How much water and nutrients can your soil hold?
The particular make-up of your soil determines its color, texture, and nutrient storage capacity. Knowing about your soil’s texture and nutrient storage capacity is important when deciding how much and how often to feed and water your plants. Some nutrients are more easily stored and attached to soil particles compared to others due to the strength of their electrostatic bond.
It’s important to determine your soil’s Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) as it helps you determine how much mineral nutrients your soil can hold onto. Some common mineral nutrients used in soil inputs are calcium, potassium, ammonium, and magnesium.
Understanding the CEC of your soil is important due to its strong influence on nutrient and water retention and availability, soil structure stability, and soil pH and fertility. Adding organic matter to your soil is one of the most effective ways of increasing your soil’s CEC and increasing the amount of exchange sites. The more exchange sites, the greater the ability for nutrients to be retained within the soil. Having a high CEC not only reduces the chances of nutrient leaching, but it also helps buffer your soil against pH changes. This exchange process occurs on the plant’s root hairs, which is why it’s important to have a strong, healthy root system for your plants
As microbes are actively involved in transforming nutrients to plant-available forms, it’s imperative to maintain suitable soil conditions for optimal microbial activity.
