SOIL PROFILE                                               

 

Text Box: Residue Text Box: Top Soil Text Box: Sub Soil Text Box: Chocolate Pudding Text Box: Organisms Earthworms Bacteria    Fungi  Text Box: Crushed Chocolate Cookies Text Box: Parent Material Text Box: Candy-Coated Chocolate

Text Box: Colored Coconut

 

Text Box: Explanation of Soil Profile All soil starts with a parent material such as weathered bedrock (e.g. limestone, sandstone, gneiss, schist, etc.) or boulders transported by glaciers.  The type of parent material determines the type of texture (amount of sand, silt and clay) a soil will have, and thus whether the soil is a silt loam, silty clay, sand, etc. Subsoil takes hundreds or thousands of years to build. Agents such as rain and growing plants slowly break the parent material down into smaller and smaller pieces until it eventually becomes subsoil.  Topsoil is at the surface of the soil and is necessary for plant growth.  As subsoil continues to be exposed to the elements of weather such as freeze-thaw cycles and rain, it begins to develop horizons or visible layers.  As plants and animals in the uppermost layer die, their remains become organic matter and make a healthy dark brown or black topsoil. . Organisms such as fungi, bacteria, earthworms and plant roots live in topsoil.  They decompose manure, plant residue and crop pests.  Other organisms in the soil “fix” nitrogen from the air and make it available to help plants grow.  Residue is the stalks, stems, leaves of last year’s crop that is left on top of the soil. Conservation tillage is a system of farming where the soil is disturbed as little as possible (minimally tilled), allowing lots residue to cover and protect the soil surface.  Earthworms love residue because it provides food for them and moderates the temperature of the soil. The practice of conservation tillage not only protects the precious topsoil from erosion (where soil is washed into rivers making them dirty), but it encourages more earthworms - and the more earthworms, the better the topsoil! Bacteria are microscopic, single-celled organisms.  A teaspoon of soil generally contains over 100 million bacteria! Fungi are usually multi-celled organisms that are neither plants nor animals.  Fungal cells form long chains called hyphae and may form fruiting bodies such as mold or mushrooms to disperse spores.  

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                             Soil Recipe

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

HOME PAGE  /  OFFICE STAFF  /  DIST. BOARD OF SUPS.  /  CONSERVATION LINKS

WHAT'S NEW  /  CONTRACTORS' PAGE  /  CALENDAR  /  COST SHARE INFO.

CONSERVATION EDUCATION  /  CONSERVATION PRACTICES

 

Text Box: Sprinkles  Gummy Worms