for the non-pedologists:

Sandy clay is a textural box on the soil triangle. It’s small and requires the absence of silt. The reason we joke about them not existing is because of the size of the box and how far apart the two grain sizes are. There are very few scenarios where sand and clay would be deposited and not silt.

  • AnneVolin@lemmy.ml
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    15 days ago

    Imma be honest. I have tried my fucking hardest to learn this multiple times trying to roughly figure out what the best kind of foundation for stuff is and what I need to do to have better soil for vegitables, but it’s impossible to do without hands on instruction.

    It also doesn’t help that topsoil where I am is often hummus due to leaf decomposition so it’s hard to figure out if I actually have “loam” or it’s something else, but also the fact that since I live on the side of a ridge you get like 3 types of “sand heavy” soil if you dig out a 4x4x2 box.

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.netOPM
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      15 days ago

      This might help

      The high amount of humus you indicated makes things feel finer than they are. If you keep smearing or rubbing though it breaks down in your hand and you’re left with nothing. Work with what is left over.

      In general, SL to SiL is fine for veggies. CL even, but you have to be careful with watering.

      LS is too coarse and you’ll have trouble with water retention

    • Nyssa@slrpnk.net
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      15 days ago

      https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/

      Use this tool. Click the green button on the webpage, search up your location, on the toolbar click on the red square and draw a box around your yard, click soil map. On the left of the screen, you’ll see a list of soil types on your property with their textures

      • AnneVolin@lemmy.ml
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        15 days ago

        Damn this one helped a ton. Apperantly it’s gravely sandy loam, but they 100% have the rock composition wrong, but that’s to be expected because my property is on a ridge.

    • camerondakota@slrpnk.net
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      15 days ago

      If you move to the desert there’s no organic matter in the soil. Problem solved. ;) anyway, sounds like you have a good problem to have!

    • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      The chart always looked wonky to me until I saw a version a former coworker had in his cubicle that put sand at the top instead of clay. For some reason the whole thing makes more sense that way to visualize the relationship clay has with silt and sand.

      Just rotate the chart that was posted so sand is at the top and see if you see what I mean.