Physical and chemical properties
- Photos
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Fill cylinders with substrate
Fill cylinders to the top with substrate and tamp lightly. Repeat 3 times.
Filling cylinders with substrate
Fill bucket with water to top of cyclinder to fully saturate substrate
When water beads at top fo substrate after 15-30 minutes, pore spaces are saturated
After substrate is saturated, plug bottom holes with hand to remove from bucket
Let water that has filled pore spaces drain into bucket
Water in pore spaces drains from cylinder into bucket for measurment
Water from pore spaces drains into bucket
Measure volume of leachate using a graduated cylinder or something similar
Measuring the volume that leached from pore spaces
Repeat the process several times to get an average air filled porosity
- Technical Publications
- Bilderback et al 2005. Healthy substrates need physicals too.
- Bilderback 2009 A nursery friendly method for measuring air filled porosity of container substrates.
- Cooke et al 2004. Physical property measurements in container substrates: a field quantification strategy.
- Buamsch, MG et al. 2007. Chemical and physical properties of Douglas Fir Bark relevant to production of container plants
