Author Topic: clay  (Read 762 times)

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Offline buckey

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clay
« on: June 26, 2009, 01:35:04 PM »
 Got some clay ground in my garden that won't break down, What can I do, If worked wet, Balls up, if dry, can't till. Can't seem to make a seed bed worth a damn, This ground has been worked for 6 yrs. Grows tomato's great,Can't seal sweet corn seed and make it grow, What will break this clay down.
Thanks....... Buckey

Online Graybeard

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Re: clay
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2009, 05:20:06 PM »
Ya don't "break it down" ya add organic matter to it. Clay is the ONLY soil around here. If you catch it at "just the right moisture level" it works fine. If too wet it's a muddy mess and if too dry it's like a rock.

The secret is trying to catch it at just the right moisture level and add as much organic matter as possible to it. Collect leaves and till them in each fall and eventually you'll have rich black organic soil.


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Offline iiranger

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Re: clay
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2009, 10:55:11 AM »
Old and gray is completely right about the organic matter... At the same time, you can "loosen things up" by adding sand or other coarse material... Lots.  "pea gravel" etc. If you use only organic matter, the sticks and twigs serve this purpose but may not be enough of last long enough. The clay sticks together too much and closes out air/oxygen. The balls of sand force it apart if you add enough and make passage for roots easier. Then you grow something that makes lots of roots and when it is dead each decaying root makes a passage for water, air, nutrients, etc... Seems like sulphur is recommended for making clay soils "let go" and easier to work. Check with garden store. Cheap enough. Luck.

Offline Arier Blut

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Re: clay
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2009, 11:48:57 AM »
I lived at a place that had clay. I did what both of these guys suggested. Also I've always run a manure crop over winter to till it in the spring. The root crops will push the clay out of the way. I didn't harvest very many of them so it would rot and add organic matter. Search locally for a free source of organic matter by the truck load. Even topsoil from a place with no clay will help.

Offline Cornbelt

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Re: clay
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2009, 08:51:31 AM »
Another source of organic matter is grass clippings. Around here, seems like everybody mows their yard on the weekend, leaving bags and bags of clippings at their curb. No one has refused us yet. And if you have a cow, you can tie the bags shut and let them ferment for 'silage.

Offline buckey

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Re: clay
« Reply #5 on: July 20, 2009, 02:32:25 PM »
One thing about clay, is if you can get something started and keep it watered it will grow when crops on lighter ground dry up. We planted our tomatoes where the clay is the worst this year and with all the rain we've had, We got the best plants we've had in years. The biggest problem we have is trying to make a seed bed, If your early,it balls up, to late ground gets to hard. When you can't seal the seed with fine loose dirt it's tough to get it to grow, Have had to replant many times. Read some where that adding gypsum will help break up clay, any one know?
Thanks .............................buckey

Offline docmagnum357

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Re: clay
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2009, 03:03:58 PM »
Gypsum will help, and so does lime, to a certain extent.  even though the soil may not nees lmie for the ph...
The other guys are right.  what i did, was to start with a seed bed, adding sand and what we call leaf mulch, or triple ground hardwood mulch b y the two or hree inch at a time level.  i grew corn and other morte "rank" plants on the "new " ground.  Eacch year, I move my seed bed.  As I abandon the previous yeear's seed bed, I plant squash, wich is kind of "Intermediate" as far as being able to tolerate clay soil.  Next, peppers, then cabbage, broccoli, etc.  Any way you slice it, it is a lot of work.  Green manure like buckwheat helps more than you know.  always till up you paces or plots and imediately plant buckwheat in warm weather, or wheat or rye in cold weather.  It doesn't matter if buckwheat gets killed by a frost, just til it in and plant wheat or rye.  i have heward barely is good this way, as well as something called Austrian winter peas.  Soybeans are good like this.  The moral to the story is nature hates a vaccum, and weeds will grow, and the soil will lose it's "tilth"or friability qwuickly if it isn't full of rotted and rooting plant matter, primarily roots.  Keep something on it.  our garden has a cover crop or gree manure on it as much or more than a food crop.  Follow one kind of plant with another.

     Tomatoea are easy to grow, even in bad soil.  I plant mine with a post hole digger in stuff that is hard as a brick, and mulch very heavily with wheat straw, or rotten hay.  I don't like hay because of the grass and weed seeds, but i 'll taker anything that is free.

Sawdust is a quick fix, but you will have to use more nitrogen than you would think, it consumse nitrogen when it breaks down.  Leaves a re greeat, too.  What to look for?  worms, thousands of them.  when your soil is healthy, worms will thrive there.





   



Offline ohio_boy

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Re: clay
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2009, 07:48:31 AM »
Gypsum, and organics.  I usually put most of the grass clippings from the lawn into open places  in the garden between rows, etc., to help with the organic composition.  Just be careful putting green clippings on and around plants, it may burn them, and it also will tend to deplete the soil of nitrogen.  Leaves in the fall are gold for gardeners.  I always turn the entire garden over in the fall, and put it to bed with a 4 to 6 inch covering of chopped leaves.  It may take a few years, but if you consistently add organics, and keep it tilled and loose, and not compact it, you will have great soil...