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| Hello, can I get some advice on what to do about my soild.
The soil I have in my area contains quite a bit of clay. I dug down 2' in the area 5'x3' for my peppers I am transplanting. I ended up finding random concrete in the ground in small bunches and one huge slab. Possibly from a old pole that once was there possibly for a clothes line possibly? Other from that I been digging up random loose roots with nothing in good distance i can figure they come from. Found alot rocks and these round thick seeds in abudance ..in the soil... the soil is tough to work with and has many many clumps that are hard as rocks...so i ended up putting the hose to the soil and soaking it good and taking the shovel to it and breaking apart the clumps, I let it dry broke it up good again and smoothed it out, as I picked out all the loose roots and foreign seeds.... I have much more to sift through and clean up...is this an overkill or is this what it is usually like? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by CerealKiller 9B (My Page) on Thu, Jul 21, 11 at 0:39
| *Correction* soild = soil...thought I had erased that 'd'...apologies for the typos... |
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| Many peole with clay soils have found that adding organic matter, getting the humus level to 5 to 8 percent, is the best way to make that clay soil workable. This article, originally in Taunton Press' Kitchen Garden magazine, might be of some help. The author, Keith Baldwin, was at that time professor of soil science at North carolina State University. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Improving clay soils
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Thu, Jul 21, 11 at 11:28
| Cereal, I feel your pain. Organic matter is indeed the answer. Keep adding it, use organic mulches (compost, grass clippings etc.) and let the worms do the work all season. Eventually you will get to a point where organic matter is high enough and porosity has developed from worms and roots that it may be better to stop digging it. It will take some years though. You might be tempted to add sand, but be very careful. It can set up like concrete. Better to add silt (smaller than sand, bigger than clay) or a mixture. I found raised beds drained better in my wet spring weather, so I've added soil here and there, such as a load of silty sand from a boat ramp after a flood. It helps. As you go along, try to avoid digging the clay when it's wet. It makes hard clods when you do that. Clay is actually quite fertile, it just has difficult physical properties. BTW tree roots can travel 50 or even 100 ft. They will keep coming. |
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| Just layer compost materials on top of it & don't bother digging down in it. Much less work & your garden will grow! Plus it will save your shovel! Gather materials as you have them available & layer where you want to garden. If that area is planted now, store in heavy duty contractor bags to build your layers after harvest. The heavy bags can be reused many times & last years outside. Grass clippings are best dried before storing in bags & are then browns. Hope that helps! |
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- Posted by CerealKiller 9B (My Page) on Thu, Jul 21, 11 at 14:57
| These were some great responses, thank you all you have responded. I am going to take your guys advice and get back to work on it. Thank you! |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Thu, Jul 21, 11 at 15:34
| I've noticed that when I make a compost pile over an area of the garden, either over the winter or in spring, by summer the soil under it is moist and soft, whereas the bare ground next to it is compacted, dry and hard as rock. Not from walking on it, this is in a raised bed where there is no traffic. I think it's the combination of mulch keeping the moisture in, and worms coming after the compost pile. So corine's suggestions above really do work. |
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| Whether adding sand to clay soils will result in a concrete type material, more likely adobe, depends on the type of clay and the amount of sand. Most Ag Schools research people will tell you that you need to add 45 percent sand by volume (Cornell will tell you 75 percent) to make some difference in clay soils (and you need to add 25 percent clay to sand) but then you still would not have a nutrient source that organic matter supplies. |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Fri, Jul 22, 11 at 10:33
| Quite true...and most people are not going to want to haul in that much sand to get past the "concrete risk zone". Over the years probably 90% of my effort with my clay has been to increase organic matter, vs. 10% trying to change the texture of the mineral fraction. I supposed if I'd had a few more free trailer loads of that river silt it might be a different story ;-] But the point is: organic matter, organic matter, organic matter. |
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| I'm fairly new at this, but I'm starting to develop a method. And I do have... clay dirt! I just don't know if much of this applies to zone 9. Compost Pile: Garden: This is really only my second season, and the ground is no where near as compacted as it was when I started. I expect soil to be even better next year. Oh, yea, add usual kitchen scraps (but this is a small volume of my pile). |
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| Claydirt, there is no good reason to pile leaves up in the fall and wait until spring to add a Nitrogen (manure) source. Mix those leaves 3 parts leaves to 1 part manure (or some other Nitrogen source) in the fall and by spring that compost will be ready to use. There is no good reason to turn leaves put down on your soil as mulch in the fall into the soil in the spring since they do make a very good mulch for the garden nost of the summer. Adding organic matter to any soil is the single most effective way to make that soil into something that can grow good healthy plants. |
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