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soil texture

Property of a soil defined by the exact grain size distribution of its finer-grained anorganic matter

EntityQ5026010

Also known as texture · soil textures

Subclass of: property
, particle-size distribution
Part of: soil science

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Soil texture is the identifying quality of the upper layer of earth, which is composed of sand, silt and clay. Soil texture can be determined using qualitative methods such as texture by feel, and quantitative methods such as the hydrometer method based on Stokes' law. Soil texture has agricultural applications such as determining crop suitability and to predict the response of the soil to environmental and management conditions such as drought or calcium (lime) requirements. Soil texture focuses on the particles that are less than two millimeters in diameter which include sand, silt, and clay. The USDA soil taxonomy and WRB soil classification systems use 12 textural classes whereas the UK-ADAS system uses 11. These classifications are based on the percentages of sand, silt, and clay in the soil.

Overview

All data

21 statements · 19% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Said to be the same as: Q12123132
Soil gradation
Studied by: soil science
Different from: soil type
Name: Körnung
Characteristic of: soil

On other databases

12 identifiers linking soil texture across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

19%

externally sourced

Source last edited May 29, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). soil texture (Q5026010). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/soil-texture-Q5026010