That grinding process was unfortunate. We could not obtain normal OM246 values because an unknown amount of living and dead, undecomposed plant material (organic matter) had been removed. But we can still use these examples to learn something.
Another series of samples were taken from the same greens. I asked the lab to run the OM246 test on the second set of samples, and also to test the sieved material from the original sample submission so that we could measure the amount of material removed by the sieving.
For this series of samples, there was a 45% reduction in total organic matter at a depth of 0-2 cm. At the depths of 2–4 and 4–6 cm there was a reduction of 16% and 12% caused by grinding and sieving. At a depth of 0-2 cm there is much more undecomposed living and dead plant material.
I’ve written before about separating organic material from samples, or absorbing that material, but I hadn’t measured it so directly before. I encourage all professional turfgrass managers to be familiar with the information in these posts:
For a look at the grinder and sieves used to process soil samples (this process is not performed on OM246 samples), view the process this video.
#Organic #matter #screens #Asian #Turfgrass #Center