A SIMPLE METHOD TO MEASURE THE BULK-DENSI TY OF SOILS WITHOUT USING UNDISTURBED SOIL CORES

Bulk density of soils can be measured without taking soil cores with s ufficient accuracy when using a modified VDLUFA-method. The investigat ions were carried out with 22 sandy soils and 12 silt soils used with nursery crops. Disturbed soil samples with the water content from the field are filled in a cylindric vessel and dropped from 20 cm height 2 5 times. Differences between the soil core method and the modified VDL UFA-method are slightly bigger for silt soils compared to sandy soils. For both soils they increase with increasing bulk density of the samp les taken with soil cores. In the examined range the differences betwe en the methods are not related to the water content of the soil. The w ater content ranged from 26.9 Vol % to 44.4 Vol % for the sandy soils and from 21.3 Vol % to 32.2 Vol % for the silt soils. For the silt soi ls there is no relation to the content of organic matter of the soils (0.38-2.40 %), whereas for the sandy soils the differences increased w ith increasing content of organic matter(2.61 to 10.20 %). An example for calculating the N-min-content of the soil with bulk densities obta ined from different methods is given.