Test your soil at home

Start with a soil sample

Take small samples from several spots in the same bed. Mix them in a clean bucket. Keep a wet patch, a lawn and a vegetable bed separate if you want to compare them. Remove stones, roots and loose mulch.

For garden soil, Cornell's sampling guide uses the top 6 inches. Sample soil that is dry to moist, rather than soaked. Use part of the mixed sample for the jar and feel tests. Check drainage in the ground where you plan to grow.

Test soil texture with a jar

Get a clear, straight-sided jar with a lid, a sieve, a marker, a ruler and a timer.

1. Sift out stones, roots and large bits of plant matter. Fill about one-third of the jar with soil.
2. Add clean water, leaving space at the top. Close the lid and shake well.
3. Set the jar on a level surface. After 1 minute, mark the top of the sand.
4. After 2 hours, mark the top of the silt. Leave the jar still for 48 hours, then mark the top of the clay.
5. Measure each layer's thickness: sand at the bottom, silt in the middle, clay on top. Exclude water and floating plant bits.
6. Enter the three depths above. If a layer is absent, enter 0. If you cannot see its edge, repeat the test rather than guess.

This follows Clemson Extension's jar test. Clumps and blurred layers can skew the result. Treat the class as a clue, not a lab finding.

Try the squeeze and ribbon tests

Moisten a small handful until it holds together. It should feel like soft putty, not drip. Rub some between your fingers: sand feels gritty, silt feels smooth and clay feels sticky.

• Squeeze: Make a ball and press it gently. A coarse, sandy soil breaks apart with little pressure. A medium soil holds but changes shape easily. Fine soil resists breaking.
• Ribbon: Push the damp ball between your thumb and finger to make a flat strip. Let it stretch out and break under its own weight.
• Read the strip: A ribbon under 1 inch may be sandy or silty; check the feel. A 1–2 inch ribbon has more body. A ribbon over 2 inches points toward fine, clayey soil.

Colorado State Extension's feel guide pairs ribbon length with grit and stickiness. Do the same. Ribbon length alone cannot give exact sand, silt and clay shares.

Check garden drainage with a hole test

Texture is only part of drainage. Packed soil and layers below the surface can slow water too. This simple percolation test checks how fast water leaves a hole.

1. Dig a hole at least 12 inches deep and 4–12 inches wide. Avoid soaked soil: digging can smear the sides and affect the test.
2. Fill it with water and let it drain to wet the soil around it.
3. Refill right away. Measure the water depth, then measure its drop after 15 minutes.
4. Multiply the drop in inches by 4 for an estimated rate in inches per hour. A half-inch drop in 15 minutes works out to 2 inches per hour.

Iowa State Extension gives 1–3 inches per hour as a useful range for most plants. Below 1 inch per hour is slow; above 4 is very fast. Choose plants for the site and check more than one spot. These garden-hole rates do not apply to pots.

What an at-home soil pH test tells you

Soil pH is a measure of acidity. Below 7 is acidic; above 7 is alkaline. The jar, squeeze and drainage tests do not measure it.

With pH strips

Use strips sold for soil testing. Follow their directions for the soil-to-water ratio, wait time and color reading. Use the water type they specify. Read the result as a range on the color chart, not an exact lab value. Strips do not measure nutrient levels.

With vinegar and baking soda

Drip vinegar onto a spoonful of soil. In a separate cup, add baking soda to fresh soil mixed with water. Keep the tests separate.

Cornell's home pH guide describes vinegar fizz as an alkaline clue and baking-soda fizz as an acidic clue. This is a rough screen. It gives no numeric pH. A quiet cup does not establish a precise neutral reading. Do not use fizz strength to choose a lime or sulfur dose.

If you need a fertilizer plan, an amendment rate or a check for lead, use a lab test that covers that question. A texture class or home pH reading cannot answer it.

Test potting mix in a container

Peat, coir, bark and perlite do not fit the mineral soil triangle. Do not put a potting-mix jar result into the tool. Instead, check the mix in the pot you will use.

1. Check the exit: Make sure the drainage holes are clear and water can leave the outer pot or saucer. Do not add a gravel layer to fix a blocked exit.
2. Watch a watering: Slowly wet the mix evenly until water comes from the holes. Note how long it takes to start draining and how long free dripping lasts. Repeat with the same pot and starting moisture to compare mixes fairly.
3. Check it as it dries: Note whether the mix stays loose or forms a hard, tight lump. Watch for water running down a gap at the pot edge while the center stays dry. These are reasons to check the mix and roots, not proof of a texture class.

There is no single drain-time target for every pot and mix. Pot size, holes and how wet the mix starts all affect your check. Maryland Extension's potting guide explains the goal: a mix that holds some water but leaves air for roots. It also advises against gravel at the base.

Use our garden soil vs potting soil guide to choose the right type. For a container that stays too wet, see well-draining potting soil.

How the texture calculator works

The tool divides each layer's depth by the total depth, then shows its share as a percent. It uses the unrounded shares to find one of the 12 USDA texture classes. Values shown on screen are rounded, so they may add to 99.9% or 100.1%.

The starting depths of 4, 4 and 2 are a worked example, not a claim about your soil. They give 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% clay: loam. A sample close to a class boundary can change class with a small change in the layer marks.

Jar depths estimate the mix of settled layers. They are less exact than lab particle-size measurements. The result does not grade soil health, predict a watering schedule or set a fertilizer dose.