Now that our soil has rested for a couple days, lets see what texture we have to work with…
Sand is the 1st to settle as it has the largest particle size. Silt is the next to settle with a medium particle size and Clay is the last to settle with the smallest particle size… once the marks are made for each, the distance is then measured in mm:
Sand - aeration - 9mm
Silt - fertility - 13mm
Clay- absorb nutrients- 3.5mm
Now we have our distance, lets convert it to percentages…add up the total mm’s = 25.5mm. This is the number we divide each number by then multiply by 100:
Sand 9mm/25 x 100 = 36%
Silt 13mm/25 x 100 = 50%
Clay 3.5mm/25 x 100 = 15%
Now find those numbers on a soil texture diagram to find out the soil type
Damn near perfect soil! Do you know how we improve it? Mulch and cover crops 
Now for the clumping test: make a firm ball then poke a finger into the center one time…
Awesome!! 1gallon of water after 4 days and loosely covered with no plants tells me the soil is holding onto the water quite well…almost too well as I would expect more to evaporate in this much soil but I am happy with the water flow: 1/4c water into 1/2c soil drained in 1 minute 15 seconds
Microbial life and death is the major contributor to EC driving plant growth so when the bio-life is down, plant growth suffers and as energy gets used up Brix also drops as the plant becomes a target for disease and insects. In a bio-active, mineralized healthy soil the EC will stay consistent due to the interactions between microbes and minerals…this current drives plant growth.
Now in soil, these numbers show us:
Temp - affects speed of plant growth and soil processes
PPM - Not really used though backs up us/cm readings
US/CM (EC) - tells the soil energy making the amount of nutrients available…salinity level (salts)
Ph - tells how available nutrients are
Now the only thing I do not know and will not until the soil test is done, is which salts? This is important as carbon decreases, nitrogen and oxygen increases lowering the need of further inputs as fertilizer efficiency is increased. When the minerals are balanced, soil structure also improves.
I like to see a new soil EC around a 2.5 to give room for increases as the inputs are broken down by micro life though because the soil’s EC is almost a 4 without knowing what is available, a cereal/grain cover crop will be beneficial which will also add more tilth with nutrients returned as the cover crop decays above ground and the leaves below ground turns to loam essentially providing free humic and fulvic acids
Now looking at ph shows me that I have a decent balance of magnesium, potassium and phosphorus…excessive levels of magnesium and/or potassium increase ph which can cause mitrate nitrogen and EC to be low whereas, high phosphorus decreases ph. It also shows it is buffering quite well starting with well water at 7.3ph…dropped it almost a full point!
Off to a fantastic start!