Soil Texture Training Workshop
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Collapse ▲N.C. Cooperative Extension, Buncombe County Center recently welcomed NC State University PhD student Alam Ramirez-Reyes and graduate student Carlee Epting to our office for a Soil Texture Training workshop. Useful for our agents in their post-Helene work helping growers and farmers of Buncombe County, the program focused on a variety of topics including soil structure, organic matter, biological activity, water retention, compaction, and bulk density.
The workshop also proved to be a great opportunity for our agents to work directly with researchers, professors, and staff of NC State to aid our local agricultural workers in their continued recovery and with common issues they experience.
NC State University PhD student Alam Ramirez-Reyes leads the Soil Texture training workshop at Buncombe County Cooperative Extension.
Compaction and erosion of our mountain soils from damage and deposition from the effects of Hurricane Helene have caused large sections of Buncombe County land to be permanently altered. Growers of our county need solutions to the physical and underground damage our land has experienced. Imagine owning a piece of land used to grow tomatoes, peppers, or similar crops. Then imagine that field being covered with feet of sand in a matter of hours, changing the land from what is natural to our mountain region into land that is more like that on our state’s coast. This is what many of our growers are still facing, even months after Hurricane Helene. What can be done to this land now that the texture, water retention and a myriad of other soil characteristics have all changed? Can it be returned to its former, natural state? What can be grown on it now? These are just a few of the questions our agents are confronted with when helping the growers of our county, both commercial farmers and home gardeners. The solutions are complex and involve more than just mixing the new material into the previously existing soil. Many factors play a part in finding solutions.
NC State University graduate student Carlee Epting demonstrates tools and techniques on obtaining a soil sample for testing.
Hands-on demonstrations of the workshop included techniques and tools used to determine bulk density and soil types. A bulk density measurement provides critical information on the soil’s physical properties including water and air movement, compaction, root growth, nutrient availability, and others. Growers, researchers, and agricultural workers use this information to determine environmentally and economically beneficial crops and in implementing well-informed soil management practices.
It is recommended that growers of our region start any land management practice with a soil test. Anyone from commercial farmers to home gardeners benefit from the results. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences and NC State Cooperative Extension work together to offer soil tests to the public. The supplies and information are free and available at any N.C. Cooperative Extension office. These soil tests measure soil fertility, soil pH, bulk density, fertilizer and lime recommendations, and a variety of other factors. They do not measure contaminates or heavy metals. Testing for these is available through a number of private labs in North Carolina. Contact your local Cooperative Extension office for more information.
North Carolina Cooperative Extension is an extensive educational outreach organization serving as a bridge between the research conducted at North Carolina’s two land-grant universities – NC State University and NC A&T University – working with local governments in all 100 counties, plus the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It’s mission is to serve the residents of North Carolina with evidence based research on a variety of agricultural and consumer science related topics. The Buncombe County office is located at 49 Mount Carmel Road, Asheville, 28806. You can contact us at 828-255-5522.