Farmers placed clumps of soil into metal mesh baskets, submerged the baskets into jars of water, then watched to see if their soil held together. The slake test, conducted at the Soil Health Field Day in Woodland, measured soil health. Healthier soil, which contains more organic matter and bioactivity and can better support plant growth, stays intact.

“Participants said that it was particularly useful to see the slake test on a variety of soils to better understand the nuance of how soil health management practices such as cover cropping and reduction of tillage intensity could affect soil aggregation,” said Sonja Brodt, UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and...