Soil Management

Despite appearing to be well structured, this soil holds surprisingly little plant available soil moisture at just 98 mm and only 33 mm readily available soil moisture. Considering the B22 horizon has toxic levels of aluminium it is likely that root activity in the B22 horizon will be affected such that the effective plant available soil water content is around 40 - 45 mm and the effective readily available soil moisture is around 10 - 15 mm. This indicates this soil is susceptible to drought conditions and will require careful, frequent irrigation, informed by a quality soil moisture sensor system. In relation to irrigation, the refill point for the A1 horizon is between 31 % (50 kPa) to 30 % (100 kPa) soil moisture. Low surface soil carbon levels indicate, management should consider approaches to improve the carbon levels and structure of the A1 horizon including; greater application of plant residues to the tree mound, use of living mulches, grass clippings, mulches and composts. If required, these soils are highly suited to subsoil drains due to the good drainable porosity, functional hydraulic conductivity and lack of subsoil sodicity.

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