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October 2007
Welcome to Fertile
Minds,
the monthly newsletter from Sydney Environmental & Soil
Laboratory.
Each issue brings you the latest news from SESL and the soil
and
environmental industries, useful and interesting information, and a
Q&A column.
We hope that you will find something helpful or interesting in every
issue.
In this issue
- The Loam Ranger – Trees and Traffic
- Make best use of recycled water
- Six reasons why you should have a plant tissue test done
- Asbestos
- Did you know ... ?
The Loam Ranger - Trees and Traffic
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Dear Loam Ranger, I'm a council environmental officer. Our street trees are looking mangy, they've got no soil to grow in, and the roots are lifting the pavement. What can we do about it? This problem derives from a fundamental conflict between trees and engineers. The engineer needs soil to be heavily consolidated to support buildings, roadways and footpaths. To accommodate trees, he builds narrow planting pits constrained by root barriers to prevent lifting and cracking of pavements. In contrast, the tree wants a loose, well aerated, moist, uncompacted soil in a large volume to ensure long life and good growth. Fortunately, there are solutions. |
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Make best use of recycled water
In Australia's new, even drier climate, recycled water has become a valuable resource. Opportunities exist for wastewater producers and water users to benefit from each other. If testing shows that effluent is suitable for irrigation, it could provide a year-round, reliable source of both water and nutrients for plants. Growers get vital water, and wastewater producers can dispose of it beneficially.
Before water can be recycled on land, the following factors must be considered:
- Reuse or disposal?
- Water quality
- Water quantity versus area of use
- Water availability
- Plant species
- Soil characteristics
- Nutrients in the water
- Phosphate sorption capacity of the soil
- Soil depth
- Site location
Click here to read about each of these (1000 words, 4 minutes).
Six reasons why you should have a plant tissue test done
- The nutrient status of a plant (and therefore its health and productivity) is ultimately determined by what it can pull out of the soil. The only way to determine how much the plant has actually taken up is by testing some of the plant tissues.
- Tissue analysis is a powerful tool for assessing the mineral nutrition of plants and, thus, their likely response to fertiliser. After all, too little fertiliser won’t help, and too much represents wasted money.
- Chemically analysing the concentrations of nutrients in the leaves of plants can more precisely define the nutrient status than a soil test.
- Tissue analysis provides a snapshot of the nutrient status of a plant at a particular point in time. A series of snapshots over the plant’s life can reveal the factors that affect its growth.
- In addition to confirming suspected deficiencies, plant analysis can also detect toxicities or hidden deficiencies before visible symptoms appear.
- Experimentation has shown the amounts of the various minerals that should be present in plants to provide optimal growth. These amounts are different for each plant species. A plant tissue test will show how your plants compare against the optimum.
Asbestos
Asbestos in the environment can pose serious dangers if the fibres are released. If you come across asbestos in demolition or excavation work, you must have it contained and disposed of as stipulated by law. You can find licensed contractors in the Yellow Pages under “Asbestos Removal &/or Treatment”.
Did you know ... ?
- A single gram of soil is estimated to contain several thousand species of bacteria.
- One square metre of soil can contain about 10 million nematodes and 45 000 microarthropods (springtails and mites). It has more species in it than 1km² of rainforest.