# Texture Of Soil Sample Material...



## TN Hawkeye (May 7, 2018)

Given the clay soil we have here in East TN the material I pulled for my sample is not like fine dirt or sand. It is a lot of clumps and chucks. Would it be best for me to crush it up with a hammer or a rolling pin to get it to a finer texture? Thanks for any advice in advance.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I'm not sure I understand the question. Why you want to crush the samples?


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## Groundskeeper Willie (Feb 22, 2019)

I used a coring tool with about 1" diameter to collect soil samples. With the soil around here also being heavy in clay, not to mention wet from weeks of rains, I had a collection of plugs, not loose dirt. The UGA testing office explained in their literature that they'd appreciate the sample to be dried well and free of rocks and root fragments. They want enough in the bag to analyze, but you don't want to overfill it beyond a certain line or the post office gets unhappy I suppose,, so reducing the chunky cores to loose dry soil is important to have the right amount in the bag. To get the soil dried and picked over for rocks, I let the cores dry overnight in a cardboad box, pulverized them, and let the dirt dry out another day before bagging up the sample.


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## Green (Dec 24, 2017)

Sounds reasonable. If this is bad practice, it'll be news to me as well.


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