The Effect of Different Soil Types on Plant Growth
The Effect of different soil types on plant growth
Introduction
Australian Gardeners are continually looking for better and cheaper options to improve the growth in their gardens. In Chinchilla, it is common to see rich vibrant coloured loam, but this is not suited to all plants. Common gardeners will find that it is important to understand what soil type they are on and how the climate conditions that surround the area may affect the growth of the plants they wish to establish, which contributes to their decisions as to which plants to grow. Gardeners of today need to be made aware and have a proper understanding of how having different soil types can affect plant growth in different ways. This is why a good understanding of the surrounding environment is to the gardeners advantage to become more successful with their plant growth.
Australia has a wide diverse range of types of soils and most are generally and geologically old and infertile due to the harsh dry general climate. Gardeners of Australia need to take this into consideration before planting plants into soil that perhaps might not be suited to their choice of plant. To make clear the facts and look deeper into which soil type really does work best an experiment has further been conducted testing three different soil types over a period of 8 weeks. The soil types that were tested in this experiment were red loam, black soil and sandy soil.
The quality of a soils structure may determine many factors that affect the plants health such as how well it may hold and retain or drain water, water infiltration and permeability rates of the soil, root penetration into the soil and soils pore size for air flow and respiration. All soils consists of different percentages of three variables; sand, silt and clay (Appendix 1.2) and each of these variables contain different properties and have different effects of the soils structure and therefore effect the effectiveness of a plants growth rate.
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Introduction
Australian Gardeners are continually looking for better and cheaper options to improve the growth in their gardens. In Chinchilla, it is common to see rich vibrant coloured loam, but this is not suited to all plants. Common gardeners will find that it is important to understand what soil type they are on and how the climate conditions that surround the area may affect the growth of the plants they wish to establish, which contributes to their decisions as to which plants to grow. Gardeners of today need to be made aware and have a proper understanding of how having different soil types can affect plant growth in different ways. This is why a good understanding of the surrounding environment is to the gardeners advantage to become more successful with their plant growth.
Australia has a wide diverse range of types of soils and most are generally and geologically old and infertile due to the harsh dry general climate. Gardeners of Australia need to take this into consideration before planting plants into soil that perhaps might not be suited to their choice of plant. To make clear the facts and look deeper into which soil type really does work best an experiment has further been conducted testing three different soil types over a period of 8 weeks. The soil types that were tested in this experiment were red loam, black soil and sandy soil.
The quality of a soils structure may determine many factors that affect the plants health such as how well it may hold and retain or drain water, water infiltration and permeability rates of the soil, root penetration into the soil and soils pore size for air flow and respiration. All soils consists of different percentages of three variables; sand, silt and clay (Appendix 1.2) and each of these variables contain different properties and have different effects of the soils structure and therefore effect the effectiveness of a plants growth rate.
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Bibliography: Ref: Gray, J.M. & Murphy, B.W. (2002), Predicting Soil Distribution, Joint Dept. of Land & Water Conservation (DLWC) & Aust. Society for Soil Science Technical Poster, DLWC, Sydney. Australian Natural Resources Atlas, ANRA. (2009) http://www.csiro.au/en/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Sustainable-Agriculture-Flagship/ASRIS.aspx Australian Soil Resource Information System, ASRIS. (2012). Australian Society of Soil Science Inc, ASSSI A Organic Guide, OG. (2010). Soil texture and soil structure [Internet] North America; (http://www.organicguide.com/organic/gardening/soil-texture-and-soil-structure/) [2nd of April] Home and Garden Information Center, HGIC.(2011) Government of NSW, Gov NSW (1992). Plant nutrients in the soil [Internet] New South Wales Australia http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/resources/soils/improvement/plant-nutrients