Carrot Beds - How to Amend Clay Soil

15 years ago

Hello everyone,

As we are sitting here locked in the deep freeze, I am contemplating what to do to improve my carrot beds next year. I had a pretty nice crop of yellow stone, purple haze, and little fingers but want to increase the yield and length. Suggestions for amending soil? Compost, sand, greensand? I just want it to be lighter and drain well. . . . it is fairly heavy clay. Any other suggestions about carrots and soil amendments/fertilizer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

marlingardener
15 years ago
It sounds like you have a perfect opportunity for a raised bed. If you put in a raised bed with compost/manure/good soil and plant Danvers Half-long or Chantenay, you should have some great carrots! I am sure there are other varieties of carrots that would do well also, but these are the two that do best for us.
franeli
15 years ago
I use compost and green sand.
An excellent variety that matures early with a good flavor is 'Mokum'. I do two plantings, May 1 and June 1
I plant 'Bolero'for late season; takes long to size up but is always good.
'White Satin' can get large and is fun to cook with.
I also enjoy 'Yellowstone'.
Related Discussions
To amend or not to amend? Clay soil...
Q
Comments (22)
"It seems that it is highly recommended to plant peach trees in raised beds from the experience on this board. Does anyone have a good link or more detailed directions as far as how to do that? What type of soil do I need? How deep do I dig the hole? How high should the bed be?" For my peach trees I use mounds and terraces. It doesn't seem to make a difference how tall the mound is. Some of my mounds are 1' tall, others started out 4' tall (before settling). The peach trees do about the same either way. Some people enclose their raised beds with a raised border of some kind. I think that's fine too. I don't think it makes much difference what soil you use for the raised beds/mounds. Several years ago, I installed drain tiles in the orchard area (The drainage was horrid and I was tired of losing peach trees.) In places we had to excavate to a depth of 4' to install the tile. What we dug out was pure clay. I used this material for some of the mounds. The peach trees have done fine in the clay mounds. Per the above posts, I would only use mounds if the drainage is poor. But since you mention puddling, I strongly suspect you could benefit from raised beds/mounds. Mounds not only provide good drainage, they also loosen the dirt so there is minimal resistance for the roots to spread. Mulching on top keeps the soil moist longer into the growing season, further encouraging root growth. It's hard for peaches not to succeed when they have moist (but not overly wet) loose soil with no weed competition and plenty of sunshine. Here's a picture that's a couple years old. You can see some tall and shorter mounds. Some of the older trees aren't in mounds. The drainage tile helped them. Here's a pic of some terraces I built last fall for planting peaches this spring. By the way, I don't bother with mounds for more water tolerant trees like apple, pear and plum, unless the drainage is really bad.
...See More
Major clay soil amending project...timing?
Q
Comments (23)
Concrete is made by mixing sand, water, gravel/rocks, and CEMENT. Without the cement you cannot make concrete. Clay particles in soil are already seated closely with themselves. As was mentioned, adding sand is not always a cure, but it's not necessarily bad. Adobe bricks are made by mixing low sand content soil with grassy stuff (like straw), plenty of water, mixing it vigorously to drive the air out of the mix, and letting it dry into brick forms. Driving out the air is important to the adobe process. Good soil is often a mix of clay, sand, and loam. But as for the clay, chances are very good the original poster did not have clay at all. We've learned a lot on the various lawn forums in the 9 years since this post was started. It is much more likely the OP had an imbalance of salts creating clay-like conditions. Adding silica sand does not change the salt balance. Adding limestone sand can make it worse or better depending on the chemistry of the original soil. Today we would have suggested the OP get a soil test from Logan Labs and post it here before adding sand or anything else.
...See More
Clay soil eating up amendments
Q
Comments (22)
Anyone have experience with long term (say 10 years) soil amendment? Yes, but we have to define what kind of amendment we want ;) The organic matter gets 'eaten', not by the clay soil, but the organisms in that soil. That organic matter doesn't last long is actually a very good thing even though it feels like lots of work. The decomp of the OM leads to increased fertility as well as formation of humus which aids in keeping those tiny clay particles from sticking to each other. The OM break down also leads to improved tilth which is simply individual soil particles getting glued together to form larger particles by secretions from the soil critters as they do their thing. This improves drainage and enables more oxygen to reach into the soil and nourish roots. However, if despite all the advantages of using OM to improve soil qualities you still wish a more permanent way to improve drainage/aeration of the soil and reduce the rate it compacts/clumps etc. then you can use a product called Turface. It's a calcined clay product used for sports fields. Unlike the clay you have now, this is fired at high temps so it remains very stable and never becomes 'muck'. It's not like pebbles that have no internal porosity either, it's incredibly porous. A substitute would be calcined DE which is sold by Napa Auto Parts stores as 'Floor Dry'. You can read more about Turface here. Click on the tab at the top "Where to buy" to input your zip code and find a local source. It lasts, literally, forever.
...See More
Soil amendments: clay soil, fully planted beds
Q
Comments (16)
My first garden was created 5 years ago...we took off the sod, amended with compost, tilled and planted and mulched. It was a nightmare. I probably needed 60 times more compost, and never could have afforded it. The following two years I hated working in the garden because it was such hard work with the clay and many plants didn't thrive. I replanted areas many times and each time I would add more compost/mulch, whatever I could get my hands on. I also added a soil conditioner that was very expensive but works like gypsum...breaks down clay. (Who knows, maybe it WAS gypsum with a bigger price tag.) It's 6 years later now and I have to tell you that the garden is just a delight to work in now. I plan to spread gypsum a couple of times each year and continue mulching the beds, but I'm sure I'll never have to do all that double-digging like I did before....just keep on piling on the stuff like everyone wrote above, and before you know it, your beds will be as you need them to be. I also highly recommend that you search out plants that LIKE clay, so that your plantings will be successful. I spent many, many dollars buying plants that needed more drainage than I had and would die...and I wondered why. Some of those plants might do ok for me now in the same garden, but I think it's important to plant things that actually LIKE the ground that they are in today. Good Luck!
...See More
justaguy2
15 years ago
I use raised beds without soil. 12" deep for carrots. 12" is overkill for most plants, but not carrots.
never-give-up
15 years ago
I had heavy clay in one bed and found out from the folks on
the Soil, Compost & Mulch forum to never use sand to loosen clay soil. Even though it seems logical to add sand, it actually will turn your soil to something like cement. Add some nice loose compost and keep working on it. Last year that bed had such heavy clay that I turned it into a lasagna bed and got a HUGE yeild of squashes.

We had great luck with doing what marlingardener suggested. My carrot bed was poor rocky soil so I sifted it and made a raised bed with lots of compost. We planted the carrots using Dick Raymonds wide rows method of planting and got a really good yield of Danvers half long.

Check out the other forum for great tips on improving your soil. Good Luck.
mtmomma
15 years ago
I use peat moss ,till it into your soil.I also use it as a mulch.
digdirt2
15 years ago
You can always grow your carrots in raised mounds if raised beds aren't your thing. Simply mound up the soil in the carrot row, add some peat to loosen it up a bit or use vermiculite, and plant.

Raised row gardening is beneficial for many different crops when soil tilth is a problem. It also has the side benefits of warming the soil faster and improving the soil drainage.

Dave
kelsey_grow
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone! One question, how is green sand different from regular sand in the weight/composition? I have seen it at the garden shop, but don't know if one type is better than the other. . .
namfon
15 years ago
Greensand is quite fine, not powdery, but like 'hourglass' sized grains. I have used Greensand for years and am very
pleased with the results, if you are patient. It takes a year or 2 to really notice a big difference but it did a
great job of loosening-up my ( formerly ) clay soil.

One thing to keep in mind about GS is that it has some Potash ( potassium )content to it, so you may want a soil test to see if you are lacking that nutrient.

I agree with ( never-give-up ) about regular brown (builders ) sand. They used to recommend adding it to clay soil but then they discovered it binds with clay over time, again,
in my experience of using Greensand in my current location for almost 15 years it does a great job.

GL hth

Carrot Beds - How to Amend Clay Soil

Comments (8)

marlingardener

franeli

Related Discussions

justaguy2

never-give-up

mtmomma

digdirt2

kelsey_grow
Original Author

namfon

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Carrot Beds - How to Amend Clay Soil

Comments (8)

marlingardener

franeli

Related Discussions

justaguy2

never-give-up

mtmomma

digdirt2

kelsey_growOriginal Author

namfon

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

kelsey_grow
Original Author