Determining Soil Texture WARNING: This is Messy! A quick and fairly accurate way of determining the texture of a soil is to use the ribbon method. Try this method out by finding out what the soil texture is around your school.Compare your results to what others found in the class. How accurate do you think this method is? Take a small handful of soil and wet it up until you can make a ball of moist soil in your hand. Gently stretch the soil out between your thumb and forefinger and try and make a ribbon (you may not always be able to make a ribbon, depending on the soil texture). Note the feel of the soil as you are working it. Use the table below to assign the soils to different textural classes. SAND Loose and single-grained with a gritty feeling when moistened. Not sticky and will not form a ribbon when pressed between thumb and index finger. SANDY LOAM Contains sufficient silt and clay to give coherence to the moistened soil. Feels gritty and also slightly sticky. Will not form a ribbon. CLAY LOAM Forms short ribbons of less than 3 cm long. CLAY Extremely sticky and plastic when moist, feels a bit like plasticine. Easily forms a ribbon longer than 3 cm. What are the charcteristics of your soil type? Find out under the Properties section.