Master Gardener Training Series: Soil
The campus where my husband was working this week in India has its own plant nursery. Soon we will see coleus again!
Keeping it real this week…I’m tired…much like many of our tired soil…ha.😂 My husband has been traveling for two weeks. It’s been fine for me just packed my patience as best I could for my threenager and tried to give the best moral support that I could for our Kindergartener. My kids are extremely blessed to have two parents who work from home nearly 100% of the time. They haven’t been without their “popcorn kernel baby daddy” (what MJ calls him) for more than a long weekend. This trip was hard on them. Now as his trip draws to a close, I’m feeling a bit like sandy soil, completely drained, depleted of nutrients, and a bit harsh too. This leads to a short and sweet blog post this week.
3 Fun Facts:
Source: Ron Blakely, "Paleogeography and Geologic Evolution of North America, http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/triassic.html
Last Friday, in my Extension Master Gardener Training with the Hanover Master Gardener Association we had a retired soil scientist from Virginia Tech, Jay Conta speak with us about different types of soil. We learned that there are 8,000 soil types. We only focused on the two parent soil types found in Virginia (granite: hard and creates sandy soil and diabase: high shrink swell clay). I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone. What was a surprise to me was the close relationship that Virginia has with Africa. Virginia was once connected with Northwest Africa during Pangaea. When Africa slammed into North America a large mountain range, believed to be where I-95 is today, folded in and developed coal through the Alleghany region. When Africa broke back apart, the coastal plain of Virginia and the Atlantic Ocean were formed as a direct result of Pangaea’s moving volcanic rifts. This explains why we have found fossils in Virginia too! Pretty cool! You can read more about it here. I found this website to give the best pictures and descriptions, but you can find more academic resources with a quick Google search. JMU and VT have some online publications on the topic.
There are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are people on Earth. A TEASPOON 🤯Most antibiotics that we use originated from soil.
You can hear soil when you are testing its texture. 👂When you rub soil through your fingers, it makes different sounds based on its composition. Don’t hate on your clay, it’s quieter than sand and it is the most powerful part of your soil.
🐰You could totally go down a rabbit hole like I did at 11:00 at night after just writing how tired I am 🤦♀️ and explore more about Africa’s land connection to Virginia pretty easily. It’s interesting stuff to geek out on.
One final tip, do you want to know what your actual soil is composed of? Send a soil sample off to Virginia Tech’s soil testing lab to see. Soil tests give valuable information on how to help your plants thrive or what you need to do to help them thrive. It’s inexpensive ($10-$15) and easy to do. Here are the forms that need to be completed and sent in along with your soil sample: https://www.soiltest.vt.edu/fees-and-forms.html
This week we are learning about Plant Pathology and how to start diagnosing plant problems which has been super interesting. Can’t wait to share some funky plant history and more next week!
Keep Blooming,
Nicole Dillon, Breemar Flower Farm
