Estimating soil texture at home

Soil texture—its percentage of sand, silt, and clay—is important for plant health because it affects the soil's CEC, nutrient availability, organic matter storage, moisture retention, and airflow. Without a specific soil lab texture test, there are still measures you can do to understand your soil texture - from home.  

Texture is an inherent soil property, which means that changes from year to year are usually negligible (with the exception of a dramatic disturbance such as a severe weather event or a construction project). So once you know the texture of the soil across your yard or field, you don't need to repeat testing over and over every year. It's one and done! But how can you determine your soil's texture if you don't know it yet?

At this time, your soil test doesn't test directly for texture but there are ways to get a reliable estimate without a precise lab analysis. One way of estimating your soil texture is to look at the CEC, which is included in your SoilKit analysis. Generally, high CEC (>20 meq/100g) corresponds with fine-textured, clay-rich soils, and low CEC (<10 meq/100g) corresponds with coarse, sandy soils, with silty or loamy soils in between. Even without sending in a soil sample to lab, you might be surprised that you can accurately estimate your soil's texture at home—by hand! Soil scientists call this method "texture by feel."

To evaluate texture by feel, all you need is a handful of soil, some water (ideally in a spray or squeeze bottle), and of course your hands and willingness to get a little dirty. Here is a simple overview of the method:

1. Take your soil sample and gradually add water while kneading to form a small, stable ball. This works for any soil as long as you don't add too much or too little water, unless it is mostly sand.
2. Estimate your soil's clay content by testing its stickiness. Squeeze the ball between your thumb and forefinger to form a thin ribbon, and see how long you can make it. The longer the ribbon can get without breaking apart, the stickier the soil is, indicating a more clay-rich soil. A rule of thumb is that every centimeter of length in the ribbon corresponds to around 10% higher clay content, e.g. a 3-cm long ribbon indicates around 30% clay.
3. Determine weather sand or silt dominates your soil (or neither). Take a small pinch of soil in the palm of your hand and completely soak it in a few teaspoons of water. Mix the soil into the water with your finger to make mud and feel how gritty it is, which is caused by sand particles. On the other hand, if it feels quite smooth, the soil has a high silt content. If neither gritty nor smooth feels like a better description, the soil is likely a loam—a balanced mix of sand, silt, and clay.

Following these steps will give you an excellent idea of the prominent texture(s) of your soil: stickiness for clay, smoothness for silt, and grittiness for sand. To get a bit more precise, Click here for a detailed flowchart from UK Ag Extension on determining your soil's exact textural class by hand. Another option is to use the jar method, which takes a bit more time (6+ hours). Do you already know the texture of the soil in your yard? Will you be trying out the texture by feel method? Let us know in the comments!