Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum.

It's WET in the dry bit of the UK!

Blooming wet, it hasn't really stopped since end of a very dry September when we had between 3 and 45mm depending where you were with an odd thunderstorm or 2 early on in the month in places the rest were dry as, but October was a mare and a half with at least 15 rain days and between 145 and 195mm through to November...... Oh November... you are trying my patience and sanity, it's the 24nd of Nov and we have had 21!!!!! Rain Days already some parts, the minimum is 18 or 19 this corner of the world and over 150mm hell we aiming for HALF our Annual Rainfall, we normally have around 10 Days and 60-75mm each of them on the Long Term Averages...

Even the best draining land is moist, to the point of saturation, there is just no let up... not enough time between rain to drain and recover.. Soil is at Field Capacity...

Or is it?

Is the soil profile saturated and at field capacity? or is the water just being held in the top?
Are some soils draining efficiently or not?
Are Greens performing as they should or are maintenance inadequacies or the  consequences of certain product groups creating unseen issues just under the surface?
 I don't know but I want to.. So I buy my (cheapish) Moisture Probe

to try and track and see and off I go Prodding away.... BUT I soon realise that what the numbers are saying do not correspond to what my eyes, feel and experience tell me, so I ask someone from Delta-T what kit can I use that will be accurate and they tell me it straight..... I can't... !!
Well I can't from a 'snapshot' point of view Long term yes, they are great and will show a moisture pattern over time and as you build data... But to go and try to 'see' where water is holding, from a 'diagnostic' point of view..... forget it,.. Far too many variables which will affect EVEN the top dollar ones.... you know those annoying things that affect electrical currents Temperature, EC and conductive metals, like copper, iron etc.. those things excessively high in far too much managed turf........

(Now at this point in the remote chance that any really takes any notice of this blarney jibber jabber then if anyone wants to prove me wrong on this then BRING IT ON, I will be more than happy to try and see that this is wrong, Hell I would love it if it was, much easier for me see....)
So... If anyone from Delta-T, Spectrum or Pogo wanna give me one to try out and compare with ACTUAL moisture readings at different depths, love it, fully subjective, tight protocols, fair and open minded...

Anyhoo to check and assess what my eyes and feel was telling me against the Meter I wanted to subjectively log what the ACTUAL moisture profile was.. You have to know these things....

And lets face it, when you look at this you can see how varied they can be

The Actual Average is shown above the Moisture Readings clustered below....
No where near as accurate as it needs to be.

So here it is, my Soil Moisture Profile Test Protocol for the assessment of Water and Drainage Potential through a soil.. any soil profile.
Apparently this 'Test' is meaningless as it is not recognised, not by an accredited Lab, so I guess it's just bumfluff in the arse crack of life then....... Well lets get it recognised then.... This is my next Mission.. I want my own Testing Protocols then to shut the 'head up their own backsides blinkered indoctrinated elitists' right up as you see I ain't got no degree in nothing let alone 'Soil Science' so how could I possibly sit in the same room as you let alone converse......

This is intended to be SIMPLE, like everything else I am doing to EMPOWER us uneducated plebs with FACTUAL representation of what is ACTUALLY happening. Not some Lab based what the science says Physics blinkered blarney... This is the REAL DEAL to help try and see what all the other FACTORS of Microclimate, Microenvironment, Management and Biological influence are allowing.
It has evolved to be as easy and as flexible as possible and can be extended to give simple INDICATIVE Bulk Density, pH, EC, EH Horizon Profiles alongside if you so wished.
Hell it ain't Rocket Science............... Even a fool like me can do it!

Right lets get a few important 'Tutting' points out the way.. It is INDICATIVE. That's fine by me, I want a snapshot, to help me recognise, diagnose and understand an issue with the soil, I also know that it will change on climatic and seasonal variants... It will also change just from one part of a Green to another... That's cool my brain can take that in, BUT I need to know what is happening THROUGH the soil at SPECIFIC points so this is ideal for me to spot and track 'blips'.
Variation of 'numbers' will happen over even a few metres so I don't get bogged down in the actual numbers, it is HOW they interact through the profile that is key, you can even have pockets or an odd throw at a certain depth, that again is fine, it just means you need to review that area to see if it is a throw or more generalised issue.

Right back at it...

My favourite 'Weapon of Choice' is the BMS Victory Soil Sampler, a Kiwi designed bit of kit apparently, mainly used by Cricket boys and 'affectionately' named over here by a 'leading' IOG man as the 'Big Willy', it has a brother, slightly smaller called .... funny enough... the Small Willy...

Now the old guys at IOG may be industry leading and cutting edge and all that but there is NO WAY I am going to say "Hang on a minute, just got to pop back to the van to get my Big Willy out" so I have affectionately called mine my Dobber, which I have whipped out on many occasions and on all sorts of surfaces, takes quite a beating too and like all Dobbers it is critical to keep it clean, goes all gooey and clogs if you don't.

So Stage 1 is Identify and Select your locations
Well this depends on what you are looking for of course... for me its either a selection of 4 or 5 areas over a Green or just one over several depending on brief.

Now , as you may have noticed, I like pictures,,, they say so much and remind people with short or selective memory spans what is actually going on.. 

This is my general 'Armoury' which will be described as it goes, so I take the top circa 150mm

Photograph it to 'log' the condition and split the 150mm into the 3 by 50mm sections, above you will note the sample pots I have, these keep them nicely separate and prevent any cross contamination, sample loss or most importantly in this case keeps the moisture balance for each zone 'as is'.

I have also successfully used tin foil to wrap each section carefully to preserve each if I do not have pots with me, critically important with that method or bagging to label samples clearly.

I then use a standard Hole Cutter to remove the top 150mm so I can then use the Victory to take the next sample onwards.

And I just whip the ol Dobber out and poke it down the hole, sometimes needs a little tap, especially on Push-ups

As you can see above to ensure I am taking cores to specific depths I have a little depth gauge marked on my battered old cutter kindly donated to me by a friendly Head Greenkeeper.

And again it is a case of log, split and pot.. You will notice that the Victory comes with some dead handy 25mm increment markings also which help to size the samples.

Occasionally as can be seen above there is not always 300mm of medium wanting to come and if there is less than 275 depth I will only work to 5 by 50mm Samples.

Handy time to check soil temps to 25mm increment depths and as was the purpose of this sample run check the accuracy of a Moisture Meter. Here is my cheap and cheerful Extech failing miserably due to extremely low EC affecting the electrical current. You will note the incremental marks on both.

 So then it's a simple case of back to the Shed, sort, weigh and dry.. normally whilst playing nice loud music much to the annoyance of my good lady.....

Here are foil wrapped samples which I wrap in order so as to not'misplace' any

DISCLAIMER ALERT: You may notice that they look a  little .... dodgy... if you didn't know what they are so if you ever get get tugged by the Old Bill with samples all wrapped up... Not my problem !!!!!

but  prepare for some 'Intimate' moments with a Doctor and his Glove!.. (This is why I use pots!)

 It is just a case of then Weigh... Dry..... Reweigh... Remember your Maths Lessons

So I don't have a Conventional Drying Oven to dry these at 105 deg C for 24 hrs... and I am blooming inpatient so I use a Microwave and will dry 10, 12 or 15 minutes depending on moisture content...

"Why do you vary the times I hear you ask, surely that invalidates what you are doing.....?"

Think about it will you..... The moisture is evaporated off by the Microwave as it heats, more moisture, more time needed, too much time and you will start to 'cook' the soil and burn off Organic Matter throwing results...

How do you know when it's enough... when it doesn't become any lighter there is no moisture to remove...

How do you know if you are affecting the Organic Matter or not?.... Cos it really stinks when its BURNING!, Never over dry, work in increments, 

This is the 'It Really Isn't Rocket Science' bit.... Common Sense prevails for those with an ounce of intelligence, for those with far too much intelligence to do any good.... It's cos I am not thick as shit that I know when it dries and know when it burns OK!!!

Couple of quick genuine and serious Health and Safety notes for consideration...

You are 'cooking off' the moisture from soil that has been potentially dosed up by all sorts of chemicals. 

Make sure that the area is WELL ventilated.. plus it stinks... snotty thatch drying .... yuuuuck. (You will come to understand this!)

Tongs.... Helloo,, Heat? Hot... Always use some form of tong to handle hot crucibles and soil samples, beware melting gloves onto your skin.. And before you ask NO I haven't done this, yes I have pushed my luck, we all do, just I can imagine someone grabbing a hot crucible and the gloves branding into hands..... 

Okay so when things have cooled a little you can reweigh your samples, work out the loss of moisture, knowing the crucible weight work out the % of soil sample that was and BOOM, there you have it.....

An Incremental Moisture Profile ..... So you KNOW where the moisture is and track how quick it shifts.....

It's that simples