Description Of Each Soil Type - Rain Bird ESP-SMT Installation & Operation Manual

Description Of Each Soil Type

Sand
• Loose and single grained. Each grain of sand can be easily
seen and has a gritty feel.
• Squeezed when dry, sands cannot form a cast and will
readily fall apart when released.
• Squeezed when moist, soil will form a very weak cast that
will crumble if touched.
Loamy Sand
• Resembles sand as it is loose and single grained. Most
individual grains can be seen. Feel is not as gritty as sand.
• Squeezed when dry, soil forms a slight cast that readily falls
apart when hand releases soil.
• Squeezed when moist, soil is slightly cohesive. Fragile cast
can be formed more than with sand.
Sandy Loam
• Some individual sand grains can be seen and felt.
• Enough silt and/or clay soil particles to provide soil
cohesion when moist.
• When dry, casts can be formed that will not break with
careful handling.
Loam Soil
• Medium textured soil. Mixture of sand, silt and clay with
none dominant.
• When dry, soil can form a cast that can be handled freely.
• Squeezed moist, soil is fairly smooth and plastic with a
gritty feel.
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Clay Loam
• Fine textured soil. Even distribution of sand, silt and clay.
Soil feels like it has more clay than sand or silt.
• Forms clods that are firm when moist and hard when dry.
• When the moist soil is squeezed between the thumb and
forefinger it forms a thin ribbon that will barely sustain it's
own weight.
Silty Clay
• Soil has a moderate amount of fine grains of sand and clay
particles. Medium sized particles represent less than 50%
of all soil particles.
• When dry, soil forms very hard clods that can be broken.
• When moist, a moderate size ribbon can be formed that
will support it's own weight.
Clay Soil
• Very fine textured soil.
• When dry, forms very hard lumps that are hard to break up.
• When moist, soil is extremely sticky and plastic.
• Squeezed soil will form a thin, long flexible ribbon that will
not break easily.