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SOILMOISTURE EQUIPMENT CORP.
P.O. Box 30025, Santa Barbara, CA 93105 U.S.A.
Telephone 805-964-3525 - Fax No. 805-683-2189
Email: [email protected] - Website: http://www.soilmoisture.com
SOILMOISTURE
3.2
Edelman auger and Riverside auger
Edelman auger, combination type.
1. Hold the auger by the synthetic handle and rest it on the ground
(see figure).
2. Rotate it clockwise while gently pushing it into the soil.
Upon 21⁄4 rotations (360°), the auger should have dug 10 cm.
The auger body will be filled up to its bracket with slightly disturbed
soil material. Depending on the type of soil additional rotations may
be necessary.
Do not overfill the auger body. Superfluous material will coat the
auger hole, which hinders further sampling and removal of the
sample
Do not force, or pound on, the Edelman or
Riverside auger. This may cause serious damage.
3. Rotate the auger to cut off the sample. Turn it a full circle (360°) without pressing down. Hoist the auger gently rotating it.
This will prevent loss of sample.
4. To release the cohesive material hold the auger askew on the surface (see figure), rotate the auger 180° while pressing it
into the ground. The sample should detach itself and can be taken out by hand, or by lightly tapping the auger. Moderately
cohesive material will detach itself immediately.
Riverside auger.
Revolve the auger into the soil. The soil material will be fed evenly, but strongly disturbed, into the body.
Compaction will cause the material to remain in the body. Pull out the auger. Tap it gently on the surface and the moderately
cohesive sample will detach itself. To remove cohesive material, use a bent spatula.
Maintenance.
To avoid excessive oxidation when storing the Edelman and Riverside auger bodies, apply Vaseline.
4.
Applications
The bi-partite root auger can be used in almost any kind of soil, regardless of the resistance of penetration. The standard set
allows sampling to a depth of 2 m. The samples are practically undisturbed and equal in size and volume. This is relevant
when comparing the root density of different soil samples.
The bi-partite root auger is used in:
Research into rootability, depth and complexity of root systems in soil layers.
Root sampling in urban areas (little space is required, it will suffice to lift one paving stone).
Sampling of compost, in combination with the Edelman auger.
The Edelman auger combination type is suitable for universal soils. The Riverside auger is suitable in hard, rigid soils and in
gravelly soils. Both augers are often applied in exploratory augering and in obtaining rough estimates of the extent of root-
age. In addition, they are used in pre-augering the soil layers under examination, and in reaming the borehole. The Riverside
auger is suitable for levelling the bottom of the borehole.
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