I didn't see your 10:21 post. Sand, silt and clay can be divided according to size from larger (sand) to smaller (clay) (albeit ignoring other important characteristics like element/chemical content and physical structure-clay being platelets) . It appears to me that your jars are showing a distinct horizon between particle sizes and the "2" mark. I may be wrong. The differences are important as to the different characteristics. For instance, among other traits, sand imparts no structure, has poor water retention, high leaching, low TEC (nutrient holding capacity); while clay has high (but slow to absorb) water retention ability, large capacity for holding nutrients, and its structure holds together so well that it is susceptable to compaction.. Your soils TEC is likely to fall in the 7-10 range. Guessing is fun, but not very useful. I hate to keep advising people to spend money, and I have no connection to any lab, but it is always advantageous to get a soil test (loganlabs.com) so you have as much reliable information about your soil as possible to help in making decissions rather than guesses. There is a guy who visits now and again who is very knowledgeable on all things soil. If you do get a report from logan and post it, he might give you some pointers--or not. Worth a try. This post was edited by grass1950 on Mon, Aug 12, 13 at 16:50

"And whats some ways of knowing if my plants are fine to repot?" I don't understand that question. I have repotted plants because I wanted better soil, or because I found a better pot. Do you mean doing it soon after a recent repot? Well, I had repotted a TC and found out it was in totally wrong soil. And it wasn't doing any better than before. I was advised to repot now in proper medium and give it time to recover. I did, and it has done very well. Healthy plants will withstand the repot and plants in trouble will need it. I hope that make sense. And yes - give the roots time to heal before watering. Oh - and do remove all the old soil from the roots.

Perfect example of science moving "two steps forward and one step back"... often times the choices in the design of experiments, methodologies, interpretations, etc. are affected by unconscious biases coming from preconceived notions, monetary incentives, lack of a key piece of knowledge, etc... the motivations are not necessarily all selfish evil but more often stem from hubris and ignorance than anything else... and then of course mix in the human condition of cognitive dissonance and thus the path of science regularly takes that one step back (think of it as science making a correction)... why does this happen? "Its because you don't know what you don't know"... Unfortunately too many people hail science as being totally unbiased and thusly safe to trust/follow with blind faith... I rather look at science as being just another human endeavor and thus fallible, so its safer to reserve a bit of healthy skepticism when it comes to cutting edge science pronouncements. Thus that quote from an earlier posting above "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." Both of those quotes are very profound if one will truly expend some time to ponder on the deeper meanings. I've seen quite a few examples running through this thread where people don't seem to understand what those two quotes are referring to. Oh, and Ryan... have you added the rock dust yet? Ryan? Ryan? Ryyyyaaaannn.... (spoken like in that movie... Wilson!... Willlsson!!... Wiiiillllllllssson!!!... I guess Ryan too must have just floated away....)

The vast majority of reading I have done recommends either a no-dig amendment method or tilling/digging and amending to about 10-12 inches. I looked through all my garden books and can't find anything recommending digging to three feet of depth! My soil has some clay content, so when I have built a new bed, I have generally chosen to hand dig and mix in my favorite bagged compost to improve the soil. The one time I rented a tiller, I found it didn't work as well as my trusty shovel and hand mixing. (In fact, the perennials in that particular bed have been the slowest growing!) However, I then tried layering with cardboard and mulch last fall for yet another bed, and frankly, that bed has been an absolute delight - hardly any effort and the soil is lovely, well draining, and easy to plant in. I will definitely use no-dig methods if I have time to wait patiently for my next new bed! For a rock garden, with plants that need even better drainage, I understand why you might add gravel, grit, or sand along with the compost, but regardless of what you amend the soil with, I can't fathom digging to three feet - I have planted trees without digging that deep. I think, maybe, the guys that installed my deck might have buried the concrete supports that deep, but other than that, I can't think of a reason to disturb the soil to that level.