What Texture Is Your Soil?

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Thursday, May 24th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Soil is the lifeline of any garden. It is made up of a mixture of:

decayed organic matter,
water,
living organisms,
air, and
different types of weathered down rock material.

Soil ingredients can vary dramatically from one region of land to the next due to factors such as the composition of bedrock and the climate.
New gardeners sometimes confuse a soil’s texture with that of its nutrient makeup. However, texture has nothing to do with the makeup of soil at all. Rather, texture is described by its coarseness or how fine it is. You’ll find that soil texture is described by the following three types of particles:

1. Silt: Silt is very similar to the texture of sand. However, its particles are much smaller in size. Silt is so fine that when it is dry it runs through your hand like powder. Silt will hold water to a strong degree, a little better than sand will, but not quite as tight as clay.

2. Sand: Sand is extremely coarse and very gritty to the touch. Although sand drains well, it typically dries out far too fast, especially for perennials. Soil that is made up of a lot of sand is very easy to cultivate but unfortunately the nutrients tend to wash away far too easily.

3. Clay: Interestingly enough, clay is made up of such fine tiny particles that each one can only be seen with a high-powered electron microscope. Soils that are high in clay are sticky when touched and they drain slowly. Various types of clay is will liquefy when wet and then harden like concrete when dried. Clay is very high in nutrients, but unfortunately the nutrients are often not available for plants to utilize.

How To Determine What Texture Your Soil Is
If you are investigating the texture of the soil in various parts of your garden, you have learn what to look for when you give your dirt the “feel test”. This test is very simple. All you have to do is grab a handful of moist soil and then squeeze it as tight as you can into a ball. You can examine your results by the following guidelines:

1. Your soil may be made up of a large percentage of sand if it feels very gritty and does not hold well together in the ball.

2. Your soil may contain higher amounts of silt if you notice that the ball shape holds fairly well and has a smooth coating. You should be able to roll the soil in your palm as it forms a nice clump, yet doesn’t create a lasting shape.

3. If your soil is made up of mostly clay, it will fill slippery in your hands and will hold to any shape formed.