Thursday, December 13, 2007
Soil Compaction Presentation
Posted on 12/13/2007 10:03:00 AM by Timmy V with 1 comment
Today the Soil Compaction group presented their findings to the class. They primarily used the University of Minnesotat Extension website; http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/DC3115.html From here this group will attempt to come up with a device to determine soil compaction.
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Dear Timmy,
I commented on the website you found from University of Minnesota in my blog post today (Introduction). Have you seen Dr. Bassuk (from Cornell)'s piece on compaction in a landscape situation? www.gardening.cornell.edu/factsheets/soil/compaction.html
Also, you must have discovered by now that there are such things as soil penetrometers that measure soil compaction. They are used by landscape contractors and recommended by Dr. Bassuk in her original work on site assessment for landscapes.
In "Site Assessment for Gardeners: a step-by-step workbook for better home gardens and landscapes", I opted to transform the activity on measuring soil compaction for home gardeners. I felt that no home gardener would invest several hundred dollars for a penetrometer that he/she would only use once (or twice). It made sense for a professional landscaper for accurate measurement.
Consequently, the shovel push technique is not intended to be "accurate", but merely a reasonable gauge on compaction, using a much more subjective approach. By having more than one person do it, I felt it might be more of a social discussion at the same time to make the activity more fun. Those were my thoughts anyway.
I look forward to seeing what your group comes up with for this, in terms of practicality and usefulness. Let me know if you have made any progress.
Charlie Mazza
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