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 in the topsoil is moderately acid 5.6 - 5.9 _h20 which needs addressing. The cation exchange capacity and thus the ability to hold nutrients is very low throughout the soil profile. The CEC of the A1 horizons is low at only 2.5 - 4.9 meq/100g, extremely low in the A2 horizon at 1.04 meq/100g and better but still low in the B2 horizon at 5.98 meq/100g. This indicates the soil has very low ability to retain and supply nutrients to the tree. Despite the low CEC, the carbon content of the A11 horizon is high at 2.33 %, but this decreases with depth to be only 0.95 % in the A12, and 0.4 % in the A2 horizon. The soil profile is not saline, however technically the A2 is classed as sodic as the ESP is greater than 6 %. Although the relevance of this measure in a soil with a CEC of only 1.04 meq/100g is questionable. Potassium, phosphorous and sulphur are noted to be low.