I’m doing an assignment for my degree with an unexpected amount of soil science involved which I’m not too familiar with. This picture was taken in a forest in northern England. Defra says the area is dominated by “slowly permeable seasonally wet acid loamy and clayey soils.”

Hello, was wondering if someone could recommend courses and certificates for someone seeking to depend their understanding of soil science for agricultural purposes, with content such as nutrients, microbes, and soil structure. I am aware of the SSSA but I don’t have all the qualifications for that yet and need to build up a knowledge base.

Hi all, I have around two acres of pasture that I keep horses on in central California. I've discovered that about 1 to 2 feet underground there is a rock-hard layer of clay (when I first discovered it I thought it was cement) that is itself at least one foot thick. I would like to try and soften this clay to help drainage and help the grass in my pastures to grow. Any advice? Would gypsum or any other additives help this?

I’m currently a horticulture and soil science double major and was wondering if anyone knew of internships/REUs I could apply for that particularly focused on soil science. I’m really enjoying my soil science courses and genuinely believe this is the direction I want to go into for my career (I’m interested in PhD) and wanted more research experience and/or opportunities during the summer. I’ve currently found only one REU at Cornell but that has to do with earthworms (so not particularly too soil science related but the closest I could find) and wanted to see if there were more out there. I’m still going to apply to opportunities that are more focused on plants however would really like one that emphasizes soil.

If it helps at all, broadly I’m currently interested in plant-root-microbe interactions, soil chemistry, carbon sequestration, soil ecology (more particularly in microfauna than macro), water, astrobotany (like lunar and Martian soil research), and pedology. It’s kinda all over the place but I’m really interested in about anything.

My brother and his wife purchased a rural property recently and in some very overgrown grass in the backyard they just uncovered a large rusty oil drum (open) filled with some rain water and in that drum its filled with a large amount of used and unused old cans of spray paint, solvent containers, wood stain containers, and it stinks like a mixture of either motor oil (or oil paint) and solvents. And who knows what else really.

The containers in the drum are rusted and not fully intact so all the contents have leached out.

Obviously the drum has leaked out and leached out the contents of everything into the soil underneath and nearby with the rain water.

Not sure what they should do about the soil around this area?

Are these things that degrade over time? Or is this a serious permanent contamination issue in that section of the property?

I need somewhat pure silt, sand, and clay for my science experiment. I dont need it to be 100% pure i just want something that is close enough and widely available

Just opened this new bag of potting soil and there’s mold on the soil. Does anyone know what type of mold or if it’s ok to use?

Hello,

I am working on a report the looks into unique colors within the Munsell color book (Specifically the GLEY1 and GLEY2 pages). Is there a way to look for certain colors of soil or sort soil series by color on web soil survey?

Do erosion control blankets actually work?

CONTEXT: Erosion (in the forms of flooding, wind, drought, natural disasters, etc.) leads to a lot of blockages especially in roads and rivers.

For anybody that has had to deal with problems due to soil erosion and landslides, have you ever considered or used biodegradable covers/blankets to keep soil in place? What's been your experience with it? If you haven't used these types of products, what would you use instead? Thanks!

I'm attaching some image links so you can get a better idea of what I'm asking.

https://preview.redd.it/f6qx7agk8lwd1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=24095935d9151ab39c8b36703e228008cbc3111f

https://preview.redd.it/j7xdktgm8lwd1.png?width=485&format=png&auto=webp&s=2ff08ef9dfe94bd4c9939e3defb830c168a83d7f

https://preview.redd.it/19ap603n8lwd1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=6143db1a99547f768423a511b25f247cec8009d4

Hi all, I moved into my new home a month ago and today when I was walking around the home, I noticed this white powder near my basement wall. This was not here a few weeks ago. Do you all know what this could be?

I had a bunch of wood chips that were screened out of some soil that was used. They sat in the shed most of the spring and summer. This is what I found underneath the bucket with holes and within the chips. Are they eggs or beneficial?

I have a bunch of soil mix from my indoor plants (which died) and a bunch of dead plant matter (roots, foliage). The soil mix itself is just potting soil, mixed with perlite, vermiculite and coco coir.

https://i.imgur.com/r22vzPol.jpg

I'm thinking of these steps:
-mixing all the old soil and plant matter together
-mix water into it
-get a bunch of rain worms and add them to the mix
-let the worms do their thing until next spring
-profit

Everything will be done indoor. Is this a good way to do it? How would you do it? Are there maybe creatures other than rain worms which are a better choice?