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Little River, TX | Did a search on the Text. It would keep me busy reading every winter for the next ten years. I am a slow learner.
Our soil here is called Vertisol or Virtic, and it does have a high shrink swell ratio. The clay here will have a measured CEC value in the 50 meq/100g range.
Our soil will develop deep cracks, the sides will fall into the cracks resulting in big divots, hog wallers or buffalo wallows, they tell me they are really Gilgui ( the spelling is in doubt), pronounced Gill Guy. These depressions when undisturbed by plowing will develop 4 ft to 40 ft diameter depressions 4 to 8 inches below mean ground level. With a hard rain these fill with water and the water slowly peculates into the soil.
One advantage of our cracking is, if our first rains are hard flooding rains, all that water runs down the cracks and builds deep moisture in a hurry.
Some soils here are high pH and some have a high CEC. Mine are both.
a Phd in soil chemistry to sort this stuff out- my problem is I have not found many Phd's who understand these soils. What they insist is true I know for a fact is not even close.
When TAMU was using their Modified Morgan chemistry they reported our soil to have 40,000 ppm Ca. At the same time the Commercial Lab. A&L Plains was reporting 7,000 ppm Ca. Midwest Labs reports 4,000 ppm Ca. It makes little difference as each reported level is excessive.
For the longest time my the plant analysis for my alfalfa was reporting almost double the desired percentage of calcium. After I had a fit and applied potash fertilizer by the ton the plant K % improved to approved levels & Ca percentages came down to the more commonly approved levels. Initially I graveled one field with potash. Fortunatly I am now mostly in the tweekiing of P, K, & Mg levels. I find the potash fertilizer is more effective when accompanied by magnesium containing fertilizer. In fact it appears we benifit from additional Magnesium much as others benifit with the elimintion of it.
Every time I begin to feel comfortable, maybe a little smug, with my knowledge of this soil a new source of information descends on me and gives me another few years of study, trying and observation. | |
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¿ High Mg soils treated with gypsum?
