Question

can someone help me with understanding the soil texture triangle

Answer 1

It is really about size. Think of a funnel first the smallest pieces will fall through (silt) then the medium sized pieces (sand or gravel) then the biggest pieces rock.

Answer 2

Soil texture triangles confused me at first too, but I'll see if I can help you :)

So the idea is if you know what percentage of your soil is silt, sand and clay you can work out what class it is in. If you have a look at these two websites it should help you understand it a bit better (if you still don't understand, feel free to ask):

http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/glossary/s_u/soil_texture_triangle.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5735575_read-soil-texture-triangle-chart.html

Answer 3

The USDA Soil texture classes are sand, loamy sands, sandy loams, loam, silt loam, silt, sandy clay loam, clay loam, silty clay loam, sandy clay, silty clay, and clay. Subclasses of sand are subdivided into coarse sand, sand, fine sand, and very fine sand. Subclasses of loamy sands and sandy loams that are based on sand size are named similarly. Soil classes in BOLD are commonly found in the northeast.
The soil textural triangle is used when lab data is available.
The term “Loam” is often confused with topsoil material sold as farm loom. Loam is a USDA soil textural class that has fairly equal amounts of sand silt in clay. Loam textures are not very prevalent in New England (due to the low clay content of our soils).

Answer 4

Okay thanks guys (: