This Backcountry Life

Fast and healthy plant growth is possible, if you choose the right seed for the soil you have and grow to your conditions. We have terrible soil but we know pastoral crops can grow.To find out what soil you have, do a Settling test.

1. Fill a jar with straight sides with 70% soil taken from 10cm deep in your garden.
2. Then fill the jar up to the 90% mark with water leaving room for air.
3. Shake the jar well for 2 min till the soil blends well with the water.
4. Place the jar down to sit.
5. After 1 min the heavy sand content will settle, mark this with a marker.
6. After 1 hour the next heaviest silt content will settle, and mark.
7. In 24 hours the clay layer will settle, mark it out.
8. Ignoring floating organic matter. Empty the jar. The three layers you have marked represent 100% soil content. Measure each in mm.
9. Take your 3 measurements and use the following calculation to work out the percentage of silt, clay and sand you have in your soil.
Silt (in mm) divided by the total soil (in mm) x 100 = %silt
Clay(in mm) divided by the total soil (in mm) x 100 = %clay
Sand(in mm)divided by the total soil (in mm)x 100 =% sand
10. Use two of the percentages you have to find the soil on the pyramid chart. Being that the remaining ingredient represents the total soil content you only need two ingredients to determine your soil content and figure out what soil you have. Once you know your soil type you can accurately determine which plants will happily grow OR determine what you need to add to your soil to make it better for growing what you want.