This soil drainage tester planner helps gardeners wondering why beds stay wet or dry out fast turn a soil guess into a clear plan. You enter a few numbers, and the tool works out the amounts for you. That matters because soil is the one garden input you cannot fix in a day: too little organic matter and plants starve, too much of one amendment and the mix goes wrong for a whole season. A written plan keeps each bed balanced, so plants grow without stress.
A drainage test is the cheapest soil test there is, and it tells you more than a guess ever will. Dig a hole, fill it with water, let it drain once, fill it again, and time how fast the level drops. That rate decides which plants will thrive and which will drown. Most vegetables want a middle rate: fast enough that roots never sit in water, slow enough that they can drink before the water leaves. One hour with a ruler gives you that answer.
To use the tool, enter each value in order: Water depth at the start in cm, Water depth after one hour in cm, Hole diameter in cm. Then press Calculate to see the result. Each line shows one part of the plan, so you can spot a number that looks wrong before you carry a bag outside. If you change any value, press Calculate again. The example button fills in a worked case so you can see how the tool behaves before you enter your own numbers.
Here is a worked example. Take a hole 30 cm deep and 30 cm wide that drops from 30 cm to 26 cm in one hour drains at 4 cm per hour, holds 21.21 litres of water, and would take 7.5 hours to drain fully, so retest in 7 days. That result is the point of the tool: one clear plan, with each part visible. If a neighbour asks why you mixed the soil that way, you can walk through the same lines. If your bed is bigger or smaller, you change one number and the plan updates. That makes changes fast and keeps the garden honest about what each bed really needs.
Run the test in spring before you plant, and again in autumn after heavy rain, because drainage changes with the seasons. Wet winter soil drains slower than the same bed in summer, and a test done only in a dry spell can mislead you. Test each bed separately: one corner of a garden can drain well while another puddles, especially near walls or at the bottom of a slope. Write each result down with the date, so next year you can see if your compost work improved it.
Three mistakes show up again and again. The first is testing a hole you just dug in dry soil, which drains fast only because the dry sides drink the water. The second is testing once, in one spot, and treating the whole garden as the same. The third is ignoring the result and planting wet-sensitive plants in a puddle zone anyway. Soak first, test twice, test each bed, and plant to match the result.
Tips
- Test a small patch first. One pot or one corner tells you more than a whole bed mixed on a guess.
- Add organic matter every season. Soil life eats compost, so a bed fed once slowly goes hungry again.
- Mulch every bed. Bare soil dries fast, while mulched soil holds water for days longer.
How do I know if my soil improved?
Squeeze a handful of damp soil: good soil crumbles softly instead of sticking in a lump or falling to dust. Also watch drainage after rain and how long beds stay moist in a dry week.
Can I mix too much of an amendment?
Yes. Most amendments help in a modest share and hurt in excess, so follow the tool result and mix evenly rather than tipping in a whole bag at once.
How often should I re-test or re-plan?
Once a season is enough for most beds. Re-plan after a wet winter, after adding a large amount of compost, or when a bed starts behaving differently from its neighbours.
Versión en español: Planificador de Prueba de Drenaje de Suelo