Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Soil organic matter percentage

I've been ciphering on the question of:  if I want to increase my soil organic matter fraction by Fom to a depth of d over an area A, what volume of compost Vom do I need to add?

Because the soil organic matter percentage is a weight thing, and we order compost by volume, you might suspect the answer involves the densities of the compost and the mineral soil.  The formula derivation is shown below.

Bottom line, if I want to get the 0.51 acre Forklift Exclusion Zone up by 2% organic matter to a depth of six inches, I need 0.202 acre-inches or 27 yards compost.

If I want to get the 0.58 acre West Field up by 2% to a depth of 8 inches, I need another 0.317 acre-inches or 43 yards, for a total of 70 yards.



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