Pale brown/yellow soil often indicates that organic matter and nutrients are low and this generally means poor fertility and structure. Pale soil needs plenty of organic matter and mulching. Red soil usually indicates extensive weathering and good drainage, but often needs nutrients and organic matter.
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.
Poor soil quality can result from inadequate fertilisation, infrequent crop rotation or over farming of the same land. A reduction in soil quality can also result from both water shortages and excessive rain.
A simple test to find out if your soil is well-draining
Fill it with water. If the water drains from the hole in 10 minutes or less, you have fast draining soil. If the water takes an hour or more to drain, you have poorly-draining soil.
Opened bags of new potting soil can retain quality for around 6 to 12 months. For unopened and unused potting soil, you can store it for about a year or two before it goes bad.
Sliding is the most common cause of soil failure. Sliding and other modes of failure can occur in soils that are not densely compacted.
In the last few decades, soil degradation has been sped up by intensive farming practices like deforestation, overgrazing, intensive cultivation, forest fires and construction work. These actions disturb soil and leave it vulnerable to wind and water erosion, which damages the complex systems underneath.
You can test your own soil using a basic soil test kit from The Home Depot. Inexpensive, easy and accurate, soil tests provide a wealth of knowledge about what's going on under your feet, including the levels of pH, calcium, lime, gypsum and potassium.
pH: pH is an important indicator of soil health because if there is inadequate soil pH, crop growth can be impacted and key nutrients may become less available. Additionally, soil pH can vary soil microbial communities.
Careful observation of colour can help to identify problems of waterlogging or leaching. Poorly drained soils are often dominated by blue-grey colours often with yellow mottling. Well drained soils will usually have bright and uniform colours.
The loss of fertile soil makes land less productive for agriculture, creates new deserts, pollutes waterways and can alter how water flows through the landscape, potentially making flooding more common.
You can increase the amount of organic matter in your soil by adding compost, aged animal manures, green manures (cover crops), mulches or peat moss. Because most soil life and plant roots are located in the top 6 inches of soil, concentrate on this upper layer.
The easier, healthier approach is to add compost or plant residues to the soil surface or to incorporate them into only the top few inches of soil. The soil biota will take care of breaking the material down into nutrients your plants can use, and moving the nutrients down into the soil where plant roots can find them.
Soil compaction (dense soil that drains water very slowly), topsoil removal, and erosion are three key soil problems. Evaluating your soil and making necessary adjustments and improvements prior to planting will save you time and money and result in a healthier landscape.
Soil degradation causes include agricultural, industrial, and commercial pollution; loss of arable land due to urban expansion, overgrazing, and unsustainable agricultural practices; and long-term climatic changes.
Add Compost
Compost breaks up that sticky mass. Compost also helps sandy soil hold water and nutrients that would otherwise quickly leach out of the porous soil. To add compost to your garden, work it into the top 2 to 3 inches of your garden bed.