WEBVTT - Oh Yes, How Soil Works 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.000 Hey, everybody, it's Josh and Chuck your friends, and we 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.880 are here to tell you about our upcoming book that's 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.080 coming out this fall, the first ever Stuff you Should 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.160 Know book, Chuck. That's right. What's the cool, super cool 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.640 title we came up with. It's Stuff you Should Know colon, 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:20.439 an incomplete compendium of mostly interesting things. That's right, and 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.479 it's coming along so great. We're super excited, you guys. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:28.040 The illustrations are amazing, and there's the look of the book. 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.639 It's all just it's exactly what we hoped it would be. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:32.440 And we cannot wait for you to get your hands 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:34.720 on it. Yes, we can't. Um, and you don't have 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:36.479 to wait. Actually, well you do have to wait, but 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.400 you don't have to wait to order. You can go 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.440 preorder the book right now everywhere you get books, and 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.840 you will eventually get a special gift for preordering, which 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.519 we're working on right now. That's right, So check it 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.479 out soon coming this fall. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, 0:00:53.680 --> 0:01:02.240 a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.080 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.039 Charles W. Chuck Brian over there, and this is Stuff 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:17.160 you Should know, the Dirty Dirt edition the best I 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:18.880 could come up with. And I even had days to 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.119 think of that, and that was it. Chuck, I'm sorry. Yeah, 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:24.160 this is a cool one. You know, we're into gardening, 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:30.520 so it's always nice to talk earth biology. Yes, agreed, Agreed, 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:32.920 And like I had a pretty I guess I thought 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.279 a dcent idea about this, but wait, did this article 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:40.800 open my eyes? Yeah? And this, you know, we covered sand, 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:46.120 and we covered compost, permaculture, perma culture, like we sort 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:50.480 of danced around soil. We danced in soil. Yea, our 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.720 toes are all dirty. But yeah, this is good to 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.760 finally check this one off the old list. Agreed. So 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.560 people are probably like, I don't know about this one. 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.560 I would hope that it's been, you know, long enough. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.800 We've been at it long enough to just trust us 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.720 that if it sounds boring, we're gonna find something interesting 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:09.960 in it. And I dare say that that is going 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:12.359 to be the case with this one too, Chuck, I hope. 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:18.720 So to understand soil, we have to understand what soil is, 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:23.160 where it comes from, and soil is basically just worn 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.360 down rock, just like sand is. Right, I think we 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:28.840 talked about and like, are are we running out of sand? 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:33.240 Episode that like, rocks get weathered and kind of taken 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.200 down stream all the way to the sea and they 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.680 get gently um broken down over time into this very 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:41.760 nice little beach sand and washed up on shore, and 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.840 that's where sand comes from. Well, basically that is also 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.720 part of the same process for producing dirt as well. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:53.840 It's just weathered rock that's broken down into different um 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:58.560 sizes that that are that that basically make up different 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.400 types of so oil. That's one the main structure of 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.520 it is basically just weathered rock of various sizes. Yeah, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.000 so you can you know, wind can do that over time. 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.760 Water and obviously the combination of all these is where 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.200 you really get your money money's worth. You've got your win, 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.800 you've got your your water um. When you get weather 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.080 going on in your seasons, you get the freeze law cycle, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.200 which is a really kind of speedier way. Once that 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.440 water gets in those little tiny fractures in the rock 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.440 and freezes and unfreezes and cracks, that will really speed 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.560 things up. And then you get a little help from 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:42.760 our our little tiny critters under under our feet. Yeah, 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:47.360 tiny critters of all shapes and sizes from like microbes 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.560 like bacteria and fun guy all the way up to 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.080 like prairie dogs and gophers. They're basically taking all this 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.480 stuff and mixing it together. But the stuff that they're 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.280 mixing together is so you've got the structure of the 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.920 soil from broken down rocks. But that's just one big component. 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.440 You have to have life living among it or else 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.960 it's not gonna do anything. It's just it's just dead. 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:15.240 There's nothing to it. So um part of the process 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.560 of forming soil is taking those little gritty pieces of 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:22.599 weathered rock and adding decomposing organic matter to them. And 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.640 that's where we finally start to get to what we 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:30.120 understand is soil. Yeah, because once you have that, it 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.640 can hold a little bit of moisture, and then that 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.240 means little plants can grow. Those little plants grow, they 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.760 eventually die. It's very sad for the plant and the 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.280 plant's family, but it happens to all of us. And 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.000 then those little plants that die, they decompose and they're 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.679 holding all that carbon dioxide and their little skinny stems 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:55.160 and leaves and body, and that carbon dioxide stays behind 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:59.159 and it's dissolved by water, and then that forms carbonic acid, 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.719 which isn't you know, if you want to throw a 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.200 body in a barrel, you don't want to use carbonic acid. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.159 Now you're gonna get caught. Still, you're gonna get caught. 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:11.160 So it's not super strong, but it is strong enough 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.080 to help break down all those little rocks and everything 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:20.120 even more, and before you know it, you've got soil. Baby, Yeah, 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.640 you've got so So those decomposing all that decomposing organic 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.640 matter is full of like nutrients that kept the thing 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.200 alive while it was living. And then all those little 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:33.800 tiny animals and microbes that eat that stuff break it 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:38.640 down even further, which unlocks all of the nutrients and within, 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:41.080 and that means that plants can start to take them 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.120 up in its roots and use those nutrients to grow. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.800 And so that's a big part of what soil is. 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:53.080 It's like a nice little substrate of medium for holding nutrients, 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.919 and then the whole thing is actually held together itself 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.240 even further by the roots that the plants that grow 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.279 in the soil spread out in stabilized too. So I 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.320 think one of the things we've just hit upon. One 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.360 of the reasons I love soil so much. It's harmonious 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:14.520 and um symbiotic, Like everything living in the soil almost 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.599 is involved in keeping everything else going and alive. It's 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.600 like part of a really beautiful, complete system. Yeah, and 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.520 that's why, you know, we always make a big deal 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.360 and science makes a big deal out of the disruption 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.880 of this and not just this process, but all earth processes. 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:36.960 One little tiny thing will lead to another little tiny thing, 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:38.800 and before you know it, you got you got issues 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.080 on your hands. Yeah, you do, for sure. You can't 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:43.920 let it get out of whack. Luckily, from what I found, 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:48.560 I started to get into um into like long care 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.920 and stuff like that happen at some point and it's 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:54.279 fun to me years ago and I was like, you 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.200 just wait, Yeah, it's true. It's true. And I've learned 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.560 not to flood my lawn with a quarter inch of 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:05.480 um of water. But um, the best fertilizer and aeration 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:10.080 that I found is just basically feeding microbes to your lawn. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.840 Like you don't need to like go dig holes and 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.320 core plugs in your lawn, just if you add the 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.520 right kind of microbes to your lawn and all of 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.520 that will just kind of turn it into this healthy 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.800 soil beneath it on its own, which I just love 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.040 because it's just springing microbes onto the ground. What's more 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.200 beautiful than that. Well, we've got the opposite. We have 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.120 zero grass now. Basically, oh, I know, I know, you 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.480 just love to my face and that. But still no, 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:38.640 it just kept going more and more and it got 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.240 smaller and smaller, to the point where I was like, 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.680 why am I holding onto this tiny little patch of grass? 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.679 Why do I even have a weed whacker? At this point, 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.280 I know I've used a weed whaker in two years. 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.280 It's great, that's awesome. I got a big old honking 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.320 gas powered lawnmower even too. So I'm basically going the 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.680 exact toposite direction, is you do you have a writer now? No? No, No, 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.160 it's not that big. It's not that big. Yeah, it 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:10.120 runs on like the tier of baby deer. That's what 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:14.720 John Dear means. So, um, if you're talking soil, you 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.160 need to talk soil horizons, and you know, we'll get 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.560 to sort of the list of the different horizons here 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:25.600 in a few minutes. But soil horizons are these horizontal levels, 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.720 these striations that you know, if you look at like 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:31.840 if you go to any science center, they'll probably have 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:37.160 some kind of cool um piece of glass with a frame, 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:39.319 and you have soil in there, and they have little 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:43.559 lines drawn to mark these different soil horizons, because soil 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.720 is not all the same. From the the very top 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:50.400 of the top soil down three feet, it gets very different. 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.200 And you want space in there, you want air in there. Uh, 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:56.840 you want to have water to be able to travel 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:58.880 through there. I think they say if you want, like 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:03.319 really good soil should be about fifty just fifty percent 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:08.160 soil and then fifty just space for air and water. Yeah, exactly, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.280 And then you want about half of those spaces to 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:17.640 be filled with water. So you've got about soil air pockets, 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:22.360 water filled pores. That's ideal for sure. And that's yeah. 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:24.400 And that the reason the way that you get those 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.400 those pores in those pockets and everything is because there's 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.559 different types of soil. There's different shapes of soil um, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.040 and there's different sizes of soil. Like we said, you know, 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.679 there's sand, but there's also silt, and there's also and 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.120 get ready for your socks to be not clean off 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.439 your feet. There's also clay, which clay Whenever I think 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.080 of clay, it's like a big hunk of something that 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.520 I'm like having to dig through to plant a plant, 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:51.240 and it's enormous. But it turns out that clay is 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:56.160 actually the finest, uh smallest type of soil, and it's 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.760 so fine that it compacts together into these large aggregate 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:01.920 pieces of clay that we think of when we think 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:08.080 of clay, But that's actually huge, enormous chunks of extraordinarily 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.400 tiny pieces of dirt of soil that are so small 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.760 you can only see them with an electron microscope if 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.559 you want to look at them individually. Yeah, and clay 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:19.880 is important. It's all part of the mix that we'll 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.080 talk about here in a minute. But you know, if 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:29.280 you start off with just a barren rock landscape. There's 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.000 a very smart lady who who did this one? Was this? 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.120 I think that Grabster helps us out with this. This 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.680 is the Grabster um. He must have been interviewed doctor 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:43.000 Caitlin Hicks Priests, who's an assistant professor of biological sciences 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.920 at Dartmouth, and she said, you know, if you start 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.120 off We've seen it happen if you start off with 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.120 just bedrock in about a hundred years, you could probably 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.600 grow a tree there in the soil that you would 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.319 get seen it happen a million times hundred years. That's 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.760 all you need, right, And well, reason why it can 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:05.320 happen so fast is because some plants are early colonizers 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:07.920 and they can grow and just a little bit of 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:12.640 you know, soil, just a little bit of fine rock um, 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.000 and as long as there's like nutrients and water coming 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:16.960 to it, it's it's fine. It doesn't need a big 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.559 thing of like top soil or potting soil. It can 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.480 make do like that. And then once those plants start 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.840 to die, they start to decompose, and then it really 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.440 kicks off. So yeah, you can have like soil, a 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:28.640 couple of horizons of soil in a hundred years if 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.280 you're really boogian. Al Right, should we boogie on down 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.920 and take a break. Yeah, let's let's get her hands 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:36.880 dirty and we'll come back and we'll talk about these 0:11:36.880 --> 0:12:09.040 horizons right after this, okay, chuck. Horizons. And speaking of horizons, 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.680 I think there was a Disney World ride or at 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.560 Epcot Center ride called Horizons or something like that, and 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.360 there was this group of people who infiltrated it they 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.800 figured out how to get basically behind the scenes and 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.680 would hang out there for like entire weekends and like 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.480 high during the regular hours and then just hang out 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.800 like they were part of the set um after hours. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:36.920 After no it was about future life, like what life 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:38.600 was going to be like in the future. It's really cool. 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.239 But the upshot of all this is that they documented 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.800 the whole thing with pictures and it's somewhere on the internet. 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:46.200 I can't remember where, but I'm pretty sure it was 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.480 called Horizons. But it's a closed down Epcot ride where 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.160 a bunch of people documented it in the early nineties, 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.560 just with cool pictures of it. So check it out, 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.440 and that's probably why they closed it down. I don't 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.679 remember why they closed it down and what it became, 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:01.880 but think it's not nearly as cool. I never got 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.040 to write it, but seeing those pictures, maybe I wish 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.760 I'd been able to go. So here are a bunch 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.920 of the horizons. When if you're talking about pedology, which 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.320 is a study of soil, it's a bit of an 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:18.360 unfortunate name. Um, but we're gonna talk about horizons, not 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:20.960 the event horizon, not the Gateway to Hell itself, No 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:26.440 chaos and disorder of unparalleled horrible nous. Did you see that? 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.280 I loved it? Yeah, Yeah, it's pretty good. Huh. Yeah, 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.640 when's the last time you saw it? But when it 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:33.280 came out, I don't think I ever repeated that one. 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:34.880 I saw in the last couple of years, and it 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.400 holds up. I've been several times since it came out, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.600 and it's it's a really genuinely good horror movie. Yeah. 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.440 I agree. I also saw Solaris too recently, and that's 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.679 a really great movie too. The Russian version of these, 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.400 I've still never seen the Russian version. I've seen the 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:54.760 Soderberg version. Yeah, it was good. I would recommend the Tarkovsky. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.760 It's a bit of a grind, but worth it. Sure, 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.560 his movies are all worth it, but they're just you know, 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.320 they're tough. You don't if you're sleepy, don't try it. Okay, Okay, 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.920 it's like The Irishman, but Russian and in space and 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:14.120 good okay. Um. So the o horizon, these are some 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:18.360 of the different horizons. The horizon is that's like not 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.560 even top soil yet. It's the leaves that blow off 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.240 of trees and are sitting sort of on top that 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.400 counts as the horizon. They're basically the things that are 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.200 in the initial state of decomposition right on top of 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:34.160 the dirt. Yeah. Exactly underneath that then is the A horizon. 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.720 So this makes zero sense already because we went from 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.200 oh to A. None of this makes sense. The A 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:44.440 horizon um is what we would consider like top soil um. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.200 It has most of the organic matter that's really begun 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.160 to decompose and break down into smaller and smaller bits, 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.200 and it's usually kind of dark in color. This is 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.360 where the highest concentration of minerals are and this is 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.240 also where you're going to find them the roots of 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.600 plants to because they really like those those minerals and nutrients. Yeah. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:05.400 And by the way, when I said this makes no sense, 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.000 I'm sure and our scientists is gonna say, guys, it 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:13.440 makes perfect sense. And and here's why. Uh, you have 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.640 the E horizon next, which stands for alluviated horizon, and 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.280 that's where you've got this water draining down and those 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.520 minerals that you were talking about in the A horizon, 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.920 it's leaching those minerals and all that stuff out, and 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:32.680 you've got sort of this light colored soil in its wake. Right, Um, 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.800 that is not a common or I shouldn't say common, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.840 it's you're not going to find that in every UM 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.760 soil sample that you take. Right. It's usually a product 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.680 of say, like um, a patch on like a hilltop 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.480 where it's it's like the dirt's in place, but all 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.440 the nutrients have been leached out over time. So anytime 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.320 you just dig with the shovel into some dirt, you're 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.400 not necessarily going to find an E horizon. Yeah, and 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.840 we should say that for all this stuff, it's all 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.160 going to vary according to where you are and what 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:06.200 kind of rain and flooding and uh and drainage that 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.400 you have and stuff like that. What's next, You got 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.760 the B horizon that's the subsoil, and this is where 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.359 you finally get down to some of the finer uh particles, 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.640 and you've got like a lot of silt, a lot 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.240 of clay. Uh. It's it's you're starting to get down 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.040 to the good stuff at this point. And all this 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.240 makes sense too if you think about it, like, um, 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.480 when the water, when rain water trickles down through the 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:36.120 soil and percolates, it's far easier for it to bring 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:40.280 with it smaller and smaller particles. So the further it travels, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.640 the further or the smaller the particles you're gonna find 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.080 going down with it. So you've got your bigger particles, 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.920 your looser, coarse or bigger top soil. Then you've got 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.560 the subsoil, which is a little tighter together, and then 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.640 in that um in the b horizon, in the subsoil, 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.840 you've got compacted. That's where you're gonna hit like your 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.080 lay layer, because again, clay's made up of those tiniest 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.400 little particles that have been brought all the way down 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.520 as far as it can go with the water that's percolated. 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:11.840 That's right, And it's much more stable than top soil 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.239 as well. For sure, sometimes it's too stable and like 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.359 water and roots can't really penetrate it. Yes, or shovels 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.160 it can be. It can be a problem child as 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:26.239 far as soiled soil horizons. You know my story when 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.840 I was trying to dig my fence post holes for 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.840 my privacy fence years ago, was I rented a two 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:38.000 man auger, a two person auger, and it just spun, 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.480 it just it compacted the clay even more. It did 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:42.920 not break it up at all. It's spun it like 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:46.359 a potter's wheel. Nice, did you go give me some clay? 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.720 Oh wait, that was bad? Did you get it? That 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.920 was a pottery joke, but it tied into your problem. 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.159 That was maybe the smartest joke I've ever made in 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.880 my life. Well, no, wonder I didn't get it. Uh 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:02.840 And and I think I mentioned this on the show before. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:04.600 If you if you do have that kind of problem, 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.320 if you're going to plant and you have really tough 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.359 clay that you're trying to get through, or rock for 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.040 that matter, get a San Angelo tool, which is that 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:18.520 big heavy spike um that you see at the hardware 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.280 store that's, oh yeah, six ft long, has a pointy 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.200 end on one side and a flathead on the other 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.600 in ways like you know, twenty pounds or something. Yeah, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.320 I never knew what they were called. They look like 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.639 sharp pointing lightning rods basically, right. Yeah, I mean you 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.040 just it's backbreaking. But if you voice that thing into 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:37.800 the ground as hard as you can and just wiggle 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:39.920 it back and forth a million times, and then you're 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:41.960 gonna be able to well, you're gonna be able to 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.119 break up anything. Basically, and then you hit it with 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.400 the auger or post hole diggers. Uh no, I mean 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:49.560 the augur was useless at that point. You just loosen 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.000 and use a shovel. Did you get your money back 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.479 and say this augur is worth nothing? No, because they 0:18:55.520 --> 0:19:02.119 would say welcome to Georgia. Thing. That's the slogan, and 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.240 not all over Georgia, but particularly where we are, like 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.040 up in the mountains and stuff it can get it can. 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:10.680 The soil is very rich and very uh a pliable. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:12.679 for good stuff as long as you don't hit the 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.720 granite underneath, which can happen. Yeah, as a matter of fact, 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:21.000 because those those pieces of granite that you hit as 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.800 you get closer and closer to the Appalachians further north 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:28.399 and Georgia, that's bedrock that's like the outermost rock of 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.960 the Earth's crust, right, so you're actually touching the earth. 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.200 It's almost like the soil that builds up on top 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:38.240 of the bedrock is I don't know, dander maybe, And 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.080 the bedrock is really the Earth's outer skin. So you're 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.800 touching the Earth's skin when you're touching bedrock, which can 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:47.960 which can poke through the ground every once in a 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.320 while is what we call rock outcroppings. Yeah, and so 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.320 as far as the horizon levels go just above the bedrock, 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.359 I don't think we mentioned the sea horizon that is 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.440 also rock. But that's rock that um his weather down 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.280 some but didn't quite make it to soil level, right, 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.200 because remember, some plants can come in and colonize that 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.880 rock and pretty quickly start building up soil. And if 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.720 that's that rock beneath isn't exposed to that weathering process 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:17.840 from wind and freeze, thaw and all that stuff, it's 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.000 never gonna get broken down, right, It's just gonna be 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:25.960 hard on the old auger uh, and then the bedrock. 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.360 And then you've got what's called hard pan and these 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:32.959 are mineral deposits that I mean, this stuff, I don't know. 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:35.520 I guess it's harder than bedrock. It just sounds like 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:39.720 nothing will will grow and there's no chance for anything 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.159 to permeate it. Yeah, and hard pan the is not 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.960 under bedrock bedrocks as low as it gets before you 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:47.560 like that's the Earth's crust. Hard pan is just kind 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:48.919 of I think he's just kind of tossed that on 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:51.800 where it's like this is this is another. It's like 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:54.400 an e horizon, like an alluviated horizon. You're not gonna 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.160 find it everywhere. When you do, you'll know it because 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.560 it's very hard to dig through and there can be 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.440 streaks of it within another you know, soil system um 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.400 of different horizon layers, uh, and you just don't want 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:10.720 anything to do with that. Neither do plants either. It's 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.200 basically impermeable as far as water and roots and shovels 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.160 go no good. Another term that I think is really 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:23.600 just cute is parent material, And that doesn't mean whether 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:25.879 or not you would be a good papa or a 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:30.679 good mama to a human child. Parent material is the 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:32.760 type of rock that you started out with, the type 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.720 of mineral that you started out with millions of years 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.240 ago that was weathered down there to create what kind 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:43.200 of soil you've got, And depending on where you live 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.439 and what was there hundreds of thousands or millions of 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.000 years before you, you're gonna have much different kind of 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.880 soil than uh, maybe another place in the world. Yeah, 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.320 Like if it started out as igneous rock from a 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:56.960 lava flow, that's going to be different kind of it's 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.760 going to produce a different soil from you know, sedimentary 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:03.200 that was weathered down from a granite outcropping by a river. 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:06.879 It's just different soil. But it can also come about 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:10.119 in different ways, like like that rock outcropping that was 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.520 worn down by a river and just kind of sunk 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:14.520 further and further into the ground and was built up 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:17.080 a top of it. Soil layers were that would be 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:21.360 called residual, where it's developed in place. There's also transported 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:24.080 where it could be moved by like ice, like a 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.560 glacier pushing soil from one place to another. Um and 0:22:27.600 --> 0:22:31.480 then there's also cumulose, which is basically like peat, where 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:37.159 organic materials basically suspended in in suspended animation by water. 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:41.600 It's it's prevented from full decomposition. That's right. Those are 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:45.320 the kinds of parents that soil can have. So let's 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:50.480 talk about the soil texture triangle. Okay, this is where 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:55.720