Agriculture from the Ground Up

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Episode 16: Why Some Soils Hold Onto Nutrients (and Others Just Don’t): Cation Exchange Capacity

2026-09-2927:33

Send us Fan Mail Last episode we talked about pH, and I said buffering would come back properly. Today is that episode. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is the reason some paddocks hold onto calcium, magnesium, potassium and ammonium, and others leak them with the next decent rain. It is also a big part of why two paddocks with similar fertiliser bills can perform so differently. In this episode of Agriculture From the Ground Up we cover: what CEC actually is, using a simple car-park picture fo...

Episode 15: Your pH Is a Rainfall History. Why the Number Sits Where It Sits Part 2

2026-09-2227:43

Send us Fan Mail Last episode we unpacked what pH actually is. This one asks the better question: why is your number the number it is? Drive east out of Perth and the pH climbs as the rainfall drops. That is not a coincidence. Leonie walks through the four drivers of soil pH, parent material, rainfall, time, and management, and why only the last one is in your hands. Ammonium fertiliser and every truckload of produce leaving the farm are both acid programs, whether you meant them to be or not...

Episode 14: Do You Actually Know What pH Means? The Number on Every Soil Test Part 1

2026-09-1518:42

Send us Fan Mail You already know your pH. It is on every soil test you have ever paid for. This episode is not rates, products or a lime program. It is what that number is actually measuring. Leonie starts with a question most of us cannot answer cleanly: what does pH stand for? There are two answers in common use; potential hydrogen and power of hydrogen, and both are useful. One tells you which ion is winning in the soil water. The other tells you the score is kept in multiples of ten. A d...

Episode 13: Chemistry Basics Part 2. Chemistry at Work in the Paddock and the Spray Tank

2026-09-0920:03

Send us Fan Mail Part 1 was atoms, charge and the periodic table. This episode puts that chemistry to work in places you already know: soil water, the fertiliser bag, and the spray tank. Leonie starts with a correction from last week: why potassium and calcium skip ahead on the electron shells, and why that is exactly where the transition metals (iron, manganese, zinc, copper) get their name. Then the reactions that actually show up on farm: Solutions: almost nothing useful happens as a ...

Episode 12: Chemistry Basics Part 1. Why the Periodic Table Matters in Your Paddock

2026-09-0219:16

Send us Fan Mail Most of us left the periodic table behind at school. In the paddock it still matters. A lot. This is the first of two short episodes that introduce the chemistry you actually need as a farmer, soil scientist or agronomist. We start with the big picture: what the periodic table is really telling us about the elements that end up in your soil, your fertiliser bag and your crop. We’ll look at why some elements stick around while others leach, how parent material sets the chemica...

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