NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2016
Almond Facts
39
Annual Soil
Sampling
If managing a salt problem,
determining soil amendments or
refining a nutrient program, soil
sampling should be considered.
Soils should be sampled down
to five feet in even increments to
determine the concentration of salts
and texture. After sampling, the soil
salinity values should be averaged
to determine the root-zone’s salinity.
If the soil’s EC is over 1.5 dS/m or
the levels of sodium, chloride or
boron are greater than 5.0 ESP, 5.0
meq/l, or 0.50 ppm, respectively,
than a leaching program should
be considered. If pH is beginning
to change, consider amendments
to assist in improving it to around
7. Lime can be used as a winter
application to raise the pH while
soil sulfur or other acidifiers will
lower. If identifying soils with
high residual nitrate, evaluate the
fertilization program to determine
what has caused the excess and plan
to modify the future year’s program.
Address any issues with low levels of
phosphorous or zinc.
Winter fertilization plans typically
include potassium. This cation is
removed at a rate of 92 pounds of
potassium oxide (K
2
O) with every
1,000 kernel pounds harvested and
should be replaced to maintain
productivity. Winter application
strategies, however, should vary
based on soil type. Fields with
high cation exchange capacity
(CEC) soils (>15 meq/100g of soil)
should consider fall to early winter
applications of potassium sulfate
or potassium muriate. Applying
it early will utilize any rainfall to
assist moving the cation into the
rootzone. Lower CEC soils should
have the potassium applied later in
the winter, with applications on the
sandiest soils (CEC<5 meq/100g)
