper cables, and two copper pipes should do it, right?
I make my own leaf mold/leaf compost for use with my plants.
Some plants are dynamic accumulators (dandelions, comfrey, TREES, etc).

[@davidkottman3440]

Most soils NEVER had 12 feet of topsoil! You need to consult some soils textbooks. Many places have degraded in depth & quality, but no need to exaggerate to the ridiculous.

[@crazysquirrel9425]

@@davidkottman3440 Define most?
Also, did they do soil analysis back then or is that a recent development?
Farming is what ruined most of the topsoil.
Midwestern States have lost 57 billion tons of topsoil due to farming (mostly).
Bluff hills bordering MS Delta on east side are silt loam often 100+ feet
Even if they were off by a factor of ten, it is close enough to what I posted.
Most places have a scant few inches. Other places 12". Still other places 3-5 feet.
All depends on where the soil is.

[@davidkottman3440]

In the study of soils, topsoil means a distinct organic rich area near the surface, and sometimes it can be a metre or so thick & deeper in unique situations. What you describe is total soil depth, and in the loess river hills it can indeed be 100 feet or more deep. When you say "farming" is responsible, it's specifically the practice of excessive clean tillage that leaves soil exposed to erosion & oxidizes the organic matter. So I'm not arguing that degradation hasn't occurred, but "12' to a few inches" is not reasonable or accurate. The actual situation is extremely variable both within a field & across the nation. Places that have been extensively tilled for a couple of centuries probably have 25-30% of what they started with & better managed regions maybe 50-60%. Parts of Europe that have been farmed many centuries have soils that barely show their original vegetation & conditions.

[@davidkottman3440]

@@crazysquirrel9425 We studied soils in pits in the river bluffs of the Missouri River, when I was in University soils class. The "Menfro" soil were studying had almost no root restricting layers many many feet deep, but still the "A" & "B" horizons aka as topsoil are only a couple of feet deep in an area that was selected to be representative of the original condition.

[@crazysquirrel9425]

@@davidkottman3440 Erosion by natural forces can easily deposit 12 feet of topsoil.
Depends on the situation and location.
The estimates were from an era where the science has not been established yet.

[@lksf9820]

Spectacular spelling mistake.