Sandy Soils
GRDC has collated the best knowledge generated by our investments to help growers diagnose and manage sandy soils.
Sandy soils can limit crop access to water and crop productivity. The latest research and grower experiences shows that when sandy soil constraints are correctly identified and managed with a targeted amelioration option, growers can increase crop productivity.
Diagnosis
Economics of deep ripping
Hard soils make it difficult for plants to access moisture and nutrients deep in the ground. Deep ripping breaks up soil layers that regular farming can't reach.
Diagnosing Sandy Soil Constraints: High Soil Strength (South-West)
High soil strength can be caused by compaction and/or hard setting, and can severely limit root penetration, preventing access to moisture and nutrients at depth.
Diagnosing Sandy Soil Constraints Water Repellence and pH (South-West)
Measuring constraints on sands to inform management.
Physical Soil Constraints fact sheet
The villains of hard subsurface layers in sandy soils.
Resources for amelioration.
Publications
Factsheets
- Soil inversion by ploughing
- Ripping technology - National
- Soil wetter - National
- Seeding sandy soils - National
- Inclusion ripping technology - National
- Soil mixing by spading - National
- Tyne design and deep ripping efficiency
- Inclusion Ripping Technology: National
- Soil Mixing by Spading: National
Podcasts
Videos
Deep ripping provides strong yield response
Declines in crop production on sandy soils across the Victorian Mallee after the breaking of the Millennium drought had the region’s grain growers scratching their heads.
Lentil trial gives impetus to Wimmera pulses
West Wimmera growers are adopting pulses to help them improve soil health, in-crop weed control and farming system profitability.
Dodging frost a numbers game
Only a small portion of the land that James Venning farms on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula is subject to frost, but it is this area that has been the focus of his recent experiments with new wheat varieties.
Extra reading
Update Papers
- Lime responses on acid, low rainfall, sandy soils of southwestern NSW
- Achieving water-limited yield frontiers more profitably
- Optimising deep ripping operation to convert the worst soils into the best in sandy landscapes
- Strategies to improve crop establishment and yield on repellent sandy soils after amelioration
- Improving crop production outcomes on repellent sands
- The key profit levers for sandy soils amelioration
- The mechanics of high-performance inclusion ripping
- The key profit levers for sandy soils amelioration
- Nutrition management on ameliorated sands
- Strategies to close the yield gap on three water repellent sandy soils in South Australia
- Ameliorating sandy soils to overcome soil constraints and improve profit
- Ameliorating sandy soils to overcome soil constraints and improve profit
- Amelioration strategies to improve crop productivity on sandy soils
- Increasing reliability of lentil production on sandy soils
- Diagnosing constraints is key to cost effective amelioration: Do responses in NSW sands differ from the broader Southern sandy context?
- Improving crop productivity on sands - what is the latest?
- Increasing reliability of lentil production on sandy soils
- Targeted amelioration in Mallee sands to maximise crop water use
- Perils of ripping on sandy soils- what can be learnt from hindsight?
- Deep ripping - where it will work (and where it won’t)
- Seeder-based approaches to reduce the impact of water repellence on crop productivity
Investments
GRDC Code: CSP2403-017RTX - Sandy Soils II: Management to sustain production potential in the low to medium rainfall environments of the Southern cropping region
GRDC Code: AGG2206-001RTX - NGN Lime response on acid, low rainfall, sandy soils of southwestern NSW
GRDC Code: WMG2404-001SAX - NGN - Soil water repellence in sand, sandy duplex and gravel soils in the Geraldton and Kwinana West region