Soil Chemistry Overview

This data reflects both the natural elemental composition at the site and the historical influence of nutrient management. Some soil properties such as organic carbon indicate overall soil health, whilst other such as Sodicity, Aluminium and salinity may indicate constraints to root growth and soil water extraction. Comparison between sites of the same soil type will help better understand the difference between these two influencing factors. High or low levels of some nutrients may indicate that some changes in nutrient management may be necessary and we suggest that you contact your local agronomist for their recommendations.

Soil pH is slightly acid throughout the soil profile. The cation exchange capacity in the topsoil is low at only 7.7 meq/100g in the topsoil, and 6.8 meq/100g in the A2 horizon. However the CEC of the subsoil clays is moderate at 17 meq/100g and 18 meq/100g. This indicates the topsoil has limited ability to hold and supply nutrients to the tree, yet any leached nutrients from the topsoil are likely to be captured in the upper B horizons and remain available for tree use. This is evidenced by the high levels of Sulphur in the B horizons compared to the A horizons. The organic carbon content in the topsoil at 1.7 % is only moderate especially for a orchard soil. Subsoil carbon levels are very low being less than 0.5 % throughout the soil profile. The soil profile is not saline, however the A2 and B horizons are classified as sodic and thus prone to dispersion and hardsetting. Phosphorous in the A1 horizon is noted to be especially low.