Week 12: Soil management for disease prevention

Soils are made up of four basic components: minerals, air, water, and organic matter. In most soils, minerals represent around 45% of the total volume, water and air about 25% each, and organic matter from 2% to 5%. The mineral portion consists of three distinct particle sizes classified as sand, silt, or clay. Sand is the largest particle that can be considered soil. Sand is largely the mineral quartz, though other minerals are also present. Quartz contains no plant nutrients, and sand cannot hold nutrients-they leach out easily with rainfall. Silt particles are much smaller than sand, but like sand, silt is mostly quartz.
 

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