Feature Article - for release the week of March 9, 2008

Dan Culbert - Extension Horticulture Agent

The Dirt on Dirt  

Welcome to the second Annual Okeechobee County Fair, which opened last weekend.  If you have not yet made it out to the County’s Agri-Civic Center, you are in for a treat.  Besides all the food fare and rides, our county is also showcasing the best we have to offer in terms of local livestock and creative crafts.  This year’s Fair features entertainment ranging from a rodeo to a demolition derby, but I think the best will be the Youth Livestock Shows and Auction just can not be missed.

Hidden inside the exhibit tent are many creative crafts assembled by local residents.  There are several non-profit organization exhibits and commercial vendors that wish to show and tell all about their products and services.  And nearby the blue ribbon plants and vegetables is this year’s Extension Service Exhibit – the focus of today’s column.

The idea for the exhibit came from a lesson presented to the Mighty Sprouts 4-H Club a few weeks ago.  They are a new Okeechobee County 4-H club devoted to learning about gardening.  They asked me to speak at their last meeting and tell them about the properties of soils.  The topic is important enough to share with the entire community.

Natural Soils Worth Knowing

The real experts on soils are found next door to our office.  These devoted public servants are the employees of the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service’s local office.  They work in concert with the Okeechobee County Soil and Water Conservation District, another group of community volunteers that are committed to improving conditions for growers, ranchers and homeowners.

I asked NRCS District Conservationist Scott Kuipers if he had a sample of a typical soil profile to show the Mighty Sprouts.  He rummaged around his office and came up with something really neat – a box full of soil samples that were collected all over the county when the Soil Survey field work was done many years ago.

The whole collection consists of about 24 different soils, and each of these may involve as many as 7 different samples from the different layers of that soil taken at depths of up to seven or eight feet. Our office will be displaying five of these soils so Fair goers can see the range of colors, and textures found in a few of our local soils.

County Soil Survey

The USDA has produced an extremely important document for Okeechobee and almost every other county in the US.  It is available to help farmers, ranchers, property owners, community planners and any one interested in natural resources.  Soil surveys give lots of technical information that help people learn how particular soils can best be managed.  

Soil Surveys have detailed maps of the entire county that identify the different kinds of soils found in that area.  The rest of the survey gives detailed descriptions of the soils, water table depths, native plants, suitability for agriculture, and a whole lot more. And you will love the price – since you have already paid for it, it is essentially free. 

There are a few paper copies available for those that really, really need them.  However, the USDA NRCS has posted the Okeechobee County Soil Survey on-line.  (The Internet version of this column has the link to the survey - click on the book at the right!)  Our exhibit at this year’s Fair includes a little bit on the kinds of information found in the survey and how it can be used. 

 

Man-Made Soils

Anyone who has tried to plant vegetables or flowers in pots using natural soils has had some challenges.  Gardeners and nursery growers have found much greater success with container culture when they use various soil amendments – another part of our Extension exhibit.

Our FYN Program assistant Angela Sachson has “taken apart” a man-made soil and prepared a little quiz to see if you can identify the different kinds of “stuff” that may be found in modern artificial growing media.  Here are a few of the materials on display that may be found in these mixes:

·        Sphagnum moss – is a dried up plant that grows in swampy bogs.  It is harvested and dried and sold in small bales because it is very close to being naturally sterile and can hold many times its weight in water.  

·        Peat Moss – is also made up of bog plants, but these have usually undergone a little bit of decomposition.  A considerable amount of local peat moss came from the Peace River area, while different grades of coarseness and quality come from Canada.

·        Vermiculite – A mineral called mica consists of many flat layers that are tightly mashed into flat plates.  When heated, a small amount of water turns into steam and the layers puff up to form vermiculite.  The material is then carefully ground into smaller particles which are screened into coarse or fine sized particles.  Coarse vermiculite is very lightweight and very absorbent, so it can be used in potting soils, as insulation or to absorb spills.  Gardeners know to use fine grade vermiculite to lightly cover seed in the greenhouse.

·        Perlite - is another mineral product – but this one is a volcanic glass-like mineral that also contains water.  Again it is heated and puffs up, but this one makes white rounded puffballs that have very little weight and lots of air space. They are also graded by size and have found use as insulation – painters know this as the popcorn that can be added to make a textured paint.

·        Sand – This is not your backyard garden variety of native beach sand, but instead is mined screened and cleaned.  Horticultural sand is usually “sharp”; in other words, the edges of the particles are not rounded.  Masonry sand and play-sand (for sandboxes) are similar in texture, but may vary in the size of the particles.

·        Topsoil – these materials are a mixture of sand and well composted organic material.  It often has the feel of muck, but hopefully it has been sterilized to kill off weeds and disease that could come from untreated mucks.

Sphagnum Moss  (Sphagnum andersonianum) is a plant that grows in freshwater swamps.  {Photo above:  Dave McShaffrey, Marietta College, OH. ] It can be harvested and dried for horticultural purposes. Photo below: Mosser Lee Company, WI.		Mica (above)  [Photo: USGS ] is heated and expands into expanded vermiculite (below)  [Photo: U. Wisconsin ]	Perlite is a volcanic rock (above) that can be heated. The trapped water expands the mineral into  porous particles (below) that hold water and air.  Photos: Mineral Information Institute & USGS

 I’ve placed more information on our Okeechobee web page, http://okeechobee.ifas.ufl.edu.  If you need additional information on natural or man-made soils, please email us at okeechobee@ifas.ufl.edu or call us at 863-763-6469.  Local residents can stop by our office at 458 Hwy 98 North in Okeechobee, and visit our Okeechobee County Master Gardeners from 1 to 3 PM on Tuesday afternoons.  Come see us at the Fair and, Go Gators!

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 Trade  names, where used, are given for the purpose of providing specific information. They do not constitute an endorsement or guarantee of products named, nor does it imply criticism of products not named. The Florida Cooperative Extension Service - Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer authorized to provide research, educational information, and other services to individuals and institutions that function without regard to race, color, sex, age, handicap, or national origin.  Florida Cooperative Extension Service / IFAS / University of Florida.  Larry A.  Arrington, Dean. Last update: 03/07/2008.  This page is maintained by Dan Culbert  

   References

Ingram, Dewayne L., Henley, Richard W. and Yeager, Thomas H. .   Growth Media for Container Grown Ornamental Plants (BUL241).  Gainesville: Florida Cooperative Extension Service, June 2003.  http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CN004 

Lewis, D., Liudahl, K., Noble, C., & Carter, L.  Soil Survey of Okeechobee County, Florida.  Washington: USDA NRCS, 2003. http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/Manuscripts/FL093/0/fl_okeechobee.pdf  

Reed, D.W. Organic Amendments.   College Station TX: Hort 202- website, Texas A&M University.  http://generalhorticulture.tamu.edu/h202/labs/lab7/organic.html 

Relf, Diane.  Sphagnum Moss vs. Sphagnum Peat Moss.  Blacksburg: Virginia Tech, August 1996. http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/envirohort/articles/misc/sphagnum.html

The Perlite Institute http://www.perlite.org/index.htm       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlite  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermiculite  

USDA NRCS Okeechobee County Center Staff Directory: http://www.fl.nrcs.usda.gov/contact/directory/area4.html