Find your garden soil texture quickly with this easy, inexpensive soil-testing kit.
In order to grow healthy plants, flowers, vegetables, or herbs, you need to plant them in the right kind of soil. With that in mind, you need to know the texture of your soil so your plants have a chance of surviving.
We found an easy, inexpensive soil-testing kit by Garden Tutor because we needed to find our own soil texture and we’ll test it out for you in this video. Plus, we’ll show you how to test your soil in five steps using this kit and how easy it is to use any time of year.
If you’re unsure what kind of soil texture you have and don’t have much time, this kit is for you.
What is Soil Texture?
Different types of soil texture will have different amounts of air, water, and nutrients that specific plants thrive in.
Soil texture refers to the amount of sand, silt, or clay particles in your soil and in what proportion. Knowing this can help you keep your plants and flowers healthy because if you accidentally plant them in the wrong soil, they could develop damage, get diseased, or die.
In the video above, you learned how to find your soil texture in 5 easy steps using this soil-testing kit.
Since we have a lot of seeds and flowers to plants this spring, we really needed to find out our soil texture before placing anything in the ground. We suspected that our soil was mostly clay. Good thing we performed the test because we found out that our soil is mostly full of sand (at least in that area of our yard).
We really liked this soil kit because for so many reasons, including:
- It was really easy to use and fast, especially because our time is really limited.
- It required very few supplies.
- It was ready for us in 24 hours.
Unfortunately, this soil texture kit doesn’t test for soil pH, soil nutrition, organic matter, or cation-exchange-capacity, but that doesn’t matter to us because that is not what we needed it for.
This kit would be perfect for busy, beginning gardeners who just need a quick answer or want to learn more about their soil. Also, we think it would be a lot of fun to do with kids!
How to Find Your Soil Texture
Step 1:
Dig a hole 6″ deep and take a sample of dirt. Fill it up to the dirt “fill line.”
Step 2:
Add 1 tsp. of dish soap. Pour it right over the top of the dirt.
Step 3:
Add water. Fill it up to the water “fill line.” Cap the bottle.
Step 4:
Shake the bottle vigorously for 30 seconds.
Step 5:
Set the bottle on a flat surface and let it sit for 12-24 hours.
Further Resources
- Right Plant, Right Place – DIY Garden Minute Ep. 134
- Beginning Gardener Education Bundle
- How to Mulch in 6 Steps
Conclusion for Soil Texture Kit
Again, this is an easy, simple kit for finding out your soil texture so you can place the right plants in the right place.
This soil texture kit by Garden Tutor is perfect for busy, beginning gardeners who just need a quick answer or want to learn more about their soil. Also, we think it would be a lot of fun to do with kids!
Now we want to hear from you!
Why do you want to know your garden soil texture? Let us know by leaving a quick comment below and thanks!
Thanks and see ya in the garden!
~Sean and Allison
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