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Wed, May 23, 12 at 12:24
| Okay, recent soil sifting has left me wondering what these are.
I sifted my garden with 1/4 wire (due to tons of rock/rubble being dumped all over it), but along with the rocks, pebbles etc. I got lots of little clumps that I initially thought were rocks coated with dirt, but most of them break apart. Any ideas? I live in Central Illinois with excellent farmland dirt! I seem to remember learning about soil composition ages ago in school... is their something called a mud-ball? Is this good or bad? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Perhaps you could till the soil to a finer fineness before sifting? |
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- Posted by tsugajunkie z5 SE WI (My Page) on Wed, May 23, 12 at 16:22
| With the rocks and rubble, did the mud balls form while sifting? Did you notice them before sifting? Also, how damp was the soil? tj |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Wed, May 23, 12 at 18:54
| It sounds like clay balls, and if so, the previous posts are on the right track. If you have clay soil, be careful about tilling it when very wet though. |
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| Since clay tends to be very cohesive it can form these balls when wet enough if there is insufficient amounts of organic matter in that soil. When I worked in gardens around Munster I would see that if the soil lacked enough organic matter and even just after enough OM was added to the soil, but had not yet been incorporated by the Soil Food Web. |
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- Posted by tropical_thought San Francisco (My Page) on Thu, May 24, 12 at 9:13
| I added some clay soil to my street tree years ago. It did not really help, I was adding more OM and I found tiny clay balls, so I just scooped them up and back into the hot bin they go. The hot bin is 130 fairly consistently, I measure the temp with a compost thermometer. The hot bin will melt down all the little clay balls. Then they will be added back to the over all garden soil. |
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