Soil You Need for Easy Growing; Grow on the Go

Here’s some great dirt on soils to grow your own plants or even start building your own kitchen garden  My easy to grow system makes all this a snap…Grownthego.com

Peppers and Jalapenos

The Sandy Soil – great for growing containers

Toms Growing with Grow on the Go

Because sand particles are so large, there are large spaces, or pores, between the individual particles in sandy soils; this allows water to drain readily from the soil and leaves plenty of space for air.  This can be advantageous to a gardener because most of the plants we grow don’t like sitting in water, and most of the microbial activity beneficial to plants requires an aerobic (oxygen rich) environment.  However, sandy soils can also be a problem because they require more frequent watering in dry times, and also lack the ability to store large amounts of nutrients.

The clay soil – for your container garden

Opposite the large sand particles on the size spectrum are the tiny clay particles.   Because they are smaller size, clay particles group much closer together in the soil than sand particles, and therefore the space between particles is much smaller. The small pores between clay particles hold water tightly and restrict the downward movement of water through the soil.  This characteristic of clay soils can be beneficial or detrimental.  It’s helpful that clay soils don’t require frequent watering like sandy soils.  However, soils with enough clay can almost completely restrict water drainage resulting in a waterlogged garden that can be very damaging to plants. (Fear not though! There are ways of remedying soil texture problems, and we will get to this!)

CEC – Cat Ion Exchange Capacity, a bit of theory you can use to make excellent growing

In addition to clay’s water holding capacity, there is another trait of clay particles that is important to soil fertility.  This is the ability of clay to store the nutrients plants need to survive.

Nutrients exist in the soil as cat-ions, tiny atoms with positive electrical charges.  In order to be held in the soil, they need to have particles with negative charges that they can bond with; otherwise they are quickly washed out of the soil by rain and irrigation.  Due to their chemistry, most clay particles have the necessary negative electrical charge which allows them to attract and store the positively charged plant nutrients.  Without going into great detail, these nutrients are then transferred from their hosting site (in this case, a clay particle) to a hungry plant root through water in the soil (and that’s how a plant eats, yum).

Green Sherpa Grow On The Go

This ability of soil to store plant nutrients is referred to as a soil’s Cat ion Exchange Capacity (CEC).   CEC is a measure of the number of negatively charged potential storage sites in a soil.  It is another important principle of soil science for gardeners to have an understanding of.  The CEC value of a soil is considered a good measurement of potential soil fertility, and clay particles are a key contributor to CEC.  My next article will into how to use organic matter to improve the soil’s CEC value.  Until then check out my system Grow on the Go, the place to grow all your plants easily

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One Response to “Soil You Need for Easy Growing; Grow on the Go”

1. Sherpa Guides - » Easy Growing And Organic Waste Sweetens Your Soil

   April 10 2010

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   [...] you can use it.   Clay particles are not the only particles in the soil that contribute to CEC (cation exchange capacity, see previous article).  Organic matter, more specifically humus particles, also offer negatively [...]