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minnesota

what does the organic material percentage in soil tests refer to, isn't most everything in soil organic?

10/10/2002 6:01:19 PM

Tacoma, WA

Soil is mostly ground up "rock"! Usually about 95%!
Some AG growers are able to get their soil up to 20% organic material by adding manure and compost. It takes alot.....I've added over 200 yards to my patch and it is only up to 8%!!!!!

Stan

10/10/2002 6:21:09 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

How do you determine what constitutes a yard? By weight?

11/24/2002 12:52:01 AM

Key West, FL

a yard, you know football? its a unit of measurement, 3 feet, so he is talking about 200 cubic yards

11/24/2002 12:56:40 AM

Caceres, Spain

Oh, the good and simple decimal metric system!!!!!!!!!!

11/24/2002 1:58:35 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

OK, cubic is the key word. Then mathmatical conversion. Gotcha.

11/24/2002 6:42:47 AM

Aberdeen, SD

peepers.. you've added 200 cubic yards of organic material?
that is 5400 cubic feet... ouch
roughly that is 80 lbs per cubic foot and 2160 lbs per cubic yard.
using the formula that follows you can find the tonnage factor of material:
T.F = (1 cubic yard / weight of material) x (27 cubit feet / 1 cubic yard) x (2000 lbs / ton)

trust me it looks better on paper. applying that formula to the above :
T.F = (1 cubic yard / 2160 lbs) x (27 cubic feet / cubic yard) x ( 2000 lbs / ton)

now when you do the chain multiplication you would end up with 25 cubic yards per ton...
1 cubic yard / 2160 lbs X 27 cubic feet / cubic yard .... will give you 27 cubic feet / 2160 lbs .. as the cubic yards drop out... that will give you the figure of 0.0125
so then you take that and multiply by 2000 lbs / ton and you virtually end up with 25 cubic feet / ton

11/24/2002 9:13:45 AM

Aberdeen, SD

i didnt want to muddle the previous post with this extraneous material here.. and no it isnt organic material.. ;) but if some people ask themselves where i got all this.. i did a couple web searches and dug up the basic 80 lbs / cubic yard figure for clayish type soils.. and then i applied the conversion factors from my classes, and yes i am a mining engineering major and i deal with this stuff every day i have class ;)
so i am not just some know it all freak like the guy on Law and Order Criminal Intent.. the lead male detective is spooky with the little things he can dig up.. but yes i am studying to be a mining engineer
in case anyone was wondering

p.s. i can do the conversions from lbs / cubic yard to cubic feet per metric ton and long ton.. i used the more common short ton figure.. if you wanted to do it.. just sub the 2000 lbs / ton .. for one of the following... long ton would be 2240 lbs / ton ... and for metric ton it would be 2204.6 lbs / ton
hopefully i have not come off like too much of a jerk on this.. it just kind of gave me something to figure out instead of falling asleep at work

11/24/2002 9:20:14 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

So if I have 15 tons of manure to work into my patch then I have 375 cubic feet or 125 cubic yards? All this for a 70 x 30 patch and a 15 x 30 patch, would that sound high?

11/24/2002 11:03:39 AM

Long Island,New York

When dealing with manures and "organic materials" and wieghts it's all so variable that you have to use rough estimates. Roughly speaking a cubic yard of manure is approximately one ton.....trucks are measured either by wieght with a scale or by volume using size of the box or bed as the measures. Manure can varry greatly in wieght per unit volume due to the moisture content...wetter is heavier. Organic matter is very variable in that it could be nice fluffy leaves, chopped up leaves...chopped up wet leaves, or even sludge...all have widely different wieghts per yard.
Knowing the trucking/nursery biz a little too much for my own good Kyle, I'd guess your 15tons of manure is likely about 8-10 yards....lol.........G

11/24/2002 11:42:06 AM

Aberdeen, SD

you would have 375 cubic feet and 13.8 cubic yards of material.
remember one cubic yard is 27 cubic feet.
you have 2550 square feet of area to cover... or 283 square yards... and you have 13.8 cubic yards of material.... you could put .14 cubic feet of material per square foot of space or .04 cubic yards of material per square yard..
now i dont know how much material others would say to put down.. but i might consider half to 3/4 cubic foot per square foot. i dont know what others would say.. but that is just me

11/24/2002 11:49:40 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

I hate math, I'm glad someone out there has an understanding.
I have ALOT of manure to work into my patch, looks like I might need to at least double it.
Thanks for the info.

11/24/2002 11:59:13 AM

Knopp, Germany

how many cubic feet does luck count? in germany, they say that they would rather be lucky then good. okay, maybe i say that,...lol...best wishes ...owen

11/24/2002 1:01:38 PM