The Jar Test - Decoding your Soil's Texture | Milkwood

This DIY method will help you figure out the basics of your own soil. It's a snippet from our mini-workshop on Building Healthy Soil! Check out the full resources (including our special Soil Calculator) for this workshop here: bit.ly/milkwood-soil-workshop
You'll learn all about the basics of your garden soil - its makeup, its mysteries, and how you can improve the soil at your place.
By the way, this workshop was an extended lesson from one of the many subjects that we teach inside our online course, Permaculture Living. If you’re curious, you can check the course out here: bit.ly/soil-permaculture-living
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[@johnr.timmers2297]

Honestly the best use I have had for the jar test so far has been telling fine and ultrafine sand from silt. The sand will settle rapidly but the silt will stay in solution much longer

[@corrinechurchman4993]

Awesome video. Thank you

[@JeannieAli]

Thanks for your help in explaining what I need.❤❤

[@Milkwood]

You are so welcome!

[@matthewmulligangolf]

This is an awesome video! Precise and to the point!

[@Milkwood]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MuhammadMudassir-fq4ft]

Excellent

[@rebeccajohnson1368]

Fantastic information!

[@Milkwood]

glad it was helpful :)

[@sy_ox]

Amazing thank you so much for sharing!

[@Milkwood]

You are so welcome!

[@gcnewd]

Thank you. That is awesome info

[@Milkwood]

Glad it was helpful!

[@KordTaylor]

Nice video! 👏🏻

[@Milkwood]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Mark-te8ky]

it seems like either my silt or clay is not showing, is there a way to make it more visible? or maybe there is something missing in my soil

[@ilker1854]

Thanks 🙏

[@Milkwood]

😊

[@meaningfulmakings]

Thank you. X

[@Milkwood]

you're welcome :)

[@argirismouroufas3854]

Good day sir and hapy the new year! I want to make fire bricks for a wood stove for my home. Can you tel me please what ate the corect anlogy (Sand, clay and silt) ?

[@shafasha5461]

What if the water still muddy after i leave it to settle for 1 day, should i assume that the top of water line is the clay layer line or does it shows otherwise, that the clay is not present in my soil?

[@NickRitar]

Hi Shafa, if it's still muddy after 24 hours it might be an indicator that you have dispersive clay in your soil. Regardless, some clay should have settled and formed a layer at the top of the solids (bottom of the water), this is the layer you should measure for your clay component.

[@meaningfulmakings]

Dispersive clay? *goes off to google what that is now*

[@tonycortese2165]

Mine is the same so off to google for me too

[@acoldguy2381]

That's all well & dandy but what is a good soil for general-purpose gardening? The seed packagers dont say what type of soil is good for the plants.

[@Milkwood]

as it says in the description, this is an extra detail video for a larger video + resource set on garden soil - click the link above -

[@acoldguy2381]

@@Milkwood No it doesn't, but it does say "You'll learn all about the basics of your garden soil - its makeup, its mysteries, and how you can improve the soil at your place."

[@Milkwood]

@@acoldguy2381 This DIY method will help you figure out the basics of your own soil. It's a snippet from our mini-workshop on Building Healthy Soil! Check out the full resources (including our special Soil Calculator) for this workshop here: bit.ly/milkwood-soil-workshop - You'll learn all about the basics of your garden soil - its makeup, its mysteries, and how you can improve the soil at your place.

[@acoldguy2381]

@@Milkwood Thank you for the information. My soil is of a different type; it is ~90% Loess which presents its own challenges.

[@Grayald]

What does it mean if you end up with a single indistinct layer of dirt with a layer of dirty water on top of it?

[@Milkwood]

Hmm good Q Gray - sounds like fine silt/clay soils, with not much organic matter... How fine is the indistinct layer? Can you see chunks in it or is it really dense?

[@Grayald]

@@Milkwood it was pretty much one solid layer with some water on top. The dirt layer was more like really really fine particles that stayed suspended and kept the texture like a gravy. They didn't seem to want to settle. Almost like it was staying as a really loose mud. I figured after 2 days it wasn't going to change so I just dumped it out. Also, it was a big pain to get it broken down and dispersed in the water. I tried shaking it in the jar for 10 minutes on and off and it never got any finer than little beads of clay. So I dumped them into a different container and took me like 40 minutes but I managed to use my fingers to smear it all until there was no chunks left. Then I returned it to the jar. Going to be pretty tough trying to work any peat moss or manure properly into this soil.

[@lydiahubbell6278]

sounds like clay to me.

[@Grayald]

@@lydiahubbell6278 certainly feels like it, and from everything I've read including here, that seems to be the case. Real pain in the ass too deal with, but I managed to get it broken down somewhat and mix it with other stuff. Hopefully in time it will improve

[@grounded7362]

I did the jar test and really struggling to see where the sand ends and the silt begins. The water is still really cloudy. My soil is heavy black soil and when I started my garden in 2012 it was perfect for mud bog races. I have been adding organic matter every year and my soil still holds a lot of moisture and sticks to my hands real bad if I work in it up to a few days after a rain. It's frustrating because most of my potatoes always end up with swollen lenticels when I harvest them even in the raised beds I rake up. I don't know what else to do.

[@Milkwood]

hmm it does sound like you've got some dispersive clays there... I'd be raising to potatoes as high as you possibly can - even look at doing no-dig beds, just for them?

[@davidisaacson9328]

Maybe you have a real thick base of clay at the bottom of your soil...and then sand and silt laying above the solid clay bed(as if someone just threw garden soil on top of the clay). This happened to me. Plants really struggled and the clay base was VERY slow to drain...leaving my topsoil very water-logged. It was a pain in the @ss to manually break up and amend that clay layer. 🥵 Eventually got it dialed in though!

[@nohomo6548]

Why is it bleeding purple YOUCH!