Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for - Aseanipm ...

Section 3 • Living Soil, Integrated Soil Nutrient and Crop Managements
3. Go back to processing area. Brainstorm in small groups to modify, improve, if necessary, or
implement as is the procedure suggested below 57 :
5 Get air-dried soil samples from respective quadrants, pulverize, and weigh 300-600 g soil.
5 Get three empty plastic bottles, cut bottom of each plastic bottle.
5 Turn bottles upside-down and put loose-weave square of cloth into neck area of each plastic
bottle from inside, or tie cloth over top of each plastic bottle with a rubber band or twine.
5 Choose soils from three locations: (a) poor and sandy soil, (b) local farm soil, and (c)
compost or soil rich in organic matter.
5 Place a fixed amount of soil (e.g., somewhere between 300 to 600 g) of each type of soil in
each inverted bottle
5 Suspend inverted bottle above plastic cups (e.g., hanging by twine from pole).
5 Take a plastic cup, fill it full with water, and then add it to soil in each bottle.
Water Holding Capacity
Sample A
75
A B C
Samples
5 Do some other activities and return when water has passed completely through all samples. If
one of the bottles has absorbed all water, but none has passed through into cup, you will need to
add water (e.g., same to each of all three samples to be able to compare results at the end).
5 After all samples have drained completely, line up cups side-by-side and compare results.
5 List down all pertinent observations.
57 Corado, M. 2008. Living Soil Exercises Developed for Farmer Field School. Reference material distributed during a Write-shop to Develop A Field
Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for FFS of IPM on Organic Vegetable Farming conducted in the Philippines on 17-19 June 2008 at the Headquarters,
Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. 105p.