Horticultural Soils

Horticultural Soils

1. 1. It all depends…. HORTICULTURAL SOILS Kevin Donnelly, CH Supervisor of Quality Control Midwest Trading Horticultural Supplies Inc.
2. 2. MIDWEST TRADING
3. 3. Its all about Logistics
4. 4. Its all about Logistics
5. 5. CENTER FOR HORTICULTURAL SOILS TESTING AND RESEARCH (CHSTR)  Our capacity  pH/EC  Moisture Content  Bulk Density  Porosity  Weed Seed Bioassay  Top Soil Hydrometer  Solvita Compost Analysis  And much more…  QC Testing  Mixes  Raw components  Data Management and Tracking  Technical service  R&D
6. 6. TOTAL QUALITY CONFIDENCE  Know everything we can about the products we produce and components we use  Manage the natural variability in the material  Ask the right questions to give the answers value and meaning
7. 7. HORTICULTURAL SOILS  “Any substrate used in the growth of horticultural crops or used in horticultural applications”  General Categories  Container Substrates  Engineered soils  Landscape Soils  Other  tissue culture; floral foam; hydroponic media
8. 8. ENGINEERED SOILS  A soil or soilless substrate subject to testing and conformance to a specification  Prescribed spec  A+B+C= ?  Straight forward, but will it work  Performance spec  ?+?+?=A  Asks the right questions,  Both  A+B+C=Z  Very challenging when A+B+C=D not Z
9. 9. GREEN ROOF MEDIA  Storm Water Management***  Heat Island Effect  Air Quality  Energy Efficiency  Longer Roofing Membrane Life  Biodiversity
10. 10. CHICAGO BOTANICAL GARDEN EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOF
11. 11. MILLENNIUM PARK INTENSIVE GREEN ROOF
12. 12. CHICAGO CITY HALL INTENSIVE & EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOF
13. 13. GREEN ROOF COMPONENTS
14. 14. STURCTURAL SOILS
15. 15. STURCTURAL SOILS
16. 16. RAIN GARDEN, BIOSWALES & LANDSCAPE  CDOT  Rain Garden  Bioswales  Other
17. 17. RAIN GARDEN
18. 18. BIOSWALE
19. 19. BIOSWALE
20. 20. OTHER  Golf Courses  Athletic Fields
21. 21. LANDSCAPE/ PRODUCTION SOILS  Manufactured or amended parent soil  Garden/Landscape soil  Field production of horticultural crops  Soil Amendments
22. 22. LANDSCAPE/PRODUCTION SOILS Where do Soils Come From?
23. 23. LANDSCAPE/PRODUCTION SOILS Large scale development that clears land and sells off soil Not a lot of options in this economy
24. 24. CONTAINER SUBSTRATES  Substrates used in containers for the production of horticultural crops  Some Key elements  Container size  Crop length  Limited soil volume
25. 25. GREEN HOUSE AND PROPAGATION MEDIA
26. 26. NURSERY AND TREE MEDIA
27. 27. POTTING SOILS
28. 28. GROWING MEDIA  Air  Water  Structure  Nutrient Reservoir
29. 29. THE IDEAL MIX  It all depends….  Fits your growing style  Produces quality plants with limited management  Consistent/Predictable  Cost effective
30. 30. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES Prevention is the only course of action
31. 31. Only you can prevent bad porosity!
32. 32. MACRO VS. MICROPORES 25% Solids 75% Water 25% Solids 45% Water 30% Air
33. 33. CAPILLARY ACTION IN MIX  Important when sub irrigating containers  Pores act as a straw and
34. 34. ZONE OF SATURATION  Amount mix will hold at the bottom 3% 10% 40%
35. 35. CONTAINER SIZE  Size and Shape of container can effect water air water relationships  Look at the force of gravity45% Air 25% Air 10% Air
36. 36. BULK DENSITY/ COMPACTION  Depending on how it is filled and handled can impact air water relationships  Compact vs. lightly filed  Structure is not made in the bag
37. 37. NESTING EFFECT Air Porosity 20 5 20 20
38. 38. SHRINK  Settling after watering  Component breakdown  Out the bottom?  Shrink from blending  Fill pots at optimum moisture content
39. 39. WETTING AGENT  Aids in wetting up mix  Peat is hydrophobic • Helps with even watering,  Not channeling down the sides of the pot  A good idea for postharvest quality
40. 40. CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
41. 41. PH  Will effect nutrient availability  Fluctuates over the course of the crop  The plant causes pH changes  Alkalinity of your water is important  May need to acid injection  Buffer capacity of your components  Lime and Iron Sulfate
42. 42. PH
43. 43. EC  AKA soluble salts  Measure of salt content in solution  Can be from good salts or bad  Many use EC as indication of fertility  Listed in dS/m or ppm (dS/m X 670)  Dilution method matters!!
44. 44. OTHER MEASURMENTS  Organic Matter  CEC  C:N  Weed Seed presence  Wettability  Moisture content
45. 45. TESTING  What do you test for  How Often  How do you test  Internal testing  External lab  What do you do with that information
46. 46. SAMPLING  How you sample may add bias to the test  Area of pot  Top 1/3rd  Middle 1/3rd  Bottom 1/3rd  Random sample or targeted sample
47. 47. RANDOM
48. 48. TARGETED
49. 49. TESTING FOR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES  Air Porosity  Field Method  NCSU Porometer  Sieve analysis  Bulk Density  Shrink testing for optimum moisture Field Capacity = Flooded container Container Capacity = Free water drained
50. 50. TESTING FOR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES  Porosity  When Dividing by the Container Volume Air Porosity Dry Weight Water Holding Capacity
51. 51. TESTING CHEMICAL  In house  EC  pH  External Lab  Nutrients  CEC  Etc.
52. 52. EC  Method maters  1:1  2:1  SME  Pour Thru  Many use it for managing fert  If EC reading falls below X, then fertigate
53. 53. PH TESTING  Moving Target  Can be adjusted 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
54. 54. BIG POINT FOR ANY TESTING  Don’t make major changes right after testing starts to correct issues that may be normal  Need historical values to see what is your norm  Plants don’t read test reports  Think about what the right question is
55. 55. COMPONENTS Its all about logistics
56. 56. NUTRIENTS  Minerals/non coated  dolomite lime  Iron Sulfate  Controlled Release Fertilizers (CRF or SRF)  Encapsulated NPK+
57. 57. NUTRIENTS  Organic Fertilizers  Kelp Meal  Bone Meal  Worm Castings  Bat Guano  Poultry Litter
58. 58. AGGREGATES  Perlite  Vermiculite  Sand  Calcined clay  Oildri  LWA  Others  Lava  Glass  Polystyrene  Rockwool
59. 59. ORGANIC COMPONENTS  Peat  Sphagnum  Reed Sedge  Pine  Rice  Coir  “Composts”  Landscape compost  Manure compost  Biosolids  Worm Casting  Mushroom “Compost”  Spent Mushroom Substrate
60. 60. NEW PRODUCTS  Why we need them  Price  Availability  Quality  Sustainability  These are not replacements  Look for local  Cheap  Effective
61. 61. NEW FRONTIERS  Whole Tree Substrate  Corn Cobs  Miscanthus  Biochar  “Fingerprinted” media
62. 62. BIOLOGICAL  Mycorrhizae  Benificial bacteria/fungi  These can be incorporated into mix  As well as some pesticides
63. 63. PEAT MOSS The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
64. 64. WHAT IS PEAT? •Specifically we are referring to sphagnum peat derived from sphagnum moss •Stable partially decomposed organic matter •Degradation slow due to acidic anaerobic conditions
65. 65. Like I said, the conditions in a bog inhibit decomposition.
66. 66. Where some of our peat comes from
67. 67. This is a smaller bog for Lambert compared to The Virgil Nursery and the Ottawa facility!!
68. 68. WHAT HAPPENS AT A BOG  Go from this:  To:
69. 69. SO IS IT SUSTAINABLE??  Clear cut bog  Pull off what may take generations to grow  Disturb environment  42thousand acres of 280million harvested  Less than 0.02%  Peat biomass generates 60 times faster than harvested  Must restore bogs to functioning wetland  On bog for 60-80 yrs
70. 70. NO PEAT IS THE SAME  Differs from:  Bog to bog  Year to year  Company to company  Many different grades of peat  Retail peat  How to manage that variability  Blend everything to get one base product  Have many different products
71. 71. NATURAL PRODUCTS WILL VARY  We have to individually tailor quality management strategies to each product  Products change both Chemically and Physically while we have them  You can’t tell just by looking at it, it must be tested  Come on the tour to learn more…
72. 72. QUESTIONS?
73. 73. THANK YOU  Yourhorticulturist.blogspot.com  We are always looking for a few good question askers.