Soils of Central Illinois

The best way to get to know a new area is by getting to know its soils.

Okay, it may not be the best way but it's a pretty darn good way to do it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be moving to east central Illinois this summer. Curious about the nature of the soils there, I did some exploring on Web Soil Survey to get a little "dirt" on the area. 

For a little background on the soil in Champagin County, I decided to look up the block diagram for the soils there.

Block Diagram for soil series in Champaign County, Illinois

Block Diagrams offer a general overview on the parent material of different soils in a county and general relief of the area. On the diagram we can see different names. Each of these names, Elliott, Varna, Ashkum, and Ozaukee, are different soil series. Soil series are names given to types of soil that have distinct characteristics. There are over 19,000 unique soil series in the United States!

In the case of the Block Diagram for Champaign County, we can see that glacial till is overlain with loess sediments and colluvium. These different parent materials mean that the soils formed in each will have different characteristics. 

Before getting into the properties of each of these series, it's important to know what loess and colluvium is. Loess, as defined by the Illinois State Geological Survey, are silty materials which are primarily wind-blown in origin or derived from wind blown sediments. Colluvium is a term given to loose, unconsolidated material, deposited at the base of hills by water or downslope creep.

The official soil series description for each soils can be found in a link for each soil series name: Elliott, Varna, Ashkum, and Ozaukee.

Elliott, Varna, and Ashkum are all considered to be of the soil order mollisols. Ozaukee is the odd ball as it is in the soil order alfisol.

All of the soil are fairly deep, meaning that their A horizons are of considerable thickness, i.e. 20 inches or more. This lends to the soils productivity in terms of crop production.

This is just a little overview of the soils of Champaign County, but it's important to know that there is a mix of soils formed on thick loess deposits, thin loess deposits, and colluvium. 

Saline Soils - What's the Remedy?

Recently in a Cropping Systems class discussion, the topic of saline soils came up. Saline soils, as defined by Dr. David Franzen in an NDSU Extension Bulletin titled Managing Saline Soils in North Dakota, are soils that "have salt levels high enough that either crop yields begin to suffer or cropping is impractical."

Saline soil in Western North Dakota - affected soil is white

Salinity is of great concern for North Dakota agriculturalists. Across the state, about 8,700,000 acres are affected by salinity that limits the growth of plants. 

Although it would be pertinent to get into detail and explain how salinity negatively effects plants and why it is cause for such concern, that is not the reason I am writing this blog post. To learn more about how salinity effects plants and why it is an issue in ND, I would recommend watching this half hour documentary on Soil Salinity in ND called Salt of the Earth. 

The reason I am writing is to discuss strategies to manage saline soil. There is no short term solution and managing this problem isn't easy.

Before I go into what will work, I want to briefly touch on what WON'T work. 

Managing saline soils as SODIC soils, will not work. Sodic soils are soils which are affected by high levels of sodium and exhibit the negative effects of dispersion which cause massive soil structure (or lack of, which prevents water infiltration and causes severe crusting when dry) and water ponding.

Sodic and Saline soils are not the same and must not be treated as such. 

With that being said, adding lime (CaCO3) or gypsum (CaSO4) to manage saline soil will NOT work. While both materials are used to manage sodic soils, neither will help to manage saline soils. Again, saline soils are soils affected by an excess amount of salts, such as calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate and sodium sulfate. Adding more salts (lime and gypsum) will not help in managing saline soils. 

Now on to what will work.

According to the aforementioned Extension Bulletin from Dr. Franzen, soil salinity can be managed through: 

• Tile drainage
• No-till or reduced/minimum tillage
• Selecting crop varieties based on tolerance to salinity
• Seeding in saline areas when salinity levels are lowest (from snowmelt or spring rains)
• Not fallowing (fallow means to leave an area bare, or without a crop for an extended period of time to build up moisture; bare soil can accentuate a salinity problem)
• Using crops with long roots and long growing seasons to control ground water depth

Salinity problems don't go away after one growing season. They aren't easy to deal with and they are here for the long haul. 

Illinois

In two weeks and a day I will be loading half of my belongings into a car and driving deep into the Midwest for my summer internship. The final destination? Champagin, Illinois.

*Champaign-Urbana - From Apple Maps

During the summer months I will be completing a Technical Crop Production Internship with BASF based out of a research farm location in Seymour, Illinois, just outside of Champaign-Urbana.

It would be a ridiculous understatement to say that I am excited.

It's been a goal of mine for a while to complete an internship somewhere far (relatively) away from North Dakota to experience a different type of agriculture, crop production, and area. After spending summers working in South Dakota and Minnesota, I am finally going to achieve that goal.

To better acquaint myself with the area and prep for some adventures, I am going to post about Illinois and its economy, agriculture, landscape, and people. I hope to keep up with the blog throughout the summer to document the area I'm working with and any road trips.

My date to leave for Illinois is fast approaching! Time to learn more about one of the nation's leading corn producing states.

Pasqueflower or Crocus?

This weekend I am excited to go back home to western North Dakota and head out to the pastures.

Why the pastures, you ask?

Crocuses.

As the surest and earliest sign of spring, the crocus brightens up drab pastures.

Although their beauty cannot be denied, their common name can be. Calling the flowers crocuses is a bit of a misnomer.

Crocus itself is a genus assigned to a group of flowering plants in the iris family. Certain varieties of crocus are cultivated to produce saffron, said to be the world's most expensive spice (The styles and stigmas of these crocuses are harvested for saffron).

Actual crocus, photo courtesy of University of Illinois Extension's "Spring Flowering Bulbs" page.

If the pasture crocuses of North Dakota aren't crocuses, what are they?

The pasture flower is Pulsatilla patens, a species found in the Ranunculaceae, or buttercup family.

Why has there been confusion on what a crocus is or isn't?

The common names given to what I have always called a crocus include Eastern pasqueflower, prairie smoke, prairie crocus, cutleaf anemone, and others.

With this information, I will do my best to remember to qualify what I have always called a crocus with the word prairie, and extinguish the misnomer I have habitually perpetuated when naming the beautiful sign of spring.