• This soil's relatively dry, sandy composition is apparent.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Dry sand, sticky clay and spongy loam are all different kinds of soil. They can all support plant life, providing a physical anchor and a means of delivering water and nutrients. Whether a particular soil type can do this successfully depends on the needs of a particular plant and the climate conditions of a particular location. One possible effect that soil may have is to foster a plant's growth; however, selecting the wrong soil type will instigate far more dire effects.
  
  

Drowning

• One possible effect of choosing the wrong soil type is that the roots become oversaturated with water, and the plant literally drowns. While most plants do best with regular watering, many species native to deserts or dry climates cannot handle excessive water. If you plant these species in soil with a clay texture or in any soil types that have a tendency to retain water, you will risk drowning the plant. This is because the individual particles of clayey soils are very small, easily absorbing water droplets within the tiny air gaps and making it more difficult for the droplets to readily pass through. For example, juniper, spruce or butterfly bush are all plants that thrive in sandy soils; if you plant them in a clayey patch, it's quite likely that any rainfall or irrigation will overwhelm them, resulting in root rot and other diseases and eventually death.
  
  

Asphyxiation

• Different soil textures have different size soil particles and, as a result, the tiny gaps between individual soil particles also have different sizes. This dramatically affects how water interacts with the soil; it also affects how air coexists with the soil. In soils with very small particles, such as clays, there is a greater tendency for water particles to fill up all the spaces, known as pores, between individual grains of soil. This results in the soil's saturation. If a very clayey soil does not have a requisite amount of organic material or other larger substances to "break up" the tiny network of clay and water particles, a plant's roots may not receive enough air. One common application of this principle is in home lawn care; if the soil underneath a lawn of grass is starved of air, the grass will suffer. Therefore, lawn care often includes "aerating" the lawn, using a kind of dowel to mechanically puncture it with holes.
  
  

Parching Dry

• While clayey soils may pose hazardous effects to plants that favor dry, well-aerated soils, planting moisture-loving plants in sandy soil will have equally deleterious effects. The relatively large particles of sandy soil allow water particles to easily filter through, giving shallow root systems little opportunity to absorb the necessary water. If you plant a species that thrives in wetlands, such as the bald cypress, in sandy soil, it will effectively die of thirst. Even if you irrigate regularly, the watering will be far less effective because of the soil type.