Cotton underwear helps measure soil activity

Monday, December 7, 2015

Merlin-area cash crop farmer Blake Vince jumped at the chance to participate in an unusual test this summer involving buried cotton underwear showcasing soil biological activity.

The 2013 Nuffield Scholar says he firmly believes "that the soil is alive and has biological activity. The cotton test is a good biological indicator of what's going on below the ground."

University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus research technician Claire Coombs buried one pair of sized small men's 100 per cent cotton underwear in one of Vince's no-till fields. Another pair went underground across the road in a neighbouring farm's conventionally tilled field. She also buried five pairs of the new, washed briefs in June in the campus research plots.

The elastic waistbands were left uncovered for easier retrieval. One pair was cut up and used to determine how long the others should stay underground. The cotton serves as food for soil organisms, says Coombs, who worked on the project for Anne Verhallen, provincial agriculture ministry soil management specialist.

The briefs went into plots with no-till corn/soybean/wheat/red clover rotation; no-till corn/soybean rotation; conventional-till corn/soybean rotation; and conventional-till continuous soybeans.
Coombs unearthed the briefs after two months. Their condition ranged from being in tatters (from the no-till locations) to fairly intact (from the conventional fields).

The results indicate enhanced biological activity in the no-till fields compared to the conventionally tilled soils, Coombs says. While the demonstration is not a scientific measurement of soil biological activity, Coombs says for her it gives new meaning to the term "soiled underwear." BF