Dried soil is a time capsule

I recommend air drying soils. This creates a soil that is frozen in time. If soils are not dried, or are not refrigerated to near freezing temperatures, microbial activity and ion exchange reactions continue in the sample bag. When a soil sample is collected, I'd like to know what the soil conditions were at the time the sample was collected. I don't want to have a sample that has the conditions at the time the sample was collected with some…