Understanding Soil Types and Soil Texture (test your own soil)

This video will show you a way to measure the amount of sand, silt and clay in your soil, and then help you figure out your soil type.

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Understanding Soil Types and Soil Texture (test your own soil)

Today I’ll show you a simple way to measure the amount of sand, silt and clay in your soil. I’ll also show you how to use the soil texture triangle to figure out the type of soil you have.

This information will help select the right plants, or if you are trying to figure out why certain plants are not growing well. This information will also help you select the right amount of fertilizer and water for your garden.

You will need a clear container. An old jar works well. Try to get one with vertical sides, and a flat bottom. I am going to use an old peanut butter container. The bottom is not perfectly flat but it is good enough for this test.

Take the soil and add it to the jar so that it is about ¾ full.
Now add water to almost fill the jar. You want to leave some air space at the top of the jar for mixing.
Place the lid on the jar…. Then shake. Let it sit undisturbed.
Let the jar sit for 1 minute.

Since sand is heavier than silt and clay it settles in less than a minute.
Wait 1 hour. Silt is heavier than clay, and will settle next.
Wait 24 hours for the clay to settle. Since clay is made up of very fine particles it take a long time to settle.
I’ve emptied the jar, and can now see the marks very clearly.
Take a ruler and measure the distance between the marks.
Working in mm will make the math easier than using inches.

Calculations and soil texture
The next step in the process is to calculate the percent of sand, silt and clay in your soil. This is easily done and I will show you exactly how to do it.

The soil texture, by definition, consists of sand, silt and clay, and those three parts added together make up 100%.
In our experiment we measured the amounts using millimeters but the units don’t matter since we will be converting them to a percent. Sand had a value of 30, Silt was 22, and clay was 25, with a total of 77.

To convert these numbers to % we do the following calculation.
% sand is equal to 30 divided by 77 times 100, or 39%.......
% silt is equal to 22divided by 77 times 100, which is 29%. I’m rounding to whole numbers which is accurate enough for gardening.
% clay is 25 divided by 77 or 32%. ……You can see that the sum of the three values equals 100%.

These numbers tell you how much sand, silt or clay you have, but we can take this one step further and figure out the type of soil you have.

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[makarasomm]

I heard from someone quoted Albert Einstein. Einstein said “a great teacher speaks with everyday word that everyone can understand.” I understood everything he said and I’m not an American.

[corruptionsrilanka]

Amazing video. Language is clear, accent professional, speed of language appropriate, explanation is not verbose, spoke to express not to impress. I am a layman but understood the soil science well.

[kclark]

Thank you! I am a first-year teacher and will be teaching soils soon. I have never used the soil triangle but your explanation made it very clear and I'm looking forward to teaching it to my students.

[JarutheDamaja]

This weekend I'm going to try to cook my own indicator to measure the pH values, and now i discovered this awesome tri-angle.
Thank you so much for this video and information! I think it will be very useful for my garden and potted plants.

[vishwanathindependentfinan]

No words could appreciate the value of your teaching!.. I just take a Bow!

[looperc]

I just moved into my house and gained a garden with cactus and morning glories and tons of nightshade. I'm very curious of what I'm working with before I really got crazy planting stuff. THANK YOU!! I'm too cheap to buy a test soil kit. This seems more of an enjoyable learning experience too! Doing it with my daughter asap. 🌵🏜⚘🌴🌲🌻🌺🌿🍇

[animekittycat]

This is just what I need for my science lab. I couldn't figure out hot to find the % from ml but this was quite clear and as a person who loves to garden this experience looks fun and easy. THANK YOU I am so subscribing

[mrfranktaylor]

Thank you so much. Me being a visual learner really appreciate this video. Big time help.

[shaadz]

I wish you were teaching soil mechanics and geology at my uni! Natural teacher!

[testicular]

Your video is very detailed which I appreciated after watching so many others that weren't but I followed the instructions and set my timer for 15 mins when I went to mark the jar I could not see any difference in the soil. I could clearly see grains of sand in your jar but not mine. I moved in this house about 10 years ago and it's in a new neighborhood in a rural area of Ohio, zone 6a. I had to make all my flower beds myself and the dirt was heavy and compacted with lots of rocks, some bigger than the size of a softball. At 2 separate times I have had dump trucks full of dirt delivered to raise the beds a bit, I have sat for hours picking the smaller rocks out of the beds, through the years I have added bags of top soil and potting soil to the beds and then tilled. Several yrs I added mulch around the flowers to try to cut down on weeds.I have flowers in the beds and some do pretty well but the soil does seem to dry out fast, I water just about every night when it doesn't rain but I assumed it was because it gets mostly sun but possibly sandy soil is the issue. I have time on my hands now to devote to gardening and I'm trying to learn more about soil and that is why I wanted to do the test. I also ordered a soil test kit from amazon to test the soils nutrients so that I can try to add whatever it is that may be lacking. I have been reading articles and watching videos about composting but I'm afraid if I start a compost pile I will be inviting snakes into my yard (serious phobia, lol) So if my issue is sandy soil can anyone suggest an easy way to amend? When I couldn't see the difference on the test jar I thought maybe it just needed more time for everything to settle, what do you think? Or is it possible my soil is made up of mostly sand? It has been 3 hrs since I started the test and the soil is mostly the same throughout the jar except for a very fine line at the top that is a lighter color. I thought maybe I would just try it again after digging some more dirt and adding less dirt to the jar and more water, what do u think? Anyone have any suggestions on what I did wrong? Sorry such a long comment but I thought with more info a greater likelihood of a solution. Thanks!

[SirColly]

Wow.. the knowledge gained from this video was priceless. Thank you for sharing! Very interesting. I’ll be sure to use this method in my own garden 👍🏻

[susiesunshine]

I had an assignment for my class to figure out the soil type in my yard. I was really struggling. bu you video very clearly explained the soil triangle . thank you!

[gta-]

BEST VIDEO AN EXPLANATION I'VE SEEN ON THIS .

[dodson]

Thank you so much. I learned an easy way to learn about the soil we have in our property. Very informative.

[achsahkaleb]

brilliant video. what a great teacher you are!! wish I had someone like you as a teacher when I was in school. thank you.

[sharoncampbell]

This is a very good video. I am a visual learner too - and diagrams make me happy. Thanks. I am now a subscriber.

[dmorgan]

I'm a Gardener at a National Cemetery so glad I found this channel.

[meleniavenus]

Thank you garden fundamentals. I learn a lot today about different types of soil about regarding the present soil on my garden. God bless. Thanks again. More videos to come. 😍😍

[wagwewaltz]

Great explanation. Will be doing this with my students. Thanks for putting this together.

[shawnpa]

Thank you for showing us something that I didn't know was possible.Very interesting and useful.