What is soil texture

Root growth not restricted, but highly susceptible to mechanical compaction May be hard setting Moderate infiltration rate Moderate plant available water. Root growth not restricted Moderately susceptible to mechanical compaction Moderate plant available water Moderate infiltration rate.

Root growth not restricted Moderately susceptible to mechanical compaction Moderate plant available water Low to moderate infiltration rate. Root growth not restricted Moderately susceptible to mechanical compaction Moderate to high plant available water.

Root growth frequently restricted Moderately to highly susceptible to mechanical compaction Some restriction on water movement leading to periodic waterlogging Moderate to high plant available water.

Root growth moderately to severely restricted High susceptibility to mechanical compaction Water drains very slowly except in self-mulching soils. Soil textures are classified by the fractions of each soil component sand, silt, clay present in the soil. Classifications are typically named for the primary constituent particle size or a combination of the most abundant particles sizes, e.

A fourth term, loam, is used to describe equal properties of sand, silt, and clay in a soil sample, and lends to the naming of even more classifications, e. For example, sand is well aerated but does not hold much water and is low in nutrients. Clay soils generally hold more water, and are better at supplying nutrients. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content. Texture is important because it influences: the amount of water the soil can hold the rate of water movement through the soil how workable and fertile the soil is.

Soil textural triangle. If the percentages of clay, silt, and sand in a soil are known primarily through laboratory analysis , you may use the textural triangle to determine the texture class of your soil. Figure Textural Triangle.

The textural triangle describes the relative proportions of sand, silt and clay in various types of soils. The major textural classes for the soils of Maui are provided in Table 3.

Each of the textural classes listed in Table 3 make up finely textured soils. This is largely due to the type of parent material of most Hawaii soils, which is basalt. Since basalt is a finely textured rock, it weathers into finely textured soils.

The relative amount of clay has great importance in the soil. Clay particles, as well as other particles of similar size, are important components of a soil. There is a fundamental difference between soils that contain large amounts of sand particles and soils that contain large amounts of very small particles, such as clay.

That difference is surface area. The total surface area of a given mass of clay is more than a thousand times the total surface area of sand particles with the same mass. To put this idea into perspective, imagine a single cube with 6 sides. This cube represents a sand particle. Now, imagine that you break this single cube up into smaller cubes, which represent clay particles.

These cubes each have 6 sides. Essentially, by breaking up the larger cube, you have exposed many more surfaces. Thus, the total surface area of the smaller cubes will be much greater than the surface area of the single cube.