Finding out what your soil type is

I've been trying to find out what my soil type is, as I started gardening just over a year ago and wanted to find out why my soil gets so dry and clumpy.

There is a test you can do very simply at home. I hope some of you will find it helpful. It has been really helpful for me. To find out if your soil is acid or alkaline you will need to buy a cheap ph testing kit, but this test will tell you the composition.

Test Soil Type by Jar This test takes several days.

1. Half fill a jar with soil, best not to just use surface soil but dig down a little way.
2. Top up to an inch from the top with water and add 1 teaspoon of liquid dish detergent or table salt.
3. Shake the jar thoroughly (3 minutes ideally) and let the contents settle.
4. Measure the depths of the different layers.

Wait one minute to measure the bottom layer of sand.
Wait about 2 hours for the silt to settle and measure it.
Wait several days and measure the clay layer.
Some clay particles will remain suspended and organic matter will float or sit on the top layer.





Assuming that the top level (of the sand, silt and clay combined) is 100% work out (roughly) how much of that percentage is sand, silt and clay. Then you can put your number into this website

http://courses.soil.ncsu.edu/resources/physics/texture/soiltexture.swf

It will tell you what your soil type is. Just click on the 'start animation' button or the play button.

 

Thanks for this I shall be doing this tonight.

 

Told you it took me back 40 years to my Rural Studies course!

 

I wish I had done rural studies! Sounds bloomin' marvellous.

Maybe when the kids are all in school I will think about doing something like that.

 

Funnily enough I never actually used what we were taught. It was just another piece of paper colleceted for promotion purposes. The Schools in which I taught were all inner city (ish) and not really into ruralism.
Good idea to do such a course though.