Whether you’re growing tomatoes, managing crops or striving for the perfect lawn, soil testing is key to success. A soil test ...

Soils are composed of a mixture of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. Both the clay and organic matter particles have a net negative charge. Thus, these negatively-charged soil particles will ...

For example, silt loam soil is 25 percent sand, 10 percent clay, and 65 percent silt ... Continue to observe the soil as you gather your sample, looking for plant or mineral material and observing ...

By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff Dirt is dirt — or is it? Anyone who’s tried to garden in North Idaho knows that our soil varies from bad to worse in most areas. My ...

Both are sources of silt-size particles that interact with wind, sand, and vegetation ... the entrained silt and clay as dust coatings on leaves, stems, trunks, and the soil surface.

The silt helps the sand and clay mix together ... Besides taking a sample to a lab for a soil test, the easiest way is a squeeze test. Take a handful of moist soil and form it into a ball.