Immediately after shaking soil, water and dish soap
I have the final thumbs-up from Mr. Golden D to get a second, and larger, greenhouse this coming year and with that happening, I am also taking better care of how I garden. From organizing my seedlings and planning out the herb garden to making sure I have the best soil needed all throughout my garden. I am limited on space for an actual garden, so I have to rely on making the best of the little area and using it my fullest advantage.
The first thing I did was research crop and gardening bed rotations weeks ago. And my newest research efforts brought me to learning about loamy soil.
Yes... loamy soil. Now I am sure most avid gardeners and homesteaders know about loamy soil and know how to test for it and how to make the soil better. But me... not so much. If you had asked me a year ago what loamy soil was, I would have stared at you with a blank look.
So let's talk loamy soil.
What Is Loamy Soil?
The basic definition can be found on the Spruce website
What is Loam?
The technical definition: Loam is soil that contains:
less than 52% sand,
28 - 50 % silt, and
7 - 27% clay
In all the research I have read the last few weeks, this is how the loamy soil percentages work.
- Perfect Oil Loam- 20% clay, 40% Silt, 40% sand
- Silt Clay Loam- 30% clay, 60% silt, 10% sand
- Sandy Loam- 15% clay, 20% silt, 65% sand
- Silt Loam- 15% clay, 65% silt, 20% sand
For more information about what to do with you soil results, see the Gardening Know How website.
How To Easily Test Sample Your Soil At Home
Tools needed:
- One clean mason or glass jar with screw-on seal-able lid
- Soil from selected location(s)
- One teaspoon dish soap (to keep the soil from clumping together while it sits for the 24 hours)
- Ruler
- Water
Dig about six inches into selected area of garden and scoop about 1/2-3/4 cup of soil into a glass jar.
Add enough water to fill the jar about three-quarters full; leaving enough room in the jar for shaking and settling. Add one teaspoon of liquid dish soap. Screw lid on and shake the jar for about two minutes. Let it sit for about 24 hours. If you suspect your soil contains heavy clay, the jar should sit for 48 hours.
NOTE I do not suspect high amounts of clay, so I let mine sit for 24 hours.
My Soil Results
Four hours after vigorous shaking
25 hours after shaking
While it's really hard to see in the picture above, I have the percentages figured out as follows:
15% - clay (should be 20%)
35% - Silt (should be 40%)
50% - Sand (should be 40%)
So I need to raise up the clay and lower down the silt and sand. I also noticed a lot of debris in the upper half of the jar/water. This is called peaty soil and could mean my soil doesn't have enough nutrients, but according to the USDA chart, I am within the loam criteria.
So aside from adding some basic organic nutrients, I believe my garden area is ready to go! I'd say that's good news!
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You can have some of my clay! I have 100% clay soil! (not quite) but ... it's clay enough that If I ever give up gardening I could make pottery instead.
Great post and very useful guide! How exciting about your greenhouse!!!
i was just about to say the same thing, about giving some clay away! :) LOL
I second on the pottery statement!
lol- No, no.. you can keep the clay.
My husband used to live in central Gerogia and it was ALL clay there.I can only imagine the extra soil and nutrients needed every gardening season to make the garden flourish.
This clay soil is a first for me, I've learned a lot of new gardening tricks as a result (the big thing being patience). We just keep adding compost and manure, eventually it should get loamier.
Now you just taught me something pretty cool. I use a PH test but will have to give this a try
I knew about the pH testing and have done that years and years ago but this was a new one for me and I had to try it to see the results.
My recommendation is to add horse manure the cure all soil fixxer. Most people never think to test their soul. Almost cool crop planting season. Good luck
NO horses near me here. Times like this I wish we still had our chickens and the coop. They made the best manure and the soil was SOOOO rich.
Great post, really nice to have the chart to refer to. Are you near the coast at all? Seaweed makes a great soil additive and helps retain moisture.
Thanks for sharing. We feel we've mastered livestock and are just started to invest more time and energy learning about better gardening practices. This is helpful.
It's amazing how much science goes into gardening. I never would have thought it, but really... so much.
Woo nice
Looks like you will have a great garden this year @goldendawne.
Me too. I have expanded a lot (mainly in my mind) this year. Either we won't have a lawn or I'll be investing in LOTS of -gallon buckets.
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😆 ...picturing your yard full of buckets...
yay for science! i should probably do this with some of the planters that i've mixed up by hand. thank you for the reminder that slowing down & focusing on preparation is important to the success of the garden!
I have tow more areas to soil sample from but this one was from the main garden area. I'm curious to see if there's a big difference or not. I'm hoping not.
fingers crossed for you!
I have done these tests for years...I still have 5 or 6 jars sitting around...I think its time to dump them out!
Looking forward to see the gardens as they grow this year!
lol- yes! You should probably dump the old ones. This was the first time I did a soil test and I really learned a lot from my reading about it.
I did that experiment and mine came up really sandy, which is no surprise. I will be doing it again here in a day or two, if I get to feeling better, change of season has got me down right now. I am hoping after all the amendments to the soil I did it will come out better.
I guess I should be more than thrilled with good soil test results.
Hope you feel better soon!
Thank You! A good soil test is a reason to jump for joy in my book! It means lots of good vegtables this year.
I remember reading about loamy soil back when I was a school kid and memories came rushing in where you defined loam in the post. It is a well formulated article and very informative. Good to hear about the readiness of your garden!
Now that you say it, yeah... takes me back to junior and senior high school science class. I had forgotten that!
I've not come across this before! I wish my soil wasn't sitting under 5" of snow right now. I want to try this test! This is really interesting. I know they call this soil lakebottom silt because Lake Hitchcock covered this whole area 10,000 years ago. I know there's a permeable clay layer 4' down. I know the topsoil used to be 4' deep and is now around 2' or less. But I've never done a test like this one.
Snow has disappeared here luckily! Been warming up more and more every day here.
I wish you luck with your soil testing... sounds like you may have some issues. That's a lot of clay.
Not 4' of clay, just a permeable layer 4' down. LOL
lol- see what happens when I read off my cell phone and am NOT wearing glasses- got that comment ALL mixed up!
Nice to see that you've got some good soil there! We have volcanic soil here which grows pretty much anything from what we hear. If we could just get some stuff planted... ;) We have a few things we're hoping to grow - like some bananas and papayas. Not sure what else, even though we have a ton of seeds. Nice that you're getting a second green house! I am pretty new to gardening so I really enjoy what information you share! :)
Oh yeah.. you have almost the perfect soil there.
Looking forward to seeing some of your planting posts hopefully soon.
They say you can just stick sticks in the dirt and they'll grow. There are a lot of fence lines that prove that is the case! Ha! I've never had a green thumb before, so looking forward to seeing what we can do here. ;)
Knowing the ins and outs of your soil is such an important aspect of growing.
Yes I have been learning so much about soil, companion planting and more
With your higher sand content the soil will drain moisture faster and have less moisture holding tendency, so you will have to keep a closer eye on supplemental watering of the plants, the good news is that it is very unlikely that your plants would drown in this soil mix even if planted a little to low. Heavy clay soils hold the most moisture and if a plant is planted low in those , the plants can drown for sure, it is like planting them in a coffee cup and the water fills all the airspace in the soil. You are in good shape soil wise, good luck with the garden.
Thank you for all that information- it's very helpful!
I was thrilled to know my soil was good to go this year. I never paid much mind to it before but I have been doing my studying this year.
Great information. Glad that your soil quality is meeting your expectations.
My wife and girls are helping my parents start some seedlings today. It should be a great time to spend with family and a great day to go on a homeschool outing.
Oh that sounds like GREAT fun! I do all my own seeds. My daughters live kind of far away and they have little ones plus they work outside the home. But sowing seeds is my quiet time and I enjoy it. I usually talk to the seeds or the dog when working. LOL- luckily no neighbors close enough to hear me.
Second, larger greenhouse!!!! That is so exciting!! I am so pumped for you, it is going to be a great growing season <3
Very neat soil test, I cannot wait to try it! It doea look like you have great soil. Imagine needing clay!! It is my nemesis here haha!!
YES!! A second one!!! It's 6ftx8ft and 8ft tall! I am SOOOO excited about it too!
lol- no clay here apparently. (Or should I say luckily?)
OOOOOH! This is AWESOME and so easy to understand. I swear, I get instantly overwhelmed when it comes to all things gardening, but my daughter has been wanting to plant things and eventually build a greenhouse. I look forward to following along on your journey and sharing these with her!
Great post!
I know. Sometime reading things can be more confusing then before I started but this test was simple and easy. Glad I could explain it in layman's terms for everyone.
I like loamy soil because it is the best soil for agricultural purpose due to
it's humus content. Your experiment was worth it. @goldendawne.
Yes it was definitely worth it for me and I am thrilled so many others learned from my findings and test.
I love how dedicated you are to your passion for growing things and gardening. This is amazing. I don't know when I'll get to put this knowledge to use, but whenever I do, I'll be indebted to you for this.
Congrats on your upcoming greenhouse! Nice going learning more about your soil! Thanks for the info.. I learned more about the structure of loam :)
This is really great info! Thank you so much. What size jar was it - 8 or 16oz? Although I've gardened a lot in my days, I've never known about this way of measuring soil. So simple! I need to start planning my garden...
It's a pint size jar. It was so easy and very helpful
This is lovely. Knowledge to gather and keep!
Keep on spreading the seed!