Actually I've been working on the development of Automated soil hardness inspection system for john deere. Could anyone assist me towards the threshold of hardness & other related details in agriculture (particularly Pea Nut crop). In my literature review I've seen the penetrometer and core cutter as the soil hardness detecting instruments. Is that it?
I'm not totally clear on what you are investigating but the Clegg hammer is another device commonly used when testing compaction
Actually my investigation is on detecting ground compaction in agricultural land (Pea Nut cultivation).. Is ground compaction has any relativity to fertilization ?
For most of the soil hardness studies, using cone penetrometer is most common.
You can also use it and compare the values among different fertilizer treatments. You can get a significant and interesting differences if your experiment is continuing for a long-term.
May I know the sensing element (strain/resilience/toughness/etc.) which were used in CPT (Cone Penetration Test) instrument and lifetime of the CPT tool (Cone tip) in detecting (groundnut cultivated) soil compaction ?
Does your question about soil hardness and its relation to fertilization refer to soil compaction effects on fertilizer rate and method of application decisions? If so yes. And that also depends on the depth of the compacted layer. Compacted soils have poor drainage and this can cause reducing soil conditions in wet year as soil aeration becomes limiting. The result is N denitrifications and less OM mineralization. Since leaching losses will be less, accumuluation of high N levels near soil surface is expected. In dry years, low moisture nutrient availability would impact crop growth and nutrients rates if mid-season applications consider yield potential.
You should look at penetration resistance. Also bulk density may be important, infiltration capacity. You should look up some catalogue a eg eijelkamp in the netherlands or ELE in US and see what equipment they sell for such purposes.
May I know about the bulk density required for the soil towards high yielding of peanut cultivation ?
Cone penetrometer being widely used to measure soil compaction in agricultural soils. Which indicates resistance of of soil for mechanical manipulation.
Soil compaction is described by dry density/moisture content curve (Proctor curve). Cone penetrometer is widely used to estimate soil compaction by measuring soil resistance. With reference to geotechnical engineering, cone penetrometer test can be coupled with the measure of the dry density by using the sand replacement method (http://www.astm.org/Standards/D4914.htm).
When considering soil hardness and compaction, you must also consider degree of saturation. Soil aggregates with lower degrees of saturation will be considerably harder, as a rough rule, than the same aggregates, with the same dry density, at higher degrees of saturation. Relating water retention properties (for each horizon, as required), CPT results and a water content profile with depth might aid you in this regard.
Please have a look at the enclosed PDF..
Soil hardness tester Hardness Testers - weiku.com
www.weiku.com › … › Hardness Testers
Soil hardness tester,complete details about Soil hardness tester provided by ... comprehensive process control and reliable detection means to provide users with ...
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Agriculture
- Soil Science