Three years ago our supplier Eijkelkamp Agrisearch Equipment started a project with the German army (Bundeswehr) to develop a new version of the Penetrologger which has recently culminated in 16 new Penetrologgers being produced and delivered.

How this project began was when the Bundeswehr identified a need for a Penetrologger for their Airmobile Operations to identify suitable locations for runways for planes in remote territories. Penetration tests for the evaluation of the mechanical strength of road subgrades and basecourses are essential if the army’s planes are to land safely.

The new penetrologger is lighter and easier to use.  It has upgraded batteries and improved software and all measurements are now evaluated following the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) standard.  So ultimately we now have a more reliable piece of equipment that is highly suited to this type of application.

To find out more visit: http://www.vanwalt.com/penetrometers-soil-sampling-auger.htm or call us on +44 (0)1428 661 660.

Customers, please take this in the spirit that it is intended. You already know Van Walt takes pride in not being like other suppliers, we go out of our way to be different, to make sure you get the right equipment/service for a particular project/job. That means you need to communicate with us as we really, really need to know as much as possible about you and your work in order to get you the right equipment and so win your trust.

So, in an ideal world, here are our top 20 things we wished our customers knew did before placing an order….

1. We’re not perfect, our equipment isn’t perfect but we have processes and procedures in place to try and minimise mistakes but this theory is  only as good as the information you give us.  Please be prepared to tell us as much as you can about your project so we can ensure we recommend the right equipment.

2. In the event of a mistake – yours or ours – you can rely on us, we will work tirelessly to rectify a situation.

3. We will also admit when we are wrong or have made a mistake, we hope you feel confident enough to do the same.

4. If we don’t know the answer to something we will tell you – we want to be completely honest with you – we want you to trust us – will you do the same?

5. If we’ve got it right and you are happy with our equipment/service – please tell your colleagues, your recommendation means more than any advertisement we might place.

6. We will do everything we say we will – will you?

7. Please, if your job/project is urgent give us adequate time to get your equipment to you, we don’t want you onsite, unable to work because equipment hasn’t arrived.

8. We try to be as helpful and as friendly as possible on the phone, online and onsite – a friendly response to our suggestions is all that we ask for.

9. We monitor our prices and aim to consistently give you value for money – if you think we have let you down on this front – tell us.

10. We want you to tell us what we could do to serve you better – if you don’t tell us we won’t know.

11. We have a lot of experience and expertise we like to share with you and sometimes we send out mailings - some of it promotional, some of it technical all designed to help you do your job more effectively, we label our information accordingly – please take the time to read this.

12. If our communications are not clear or too numerous – please tell us.

13. We promise never to take your custom and loyalty for granted, our business ethos is to be open and honest in all that we do, please constantly test and monitor our progress.

14. If you will let us we want to take care of all your environmental equipment needs, are you ready for this commitment?

15. If you don’t like our website, paperwork, telephone manner or anything else in terms of the way we do business – tell us, we won’t be offended if it makes your work easier.

16. Our relationship isn’t equal and it never will be – we know it’s all about you, forgive us if we try too hard to win your fidelity.

17. You hate salespeople, but you really need to buy equipment – we really want to sell you stuff and we’re not all salespeople; surely we can find a meeting of minds?

18. Sometimes we like to tell you about new ways of doing things – usually this is for your benefit not ours – why not give something new a try?

19. We know you believe you deserve more than we can deliver but we’re in it for the long term so even if you don’t know what it is you need we will help you figure it out.

20. We know you need to please and delight your own customers so, if you’ll let us we will help: we get sales and you get happy customers and more orders: win/win.

The downside of these samplers is that the ceramic cups can interfere with the chemistry of certain elements, compounds or measurements such as, for example, pH and Phosphorus and other metals and they are not frost resistant.

Our supplier Eijkelkamp has a huge amount of information on this type of research and we would recommend looking at their presentation of soil moisture sampling which can be found here or call us on +44 (0)1428 661 660 and talk to one of our experts

As a general rule sampling can be done by non-destructive or destructive methods. Non-destructive methods involve the installation of a soil solution collector, like a rhizon that samples soil solution at the same point. Destructive methods involve soil sampling and subsequent extraction of soil solution in the laboratory.

A number of reviews and comparison studies have been carried out on the different techniques used to obtain samples of soil solution and as the soil solution sampling technique employed depends on the aim of soil solution monitoring, the following broad recommendations can be made:

- Repeated soil sampling results in considerable disturbance to the site. Therefore,to produce a time series with short sampling intervals, a non-destructive method is the most appropriate.

- For monitoring with large time intervals, repeated soil sampling followed by centrifugation (or a saturation extract when centrifugation is impossible) is also appropriate, especially as this approach reduces spatial variation.

At Van Walt we’ve concentrated on two non-destructive sampling techniques. For general soil water extraction, especially when larger volumes of samples are required we supply ceramic cups. These are cheap and work well when simple analyses such as residual nitrates are needed.

Unfortunately ceramic cups can interfere with the chemistry of certain elements, compounds or measurements such as for example pH and Phosphorus and other metals. When a large range of analyses need to be carried out then our Rhizon samplers have become very useful and are now more or less the researcher’s favourite in the UK and many parts of Europe. Rhizon samplers are made of a porous and inert polymer.

Click here for more details.

The quality of our Bluebells this year is particularly relevant following a very dry March so what will the crop be like in 2011? You can find out by taking a look at the National Trust Bluebell Watch: http://nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-countryside_environment/w-nature/w-nature-bluebell.htm?campid=twitter . Or better still sign up to Twitter and get out and about in the countryside and if you spot Bluebells, take a photograph, upload it onto Twitpic, add the postcode of where the picture was taken, tag it #bluebellwatch and you could help populate the map http://bit.ly/gqfZu2 !

You never know what you might learn: how to tell whether bluebells are native ones or Spanish ones? For those who are interested the Spanish Bluebell, commonly grown in our gardens, is more vigorous than our native species and can crossbreed with the native to create a fertile hybrid.

This is a problem, as crossbreeding dilutes the unique characteristics of our native Bluebell. In a recent study one in six broadleaved woodlands surveyed were found to contain the hybrid or Spanish Bluebell.

Native bluebell:
• have narrow leaves, usually about 1cm or 1.5cm (about half an inch) wide
• have deep blue (sometimes white, rarely pink), narrow, tube-like flowers, with the very tips curled right back.
• have flowers mostly on one side of the stem only, and distinctly drooping, or nodding, at the top
• have a distinct, sweetish scent
• Inside the flowers, the anthers with the pollen are usually cream.

Spanish bluebells:
• have broad leaves often 3cm (over an inch) wide
• have paler blue (quite often pink and white ones too), conical or bell-shaped flowers that have spread-out tips
• have flowers all around the upright stem
• have almost no scent
• Inside the flowers, the anthers with the pollen usually blue (although this may vary a little).

Hybrids between these two are very common, with a whole range of intermediate characters. The hybrids are often abundant in gardens and in woods near to urban areas either way, if there are bluebells, there’s water in the soil!

Recently Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall set up @hughfishfight a Twitter account dedicated to: bringing to an end the practice of throwing back dead fish caught outside of EU quotas – ‘Every day far out at sea half the fish caught in the North Sea are being thrown back dead. They call it discard. Join the discard protest at www.fishfight.net’.

I recognise Hugh is a bit of a TV personality and yes, Channel 4 did dedicate, commission and show several television programmes on the subject but today (2nd February 2011) more than 634, 650 people have signed up to the campaign, celebrities like Jeremy Paxman, Ricky Gervais and Steven Fry has put their name to it, 205,066 people like Hugh’s Fish Fight on Facebook and Zac Goldsmith MP has raised the issue of Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons with Prime Minister David Cameron responding: “The current regime of discarding fish is not acceptable and needs to change”. All this has been achieved since the beginning of 2011.
This is a truly worthwhile cause – but so are so many associated with soil, water and groundwater – subjects close to our hearts. So if we’re serious about making a difference lets start now.

Follow us on Twitter at @vanwalt – and let’s get viral about our passions!

We guess, because you’re reading this, you’re interested in soil, so a good place to start for a list of good causes associated with our subject is: http://www.soilassociation.org/Takeaction/Supportourcampaigns/tabid/943/Default.aspx

Here are some excellent campaigns to get your teeth into: Take action on cloning, Save our school dinners, Better nursery food now, Take action on GM and Barmy about Bees – these might not be your bag but keep your eyes peeled.

And, if you get involved, remember we have a whole selection of equipment to help with your research!

If you look at the definition of a rhizome which is ‘a horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes’ you quickly see that Rhizon is a very apt name – it acts like a root absorbing the moisture from the soil for analysis off site. Clever!

An internet search will reveal a large amount of information on soil solution sampling techniques and there are proponents of each and every porous material.

In our extensive experience of over 25 years in environmental research we have seen fashions and opinions change and each year there is one material which is ‘flavour of the month’ and the following year some researcher will point to its unsuitability. We have stopped ‘following fashion’ and after much research and consideration decided to recommend just two types which have stood the test of time: Ceramic Cups and Rhizon samplers which use an inert porous polymer.

Both these soil solution sampling methods have common parts: a porous cup, a tube and a connection to put the system under negative pressure. In our experience of supplying many of the leading environmental consultancies, academic institutions and agricultural researchers – with the best soil sampling equipment that’s available – it is the material of the porous cup which determines the quality and quantity of the sample.