This homesteading garden dirt mason jar test method will help you know what you are working with and how to fix it with amendments. You can identify the percentage of clay, sand, silt and organic matter with this test method.

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Mason jars can be used to test soil. This article explains how. There’s lots of useful information including step-by-step instructions and a detailed summary. The goal is to determine what types of soil make up the sample and in what amounts. Most soil samples have sand, silt, and clay.

Sand is a type of soil that is made of silicon dioxide or calcium carbonate. Aragonite is an example of calcium carbonate based sand, and it formed from coal and shellfish over the past half billion years.

Silt is larger than sand but smaller than clay. It is produced from chemical weathering of rocks and regolith. It is also produced by physical weathering processes including haloclasty and frost shattering.

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Clay consists of finely grained natural rock or other soil materials. It becomes hard and brittle.

The instructions reveal how much water to use and how long to wait for the soil to settle into layers. Usually, the soil layers will develop in a couple of hours inside the mason jar. This article provides details on the layers. For example, the darkness of each layer reveals how much organic matter is present.

There is an experiment that is detailed as well. Three samples were taken from three different locations. One mason jar was filled with soil from the garden. Another mason jar had soil from the field. The third sample was taken from the woods. Each sample has a different composition.

Read on for details.

Click here to read about how to use this homesteading garden dirt mason jar test method :

https://hopefarmblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/04/how-to-use-a-mason-jar-to-test-your-soil/