Percolating Soil (a Test for Good Drainage)

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Robert Dolezal

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A percolation test times the water absorption rate in your garden soil.

Healthy gardens start with healthy soil. In addition to testing the amount of nutrients found in your planting beds, it’s also a good idea to conduct a percolation test. This assessment evaluates the texture of your soil and the amount of organic matter it contains to determine how quickly it will drain.

Good soil drainage – neither too fast nor too slow – is important to the overall wellbeing (and success) of your garden: You don’t want your plants standing in water, but you don’t want their roots to dry out either.

Here’s how to perform a simple percolation test:

Dig several holes in your planting beds, 2 feet deep, and fill them with water. After the water drains the first time, refill the holes with more, and note how long it takes for them to empty.

The water level in typical, well-draining garden soil should drop 1-2 inches per hour. Soil that drains near that rate will be ideal for growing vegetables, while that which drains slower or faster requires structural amendments.

Drainage rates that are slower than the ideal reveal that the soil is too heavy with clay (or that other conditions might be a cause). Investigate to see if a layer of hardpan or impermeable rock beneath the planting bed might be the cause of the slow drainage.

If your soil drains much quicker than the ideal rate (1-2 inches in 15 minutes or less, as opposed to an hour), it’s likely that your soil’s so porous because it contains too much sand.

Both drainage problems – too slow or too fast – can be corrected by incorporating 2-4 inches of organic compost into the top 1 foot of soil.

Facts

The best vegetable garden soil is loose, fertile loam with equal parts mineral clay, silt and sand, mixed with ample decomposed organic material. (Such soil drains easily and retains ample air while it avoids compacting.) It has an acid-alkaline balance measuring 6.0-6.8 on the pH scale (a reading that’s slightly acidic).
It’s healthy soil that helps a garden thrive and prosper.

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