Huertos Familiares: soil info
The soil in Huertos Familiares is predominantly silty clay, with varying textures and compositions at different depths.
0–0.2m: This layer consists of a sandy silty clay matrix with a dark brown color and low humidity. It contains rootlets, but its structure is fragile.
0.2–0.9m: A somewhat silty clay layer, dark brown in color, with low humidity. It has a homogeneous structure with high consistency (cracked) and high plasticity.
0.9–1.2m: A silty clay layer with a lighter brown color and similar properties to the previous layer—low humidity, high consistency, and high plasticity.
1.2–1.4m: A transition zone consisting of silty sandy gravel, grayish in color, with low humidity and dense compactness. The presence of subrounded and subangular pebble gravels (up to 2.5 inches in size) makes this layer less plastic and more compact.
1.4–1.8m: A light brown silty clay layer with medium to low humidity, high consistency, and medium plasticity.
1.8–3m: A light brown silty clay layer with reddish hues and white pigmentations, medium humidity, high consistency, and medium to high plasticity.
Despite its high mineral content and productive capacity, the soil in Huertos Familiares is suffering from structural breakdown due to mechanical work of the soil. There is no long-chain carbon to give the possibility of union with the mineral part and allow the existence of life in the soil. It is necessary to recover this soil before all the available organic matter is lost. The fact that it has this high magnesium content makes it even more so dependent on the proper functioning of soil biology and for this reason, it needs long-chain carbon as well.
