What does my Soil colour tell me? - Jeffries (2024)

FAQs

What does my Soil colour tell me? - Jeffries? ›

If your soil is gray, white or pale you are going to have serious drainage problems and you might be better to garden elsewhere, or to use wicking beds or raised beds. Bright red, bright yellow or tan soils have good levels of nutrients and reasonable drainage.

Soil color is influenced by its mineral composition as well as water and organic contents. For example, soils high in calcium tend to be white, those high in iron reddish, and those high in humus dark brown to black. Soil needs only about 5% organic material to appear black when wet.

This is called a loam soil. The color should be dark brown or black indicating a fair amount of organic matter produced under conditions of good aeration. It also should have a good open, granular, or crumb structure that provides aeration and water-holding capacity.

Pale brown/yellow soil often indicates that organic matter and nutrients are low and this generally means poor fertility and structure.

Hue is the overall color of the soil, such as red or yellow. Value is the lightness or darkness of the soil color and chroma is the intensity or greyness of color. Hydric soils typically have a chroma of 2 or less, which indicates anaerobic conditions and long-term inundation or saturation.

Soil color and other properties including texture, structure, and consistence are used to distinguish and identify soil horizons (layers) and to group soils according to the soil classification system called Soil Taxonomy.

Soil color can be a useful tool for correctly identifying your soil and can be an important indicator of soil health. Soil color is linked to mineral composition, soil fertility, soil organic matter, and more.

Loam soils can be classified into more specific subtypes. Some examples are sandy loam, silt loam, clay loam, and silty clay loam. Different soil phases have some variation in characteristics like stoniness and erosion that are too minor to affect native vegetative growth but can be significant for crop cultivation.

Identifying Loamy Soil

"Loamy soil will hold its shape slightly, but [then] easily fall apart," Clements says. "In loamy soil, compost and mulch make all soil more fertile and improve moisture retention."

Good quality topsoil often contains decaying organic matter, rich in nutrients to feed your soil. Loam soil contains little or no organic matter, however, it is popular with gardeners, landscapers and green keepers alike because of its ability to retain water and nutrients.

Do lots of worms mean good soil? ›

Earthworms perform several important functions in soil. They improve soil structure, water movement, nutrient cycling and plant growth. They are not the only indicators of healthy soil systems, but their presence is usually an indicator of a healthy system.

During times when oxygen is excluded, goethite and hematite dissolve out of some areas of the horizon (iron is reduced), so one sees the gray colors of the remaining soil minerals instead of the brownish hues of the Fe minerals.

Unhealthy soil doesn't have the moisture and nutrients needed to thrive, which makes it dry, crumbling, and cracked. When you pick up the dirt, it might crumble quickly in your hands or be difficult to break apart. Proper watering and irrigation will improve the soil's condition in these instances.

The most influential colours in a well drained soil are white, red, brown and black. White indicates the predominance of silica (quartz), or the presence of salts; red indicates the accumulation of iron oxide; and brown and black indicate the level and type of organic matter.

Soils come in many different shades, most commonly in shades of black, brown, red, gray, and white.

HUES tell you how red the soil is… 2.5YR (2.5 parts yellow to 1 red) is pretty red; 10YR (10 parts yellow to 1 red) is more yellow… VALUES tell you how dark the soil is; A horizons are darker, with a lower value (2 or 3) due to humus. E horizons are often light colored (5 or 6 value). CHROMA tells you how bright vs.

Bright red and yellow soils normally have good drainage, nutrient levels and organic matter. Pale reds, yellows and oranges suggest that the soils have poor drainage and lower levels of nutrient and organic matter.

Solution: The colour, texture etc., of soil is determined by Parent Rock. Therefore, parent rock is a significant part of the weathering process for the formation of soil on the earth.

Red soils contain large amounts of clay and are generally derived from the weathering of ancient crystalline and metamorphic rock. They are named after their rich red color, which can vary from reddish brown to reddish yellow as a result of their high iron content.

The sides of the soil texture triangle are scaled for the percentages of sand, silt, and clay. Clay percentages are read from left to right across the triangle. Silt is read from the upper right to lower left. Sand is read from lower right towards the upper left portion of the triangle.