Soil Management Handbook - Ministry of Agriculture and Lands

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insects or mechanical equipment. If leaves appear dirty, wash them in a mild detergent solution for one minute, rinse immediately in fresh water for one minute and drain on clean paper towel. Samples should be promptly sent to a laboratory to avoid spoilage, otherwise, they should be spread to air-dry Table 9 Examples of Tissue Sampling Strategies prior to shipment. Contact your nearest British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food office or soil and plant tissue testing laboratory for specific information regarding sampling or refer to the commercial "Production Guides" that are also available. Crop Stage of Growth Plant Part to Sample # of Plants or Leaves to Sample Tree Fruits Current years growth Middle 1 /3 terminal growth 50 leaves Grapes Bloom to end of bloom Petioles from leaves adjacent to fruit 100 to 300 petioles Corn At tasseling Entire leaf at ear node 20 to 30 plants Potatoes After tuber initiation 4 th petiole from growing tip 20 to 30 plants Alfalfa 1 /10 bloom Upper 3 /4 of tops 30 to 50 plants Figure 13 X-Pattern Sampling Method Soil Management Handbook – Okanagan-Similkameen Valleys 47
3. Water Management High rainfall during the fall and spring periods and during snow melt runoff often causes saturation, flooding and water erosion of most soils, while low rainfall during the summer period often causes a water deficit for most crops. High watertable and water deficit conditions are both detrimental to optimum crop production, but both may be largely overcome with irrigation, appropriate tillage, soil management and drainage. 3.1 Irrigation Evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation for the period from May through September in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys of British Columbia. Climatic moisture deficits (Precipitation minus Potential Evapotranspiration from May to September) range from -498 mm at Oliver to -295 mm at Vernon Coldstream Ranch. Supplemental irrigation is, therefore, required to reduce the climatic moisture deficit and achieve maximum production. Designing an efficient irrigation system requires a good understanding of soil, crop and moisture relationships. The effects of soil type, crop rooting depth and climate are important when considering irrigation system application rates and set times. Four specific criteria must be considered when designing an irrigation system. Those criteria are: 1) Maximum Soil Water Deficit, 2) Maximum Irrigation System Application Rate, 3) Maximum Irrigation Interval and 4) Irrigation System Water Requirement. Some of these criteria will be discussed below, but for a detailed examination of how to design an irrigation system, please refer to the British Columbia Sprinkler Irrigation Design Manual and the British Columbia Trickle Irrigation Design Manual. 3.1.1 Irrigation System Design Criteria 3.1.1.1 Maximum Soil Water Deficit The maximum soil water deficit is the maximum amount of water that can be removed from the soil before the crop is affected. It is calculated from the rooting depth and availability coefficient for the crop and the available water storage capacity for the soil that the crop is to be grown in. 3.1.1.2 Effective Rooting Depth The effective rooting depth of a mature crop is that depth of soil from which a crop removes significant amounts of water. The normal effective rooting depths for crops grown on deep, uniformly porous, friable and fertile soils are given in Table 10. These rooting depths may vary for different species, varieties and planting densities, but the standard depths used for an irrigation system design can be modified for soils which do not permit normal root development. Compaction of the surface or the subsurface soil layers, excessively coarse subsoil, impervious subsoil, poor soil drainage, high watertables, adverse soil chemistry and fertility problems are all factors which could reduce the effective rooting depth for irrigation. Irrigation systems must be designed to meet crop requirements. Shorter duration and more frequent irrigations are required for crops that cannot reach their full rooting depth. 3.1.1.3 Available Water Storage Capacity The available water storage capacity (AWSC) of the soil is the depth of water that can be retained between field capacity and permanent wilting point. The capacity of a soil to store water depends upon the particle size composition (texture) and particle arrangement (structure) of the soil. To obtain an estimate of the water-holding capacity of a soil, it is necessary to determine the texture of the soil within the effective rooting depth of the crop to be irrigated. Soil textural classes are determined from the percent of sand, silt and clay present within the mineral fraction of the soil. Refer to the textural triangle at the beginning of the soil management section for soil texture classes. Table 11 can be used to calculate the AWSC of the soil once the texture is known. The total AWSC of the effective rooting zone is obtained by adding the AWSC of the various soil textural layers. 48 Soil Management Handbook – Okanagan-Similkameen Valleys
Page 2 and 3:
Soil Management Handbook For The Ok
Page 4 and 5:
Preface The Soil Management Handboo
Page 6 and 7:
Table Of Contents Preface..........
Page 8 and 9:
Table of Contents Con't. Page 3.6 D
Page 10 and 11: List Of Soil Management Groups And
Page 12: List Of Tables Table1: Farm Conserv
Page 15 and 16: To obtain information about the soi
Page 17 and 18: List of Definitions for Table 1 Con
Page 19 and 20: Well Suited Crops • All necessary
Page 21 and 22: Soil Depth refers to the depth to e
Page 23 and 24: Grapes: grape suitability is strong
Page 25 and 26: Soil Management Groups This section
Page 27 and 28: Gammil Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 29 and 30: Greata Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 31 and 32: Kelowna Soil Management Group Soil
Page 33 and 34: Munson Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 35 and 36: Postill Soil Management Group Soil
Page 37 and 38: Rumohr Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 39 and 40: Skaha Soil Management Group Soil Se
Page 41 and 42: Summerland Soil Management Group So
Page 43 and 44: Miscellaneous Soils Soil Series: Ar
Page 45 and 46: Soil Management Guide This section
Page 47 and 48: Table 5 Soil Particle Size and Char
Page 49 and 50: Table 6 Physical Characteristics of
Page 51 and 52: plant roots and organic matter. The
Page 53 and 54: The bulk density of high organic mi
Page 55 and 56: Other management practices, such as
Page 57 and 58: Figure 11 Schematic drawing of the
Page 59: 1 m, etc., in an orchard block wher
Page 63 and 64: Table 12 Availability Coefficients
Page 65 and 66: Impact of large drops of water disp
Page 67 and 68: The single most important soil fact
Page 69 and 70: land. Drainage systems are also nec
Page 71 and 72: Detailed information is provided in
Page 73 and 74: Table 16 Generalized Soil Profile D
Page 75 and 76: Table 17 Drain Recommendations Base
Page 77 and 78: is very susceptible to structure de
Page 79 and 80: vertically into the soil and as it
Page 81 and 82: Figure 19 Schematic drawing of the
Page 83 and 84: Case 1: Well Structured Soils If th
Page 85 and 86: fracture requires the soil to expan
Page 87 and 88: "tie up" some soil nitrogen, althou
Page 89 and 90: efer to the following Factsheets: S
Page 91 and 92: contaminate groundwater. Water cont
Page 93 and 94: Table 18 N, P and K Content of Vari
Page 95 and 96: field access is possible, manure ap
Page 97 and 98: Annual or permanent cover will redu
Page 99 and 100: agricultural production, its impact
Page 101 and 102: References Published Sources Agricu
Page 103 and 104: Stevenson, D.S. and Brownlee, C.H.
Page 105 and 106: Appendix A-2 Figure 2 Typical summe
Page 107 and 108: Appendix A-4 fall frost. The angle
Page 109 and 110: Appendix A-6 Abbreviations Used in
Page 111 and 112:
Appendix B: Soil Series And Locatio
Page 113 and 114:
Greata Soil Management Group Greata
Page 115 and 116:
Postill Soil Management Group Eanea
Page 117 and 118:
Miscellaneous Soils Armstrong (A:er
Page 119:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT B.C
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