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.

The A11 horizon is slightly acid at 6.1 _h20 , trending towards strongly acid in the A2 horizon, and very strongly acid in the subsoil B2 horizons. Organic carbon in the A11 and A12 horizons is very high at 3.46 % and 3.73 %, whilst high levels of carbon are also noted in the B21 and B22 horizons. The cation exchange capacity in the A11 and A12 horizons are moderate at 19.13 meq/100g and 17.39 meq/100g, yet very low in A2 and low in the B2 horizons (assuming Al⁺³ is not included in calculation of CEC). This suggests that while the A11 and A12 horizons have considerable potential to retain and supply nutrients, any nutrients which leach below the A12 horizon have a moderate likelihood of being leached below the root zone, or leached laterally within the A2 horizon. The B21h and B22 horizons are very strongly acid which has led to exchangeable aluminum levels at 9.5 meq/100g and 15.8 meq/100g which greatly exceeds the toxicity threshold for apple trees of 0.4 meq/100g. A low level of salinity is noted to exist throughout the soil profile, this is not thought to be problematic. The A2 horizon is however noted to be strongly sodic with an ESP of 31.44 %, which likely to be the primary cause of the high density in the A2 horizon.