Soil texture and the Bienz Soil Chart

	Soil texture and the Bienz Soil Chart
	compleat botanica using the software Charts

The twelve principal soil textures used in The Compleat Botanica come from the Bienz Soil Chart published by the United States Department of Agriculture.

sand	particles more than 0.05 mm in diameter
silt	particles between 0.002 mm and 0.05 mm in diameter
clay	particles less than 0.002 mm in diameter
loam	equal amounts of sand, silt, and clay particles along with humus, water, and air.

In addition to the twelve Bienz soil textures, many horticulture and garden books use a less precise set of soil types. These are listed as numbers 20 through 31 in the chart below.