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I finally decided between a trowel and a shovel for digging test pits at my site in New Mexico
Picked the trowel after watching a field tech spend 40 minutes trying to finesse a 3-inch root out of a 2-foot square with a shovel, and now I just take my time scraping dirt back in 1-inch layers.
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dakota_fox12d ago
Yeah you made the right call. Trowel work is slower but way more precise. With a shovel you end up scraping across your unit wall and messing up the profile. I've seen guys jam a shovel in and pop out half the root plus a chunk of the feature they were digging around. Stick with the trowel for test pits, especially in New Mexico where the soil can be crusty and full of caliche. Just keep a stiff brush handy to clean off the face as you go.
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