Sir can you please explain sand,slit and clay and difference between them because this topic is so confusing And one humble request sir please make this soil science and agronomy series as much as you can, you explain stuff in wise and coordinate manner that help us to clear concept related to soil science and agronomy Thank you
Excellent presentation, Professor, thank you! The best I have come across on soil testing by far (don't get me started on jars of mud around the kitchen waiting on layers to form). However, there at the very end, don't you mean that second sample you worked is either silty clay loam or silty clay? You have a heck of a ribbon going but then you say it's either silty clay loam or a silt loam. I see it as having clay in there. Am I getting it wrong? I have watched this a couple times and certainly will again because when I go out there in the field I want to have it quite memorized. Thanks again for your assistance as I try to learn my land to bring it to better ecological health through invasive plant removal and native plant installations.
Hello Salvia, We sent your question to one of our soil experts, Jeff Bradford, and below is his reply. Please let us know if you have any other questions. Silt loams, silty clay loams, and silty clays can all potentially form ribbons about 2" long if the clay percentage is approximately 25% or greater. The keys I teach for texturing soils are: - Make sure the sample is not too dry or too wet. Having the proper moisture will ensure appropriate ribbon length and stickiness, and stiffness of clay. I add enough water to make the sample workably in my hand. This takes practice. - Try to make a vertical ribbon, so the ribbon must support the weight. This should allow the sample to break at the correct length properly. If you roll it over your finger as Dr. Graveel in the video, you can potentially get longer ribbons as the soil is supported by your fingers. - I call the boundary between the loams and clay loams the shine-line. Samples higher in clay should appear shiny as they are worked. I try to smear the sample to see if it shines or not. Samples around the boundary between loams and clay loams can be dull or shiny. So, you might have a make a judgment call. - As the clay increases, the sample should become much stickier and stiffer, making it very difficult to work. It might feel like your hand is going to cramp up. Things to watch out for: - Moisture content. Clays with a high water content will feel more like they are lower in clay. Samples too dry will feel higher in clay - Organic matter content. Samples high in organic matter can make it feel like the clay content is much higher than the actual clay percentage. Organic matter can also make the sample feel softer, thus leading you to think the silt content is higher. - Sands content. Sand is a random number generator. The coarser the sand, the higher the likelihood of overestimation, and finer sand leads to underestimation. Very fine sand feels almost identical to coarse silt. Even experts miss sand percentages.
You said that the first sample with little clay was a silt loam and that the other sample with much more clay is either a silty clay loam, or also a silt loam....?
I think maybe the final 2 words you spoke "Silt Loam" were misspoken. Since the sample made such a nice ribbon and you yourself mentioned that it contained clay, I doubt that you meant to place it in the clay-less "Silt Loam" category. Other than that, I'm so grateful for this series of lessons.
Hi, can someone please answer this question for me. Can the same soil material be either sand, silt or clay. As I understand, yes it's all dependable on the size of the soil particles?
Love the visuals this video gives me of how to rest soil samples!
I watched some videos about this topics whose were lengthy & I couldn't understand. But this one is short & easily understandable.
Loved this video
Well presented Prof 🙏
This basic video was a great explanation .
Sir can you please explain sand,slit and clay and difference between them because this topic is so confusing
And one humble request sir please make this soil science and agronomy series as much as you can, you explain stuff in wise and coordinate manner that help us to clear concept related to soil science and agronomy
Thank you
Excellent presentation, Professor, thank you! The best I have come across on soil testing by far (don't get me started on jars of mud around the kitchen waiting on layers to form). However, there at the very end, don't you mean that second sample you worked is either silty clay loam or silty clay? You have a heck of a ribbon going but then you say it's either silty clay loam or a silt loam. I see it as having clay in there. Am I getting it wrong? I have watched this a couple times and certainly will again because when I go out there in the field I want to have it quite memorized. Thanks again for your assistance as I try to learn my land to bring it to better ecological health through invasive plant removal and native plant installations.
Hello Salvia,
We sent your question to one of our soil experts, Jeff Bradford, and below is his reply. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Silt loams, silty clay loams, and silty clays can all potentially form ribbons about 2" long if the clay percentage is approximately 25% or greater.
The keys I teach for texturing soils are:
- Make sure the sample is not too dry or too wet. Having the proper moisture will ensure appropriate ribbon length and stickiness, and stiffness of clay. I add enough water to make the sample workably in my hand. This takes practice.
- Try to make a vertical ribbon, so the ribbon must support the weight. This should allow the sample to break at the correct length properly. If you roll it over your finger as Dr. Graveel in the video, you can potentially get longer ribbons as the soil is supported by your fingers.
- I call the boundary between the loams and clay loams the shine-line. Samples higher in clay should appear shiny as they are worked. I try to smear the sample to see if it shines or not. Samples around the boundary between loams and clay loams can be dull or shiny. So, you might have a make a judgment call.
- As the clay increases, the sample should become much stickier and stiffer, making it very difficult to work. It might feel like your hand is going to cramp up.
Things to watch out for:
- Moisture content. Clays with a high water content will feel more like they are lower in clay. Samples too dry will feel higher in clay
- Organic matter content. Samples high in organic matter can make it feel like the clay content is much higher than the actual clay percentage. Organic matter can also make the sample feel softer, thus leading you to think the silt content is higher.
- Sands content. Sand is a random number generator. The coarser the sand, the higher the likelihood of overestimation, and finer sand leads to underestimation. Very fine sand feels almost identical to coarse silt. Even experts miss sand percentages.
Excellent
You said that the first sample with little clay was a silt loam and that the other sample with much more clay is either a silty clay loam, or also a silt loam....?
Excellent presentation 👍
Good info. Thanks.
I think maybe the final 2 words you spoke "Silt Loam" were misspoken. Since the sample made such a nice ribbon and you yourself mentioned that it contained clay, I doubt that you meant to place it in the clay-less "Silt Loam" category. Other than that, I'm so grateful for this series of lessons.
So that others are not confused do note that the Silt Loam textural class can have as much as 26.99 percent clay size separate.
I'm also doubting to this...Pls explain this
The last sample will be either silty clay or silt clay loam depending on the exact amount of clay present in it.
Hi, can someone please answer this question for me. Can the same soil material be either sand, silt or clay. As I understand, yes it's all dependable on the size of the soil particles?
Great video, thanks for sharing