Soil Type?

[arwilliams]

how do you know what type of soil you have? I read about soil being well drained etc, but I have just moved into my house so I have not seen a lot of rain so not sure what it will do after rain. Is there anyway of telling instantly what soil type I have, or do I have to buy some sort of test kit?

sorry I am a newbie

[Alison]

Depends on what you mean. You can test to find out if you have acid or alkaline soil although this usually becomes fairly clear from what grows well. With regards if you have sandy, loamy, clay soil you can tell this buy how easily you can roll the soil in your hands. When the soil is moist (you can wet yourself) see if you can form a ball of soil. If not you have very sandy soil. They try to roll it into a sausage shape. If it extrudes pretty much to infinity you're on clay. This is a very simplistic description but you'll probably get the meaning.

[piskieinboots]

don't apologise for being a 'newbie' - we are all newbies in a way

Can you grab a handful of soil and make it stick into a ball - if so, clay, if not, be grateful - although clay is excellent so long as you work with it! Clay is excellent at holding onto nutrients needed for plant growth, your mission (if you have clay and should you wish to accept it) is to get the soil to release the nutrients.

Soil testing kits is for pH rather that type.

Lots to take in I know, don't worry - we'll work through it. Your first project is to see if you can make it stick to something like the Producers of Ghost would be proud of

[zazen999]

The way I'd recommend.....dig a few handfuls out and mix them up in a bag; and take a slack handful and pop it into a jam jar. Then add warm water and shake it up. Then leave it overnight [for any clay to absorb the water].

Then, shake it all up again and leave it to settle.

Ideally, the sand and gravel should settle first, followed by a layer of silt; then the water should stay cloudy for a good hour or so [or more] and you should also have a good amount of stuff that just floats. The floaty stuff floats because it is organic and won't ever sink.

If you have a good mix; then excellent. If you have nothing settling within the first few minutes then you need sand. If you have nothing sitting on the top then you need organic. If the water clears really quickly, then you have mainly sand.

That's how us engineers would do it if we were showing someone the constituents of soil.


To tell if it drains; dig a hole and pour a bucket of water in. If it goes in 5 mins, you have good and possibly too much drainage. If it is there 24 hours later you have drainage issues. An hour is probably the best, to avoid waterlogging or soils drying out too fast.

[arwilliams]

you guys rock... its starting to make sense..
i have well drained, clay soil..
so i have decided now to grow onions and garlic, because i use a lot of them.
I am growing from sets, i have turned the soil over , and I am going to lay fertilizer and then plant them.. simple enought... i am assuming they are easy to grow and i dont have to worry that i have well drained clay soil !!
i have a small wooden planter, ant thoughts of what i can shove in there? I have a green house it can go in

[bobleponge]

Well drained clay soil??????
You are indeed a lucky person.

For your planter, if you wanted stuff now, you could sow some salady type stuff, green rabbit food business, that should grow in your greenhouse.
If you get some cut and come again stuff, you may well find that the planter will keep you in salad all over the winter.

[arwilliams]

bobleponge,
You make well drained clay soil sound a bit of "the holy grail" of gardening, I think I better check this out properly, I am not normally that lucky!

Thanks for your help.

[bobleponge]

It wouldnt be the worst soil you could have!!

[zazen999]

Clay soil is brilliant; I have alot of time for it.

[vicky]

Where you are in the country is also quite a good indicator - you are still within the London clay area (as am I). Really clay soil needs hard work and patience but yours sounds like it has a good degree of silt and sand which makes it quite loamy - almost the perfect soil!

"Loam Soil
Considered to be the perfect soil, a mix of 40 % sand, 40% silt and 20% clay. Due to mix variations loam can range from easily workable fertile soils full of organic matter, to densely packed sod. Characteristically they drain well, yet retain moisture and are nutrient rich, making them ideal for cultivation."

Yours probably has more than 20% clay if you can make balls and sausages! But clay has a lot of nutrition for plants which makes it very productive.

And welcome to the vine!

[BFG]

One soil test coming up tomorrow!

I know the soil is pretty good (I get a lot of leaves dropping into the garden, and it's been that way for 180 years or so), but it'll be interesting to see the exact mixture/layers.

[bobleponge]

Total and utter envy coming from a man who's garden could easily double for a pottery

[Littlemouse]

Ditto - all old maps around here refer to the brickworks!

[BFG]

Just think of the nutrients...

[Twinsane]

I hadn't tested mine It should be getting ploughed tomorrow (fingers crossed) so I'll test it. Am I better off trying several different areas or wont it change that much over the plot? I've tried digging in a couple of places. One area was very stoney, with only a little top soil and a layer of obvious clay. The other didnt seem too bad (again not very deep) but it soon dried out like dust. The whole site will need plenty of organic stuff added then wont it?