Discover Your Soil Texture

You can easily get a rough idea of your soil texture by performing the following simple test.

Take a small handful of your garden soil, moisten and knead it to break up the small clumps (it should be the consistency of moist putty), and squeeze it into a ball. With the ball between your thumb and forefinger, gently push the soil upward with your thumb, squeezing out a ribbon of soil (be sure the soil ribbon is oriented straight up).

  • If you are unable to form a ribbon of soil, your soil is at least 50% sand and has little clay.
  • If your soil makes a medium ribbon (1”-2” long) before breaking,
          your soil is roughly 25% clay.
  • If the soil ribbon is 2”-3½” long before breaking, you have about 40% clay in your soil.
  • If the soil ribbon is longer than 3½”, then your soil is made up of at least 50% clay.

Modified from Gardening for Dummies, Mike MacCaskey et al, 2nd Ed, 1999, Wiley Publishing, Inc, Indianapolis, IN