As you know we are reseeding some fields this autumn, and after the contractor had finished ploughing on The Lots we had an expert (aka Henry's younger brother) give his opinion on the soil. So I take no credit for the following, quoted word for word from Arthur's report. Normal Blog rambling will resume in due course.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brownearth is on the slopes and higher areas where drainage is better, and gley is on the flatter slopes where drainage is impeded.
The gley is blue-grey because the iron in it is ferrous, which means that one iron atom combines with one oxygen, because there is little oxygen in the soil. The lumps in soils are called peds. Gley is fairly structureless, so there are large peds, and plants don't like growing in it. Where there are rust-coloured spots these are called ferric mottles, and they occur where roots have gone into the soil, rotted, and allowed oxygen to get down to change the ferrous compounds to ferric (two iron atoms to three oxygen). The gley soil is also shiny because the ploughshare has streaked out the wet clay (like wetting a palette knife to smooth icing).
Brownearths are rust-coloured because of the ferric iron. They are well-drained with plenty of
oxygen, so plants grow better. This means there are more grass roots in the soil, which break it up into breadcrumb peds (crumby peds sounds nicer!), and they keep it well-drained
The gley is blue-grey because the iron in it is ferrous, which means that one iron atom combines with one oxygen, because there is little oxygen in the soil. The lumps in soils are called peds. Gley is fairly structureless, so there are large peds, and plants don't like growing in it. Where there are rust-coloured spots these are called ferric mottles, and they occur where roots have gone into the soil, rotted, and allowed oxygen to get down to change the ferrous compounds to ferric (two iron atoms to three oxygen). The gley soil is also shiny because the ploughshare has streaked out the wet clay (like wetting a palette knife to smooth icing).
Brownearths are rust-coloured because of the ferric iron. They are well-drained with plenty of
oxygen, so plants grow better. This means there are more grass roots in the soil, which break it up into breadcrumb peds (crumby peds sounds nicer!), and they keep it well-drained
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With grateful thanks to Dr. L. A. Robinson, B.Sc.Hons., Ph.D., PGCE, Adv.Dip.Ed.
3 comments:
Whooooosh..........................all those long words went straight over my head!
Some of the short words went over my head.
I thought "gley" was a miss-spelling for "grey".
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