Fun little tool to tell you what your soil type is

ElleSkywalker

ElleSkywalker

As excited as Kitty about to be a bridesmaid
Joined
9 March 2011
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Tiny farm some where in UK
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Well not a tool, a website.

Following from all the rain talk, I thought I'd try and find what sort of land am on, thinking it was clay. Turns out am on clayey-loam to silty loam with a good soil depth. Quite pleased with that.

Link below of anyone want to look for themselves 🙂

UK Soil Observatory

mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk
 
The free to access layer is not very precise/detailed in that it shows general properties for an area/ soil type, but not local variation. So it may not always match what you see or experience on the ground.

You can view the Soilscapes data directly through the Landis viewer.

On soil, the web page Soil Benchmark will let you look at drainage, watercourses and slope etc for up to 5 fields for free.
 
On my phone I can't quite work out the colours when they are similar - I need to see the key and the colours side by side - but I can see enough to know that we're on the edge of a sandy acidic soil, almost bordering a wet clay soil. I've always wondered why our land is so dry when surrounding farmland has standing water in the fields. Very interesting, thank you.
 
YourValentine said:
The free to access layer is not very precise/detailed in that it shows general properties for an area/ soil type, but not local variation. So it may not always match what you see or experience on the ground.

You can view the Soilscapes data directly through the Landis viewer.

On soil, the web page Soil Benchmark will let you look at drainage, watercourses and slope etc for up to 5 fields for free.
Click to expand...

Soilscapes is spot on for what I know I have, acidic sand over about 3.5 acres and a small section of peaty loam stretching along 1 side of around an acre (tho runs up the side of 3 paddocks).
 
YourValentine said:
You can view the Soilscapes data directly through the Landis viewer.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for that, just had a peep. We’re just on the right side of being in Soilscape 18, and we are luckily more loamy than clayey soil. There’s a lot of clay hereabouts.

Soilscape 18:​

Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils
Texture:
Loamy and clayey

Over the road and it’s a different story.
 
Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils for me!

Winter is a challenge but we get lots of good grass all summer long!
 
I think the border is slightly out on mine. I'm on the border of 'slightly acidic loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage' and 'freely draining slightly acidic loamy soils'. I'd class our soil as free draining but we're the wrong side of the line. I think it's possibly due to the way the borders are not angular lines and ours is a small area (5 acres) of very sandy soil in a mostly soggy area.

Winter is generally not to bad and summer (if its dry) we don't get to much grass which is good for my fatties!
 
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