Testing for Sand, Silt and Clay in the Orchard

It’s not chocolate milk and it’s certainly not cappuccino…the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard Team takes some time to evaluate the soil texture in the pollinator garden and near the fruit trees. Photo credit: OrchardPeople.com.

It may look good enough to drink…but no one in the Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard was rushing to take a sip from these jars filled with a thick cocoa-coloured slurry inside.

That’s because these jars were filled not with coffee or chocolate milk. Instead they were a mix of soil, water and soap! After a morning of weeding and mulching, Leah led us in this soil texture testing experiment.

Using a trowel to take a soil sample from our pollinator garden. Photo credit: OrchardPeople.com.

The goal of the “Jar Test” is to scoop some soil from your garden into a jar and to fill the jar water and then add tablespoon of soap. Give it a good shake and let it settle for up to two days. After the particles settle, you’ll learn more about your soil’s texture.

Soil, of course, is made up of tiny pieces of rock. Sand particles are the largest ones and they will sink down to the bottom of the jar. Silt particles are mid-sized particles and will be suspended on top of the sand, and the clay particles are tiny. They will float above the layer of silt.

Leah showing off her soil sample jar.

We are lucky that Leah had some time to volunteer with the us this weekend, as she’s busy running as a Green party candidate for Eglinton-Lawrence in Ontario’s upcoming elections.

Other participants this weekend included Susan, Dan and Dan (yes, we have two Dan volunteers) Tess, Zeny, Dani, Lynn and our teenage volunteer and her mom.

Coming up this weekend we are having an emergency stewardship session! We were supposed to have the weekend off, but sadly, weeds don’t take holidays and after a few days of rain, they are taking over the pollinator garden. So we’ll work on that on Saturday.

Susan shakes the soil test jar vigorously to help separate the soil particles into layers of sand, silt and clay.

If you want to join us in the park this Saturday morning, send an email to growingforgreen (at) gmail.com. Looking forward to a lovely day!

Susan Poizner is one of the volunteers for The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto. She is the creator of the fruit tree care education website OrchardPeople.com.  Susan is the author of four fruit tree care books including Grow Fruit Trees Fast: A Beginner’s Guide to a Healthy Harvest in Record Time. She is also the host of the Orchard People podcast and an ISA Certified Arborist.