What’s the Most Chemically Active Fraction of Soil?
Clay
Soil Fertility is based on balancing/adjusting cation (+) and anions (-)
Usually, the organic matter gets all the attention, but you need clay. I think it's often underrated and misunderstood.
Soil chemistry is mainly surface chemistry - its taking place at the interface between the particle and soil solution(water)
Clay has up to 8 million times more surface area than other soil particles such as coarse sand. A lump of clay weighing one pound can have as much total surface area as 50 football fields (How Soil Works, Paul Syltie, pg. 25) making it the life of the party because it's so big
No clay is created equal
It starts with the decomposition of micas, biotite, etc.
Which leads to Tetrahedral (Silica) & Octahedral (Aluminum) layers
kaolinite 1:1, Montmorillonite 2:1, Illite 2:1 it's technically in between a 1:1 and a 2:1
Clay predominately has a negative charge due to isomorphic substitution, the replacement of similar size atoms resulting in a negative charge and exposed crystal edges, basically weathering
2:1 clays can swell causing them to be able to hold 10-12 times the cations that a 1:1 can
1:1 is fixed, making it better for use as a protectant on fruits, used in fungicides, etc.
The negative charge of clay, along with organic matter leads to the CEC or Cation Exchange Capacity of a soil - It’s potential to hold nutrients
It also leads to physical properties such as structure – compaction and drainage traits, also that sticky feel when it's wet
Heavy clay soil can be remedied with the addition of organic matter. Sand lacks structure and will only lead to a hot mess, otherwise known as cement
Zeolite, Greensand, Kaolin (hydrated aluminum silicate) are like the red-headed step children that turned out to be Rockstar’s