Most farmers look at color, yield, or moisture when they assess their soil. But there’s one underrated indicator that tells you more than you realize — the soil’s ‘brick value’ or aggregate stability. When we call a soil ‘strong like a brick,’ we don’t mean hard or compacted. We mean that its structure is cohesive, stable, and full of life.
In regenerative farming, aggregate stability is the true marker of how well your soil is functioning — not just surviving.
What Is Brick Value (Aggregate Stability)?
Brick value refers to how well soil particles hold together under stress — like rain, irrigation, or tillage. Healthy soil forms stable aggregates: small, crumb-like clusters that don’t dissolve or collapse easily.
🧱 These aggregates:
– Hold air and water
– Provide habitat for microbes
– Allow roots to move freely
– Resist erosion and crusting
Why It’s Crucial for Plant Growth
Without stable aggregates:
– Water runs off instead of soaking in
– Roots struggle to spread and access nutrients
– Microbial life gets disturbed during irrigation or rain
– Nutrient leaching and compaction increase
With stable aggregates, soil behaves like a living sponge — absorbing water, holding nutrients, and breathing properly.
How to Test It at Home
You don’t need a lab. Here’s a simple test:
– Take two equal-sized handfuls of moist soil from your field.
– Place one in a glass of water, undisturbed, and let it sit for 10 minutes.
– Healthy soil will hold its structure or slowly break into crumbs.
– Unhealthy soil will instantly dissolve into cloudy water.
This test shows whether your soil has good ‘brick strength’ or is falling apart under pressure.
How to Improve Your Soil’s Brick Value
– Stop deep tilling — preserve fungal threads that help form aggregates
– Add organic matter regularly (compost, cover crops)
– Use microbial inoculants to rebuild structure
– Keep soil covered with mulch to avoid crusting
– Avoid chemical fertilizers that destroy microbial glues
Your soil becomes brick-strong not through compaction, but through life.
Komal’s Advice
Every time I test a field and see waterlogged patches or dry cracks, I know aggregate stability is broken.
Don’t think of bricks as hardness — think of them as connectedness. When your soil behaves like a sponge and holds together like a brick, you know regeneration has begun.
That’s when your soil becomes truly productive — and alive.
