you might learn a lot about your soil by simply running it through your fingers.
Healthy soil is the key to growing a beautiful andthriving garden.
Building and nourishing thesoilbegins with getting to know what throw in of soil you have.
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The Building Blocks of Soil
Soil is composed of solid particles and pore spaces.
Pore spaces make up approximately 50% of soil by volume.
They act as conduits for air and water movement through the soil.
The other 50% of soil is composed of minerals, organic matter, and microbial life.
Organic matter is derived from decomposed plant and animal residues, essentially natures compost.
The mineral component of soil is made up of clay, silt, and sand particles.
Garden centers also sell a variety of products for testing soil pH and primary nutrients.
However, you dont need any special tools to identify your soil typejust your hands.
Soil scientists call this the texture by feel method which is quite a precise description.
How well does the soil form a ball?
Does the ball hold together or fall apart?
As you initiate the soil between your fingers, consider the relative grittiness or smoothness of the soil.
When you rub the soil between your thumb and fingers does it form a ribbon or simply crumble?
All these questions will help you determine the texture or throw in of soil.
From the standpoint of soil jot down, one of these minerals will be most prominent.
Use the following to determine what bang out of soil you have from the texture by feel method.
Sand
Sand particles feel gritty between your fingers.
Sand doesnt hold together well as a ball.
When you run your thumb through it, sandy soil crumbles.
The ball does not break apart when bounced in your palm.
Silt
Silt is also very fine, with particles intermediate in size between clay and sand.
Silt soils feel soft and smooth, almost flour-like, when you rub it between your thumb and fingers.
It will not form a ribbon like clay.
This is the soil bang out we all wish we had for gardening!
Clay soils have the smallest particles, followed by silt.
Sand has the largest particles.
These different particle sizes impact the size of the pores in the soil.
Remember, air and water move through the pores.
These soil characteristics impact how we irrigate according to soil key in.
When irrigating, water should be applied only as quickly as it can be absorbed by the soil.
This is one reason drip irrigation is so effective at saving water, especially in clay soils.
It delivers water slowly, allowing that water to infiltrate rather than running off across the soil surface.
Irrigation frequency also varies by soil throw in.
Because they drain so freely, sandy soils need to be irrigated more often than fine-textured soils.
Clay soils retain water more effectively and therefore can be irrigated less often.
Soil pop in also affects what plants will thrive in our gardens.
Some plants do not tolerate clay soil, while others need more moisture than sand can provide.
