I once had some soil delivered and spread on a section of the lawn and from it grew the worst grass that I had ever seen. There was plenty of sun. I watered it regularly. I used good grass seed and seemed to do everything right so why the lack of success. It was the dirt.
So being a thrifty Yankee I did some research and found a nifty home-made soil sample test using common stuff you have around the house that I’d like to share with you.
What you’ll need is a one quart jar with a tight fitting lid (a mayonnaise jar works perfectly if you take off the label so you can see inside), a tape measure or ruler, some water, and a little bit of water softener (downy) and of course some soil.
Collect about six quarts of soil in a bucket. Preferably you’ll dig up a little here and there and only get it from the top 6 inches of soil. Mix this up very well and break up the clods and take out the large sticks, stones and roots. Once you’re confident that you’ve mixed the soil very well, scoop out two level cups of the soil and put in the mayonnaise jar. Discard the rest of the soil.
Once you have your soil sample it’s easy from here.
Take about a teaspoon of the water softener and mix it into a cup of cold water and dump that into the jar. Fill the rest of the jar with water to about an inch from the top and screw the lid on tightly. Then put a good dancing song on and shake the jar for about a minute to make sure that all of the soil particles are suspended in the water. And place the jar on a solid countertop, preferably with backlight by a window and set your timer or make a note of what time you set the jar down.
Set your timer and you’re off.
After one minute you will see the particles settling nicely on the bottom. The heaviest being the sand, so it will settle first. When your timer hits about a minute and a half take your ruler and measure the depth of the sand and write this down. It helps to take an indelible marker like a Sharpie and make a mark on the jar at the sand level.
Once the timer hits two hours take out your ruler and measure the next layer. Mark it with the Sharpie and write down the measurement. This will be the silt layer, which is made up of medium-sized particles mixed with tiny particles of sand.
And after the timer hits 24 hours repeat the process with the top layer. This will be the clay layer, the tiniest and lightest particles. You will also see that most of the organic mater will not fall out of suspension in the water and will still be floating after 24 hours. Never mind the organic matter.
And Last the Easy Math for Better Soil
The last step in the process is to figure out what percentage of each makes up your mix of soil.
- Take the total depth of soil in the jar by adding up all three figures you have. For example I’ll take my results from my soil sample: sand – 7/8”; silt – 1 3/8”; clay – 1 ¼”. So my total soil depth is 7/8+1 3/8+1 1/4 = 3 ½”.
- Then take the depth of each and divide by the total. So my sand = 7/8 / 3 ½= .25 or 25%. My Silt = 1 3/8 / 3 ½ = .39 = 39%. And my clay = 1 ¼ / 3 ½ = .36 = 36%.
- Just as a check, they should add up to 100%.
The ideal soil for general gardening purposes will have 35% sand, 45% silt and 20% clay.
Now what does this all mean?
My soil sample showed that I had too much clay which would explain why the grass didn’t grow correctly. Clay is a very tiny particle and under a microscope looks like little flat corn flakes. Each particle of clay has a tendency and electronic attraction to another so you have to keep them apart or they’ll form an impenetrable layer (called caliche out west).
Besides being a really good gardener, Mike Hunter is an excellent RE Broker. His clients appreciate his commitment to delivering a streamlined, results-oriented deal every time.
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