Agriculture · Applied
Soil under cover
Use your soil reading to conserve water.
Read the instructions without joining. A signed-in profile lets you save private observations and learning progress.
Before you begin
Gather your supplies
- Two identical containers
- Equal amounts of the same soil
- Dry leaf mulch, water and kitchen scale
Use what you have. Purchases are optional and do not affect learning rewards.
Care and safety
Use clean soil without manure and avoid dusty or moldy material. Wash hands and clean the scale after use.
Prerequisite
This activity builds on Read how soil drains. Read it first and use your earlier observations when working through this activity.
The experiment
Drainage and evaporation are different parts of soil water balance. Surface mulch can reduce evaporation after water enters the soil.
- Choose one soil from your drainage mission. Add equal soil masses and water volumes to identical containers.
- Cover only the mulched soil with a thin dry-leaf layer. Weigh each complete container and record its own starting mass.
- Keep them side by side and weigh at the same time daily without adding water. Log at least three observations over 24 hours.
- Compare mass loss from each starting value. Connect the result with the drainage behavior you measured earlier.
Background reference: University of Minnesota Extension
These instructions are a suggested learning experiment from Seth The Evil. The reference explains the background; it does not certify this experiment or guarantee a result.
Opening the workspace does not start an activity or save a record. You choose when to start and what observations to save.