Prediction of Orchard Soils Degradation using Munsell Soil Color

Abstract

The soil organic carbon content played an important role in reducing soil fertility, then fruit yield and quality. Several studies in Mekong Delta, Vietnam area showed that soil of orchards was degraded after longtime constructed. The prediction of soil organic carbon in the fields at wider regions requires a large number of samples that are costly to analyze. The objective of this study found out the correlation between Munsell soil colour with the content of organic matter of the different orchard soils to predict the content of organic carbon from 52 orchard soil samples of the different ages of construction as soil degraded. A case study in Hau Giang province, Vietnam. The results showed that there was a complicated relation to soil properties. Soil colour has the same Munsell Hue, but there is different between Munsell Value and Chroma when the soil has at the same humidity. Organic Carbon content ranged from 1,32 to 5,6%. There was negative significant correlation between organic C content and Munsell soil color properties, such as with Munsell Value (r = -0,75** air-dry, r = -0,74** moist); Munsell Chroma (r= -0,55** air-dry, r = -0,66** moist). Since, Visual soil colour assessment is useful predictors of organic C content, especially for topsoil layers to predict the degradation of orchard soils. This study indicates that soil organic content can be predicted by using Munsell soil colours for visual field measurements on the old raised bed at the moist condition, which can be used for field soil fertility degradation recommendation. However, more study of pedotransfer function on other soils condition must be correlated for further recommendation.