Cat Litter as Possible Soil Amendment for Sand?
iam3killerbs
14 years ago
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Comments (18)
Kimmsr
14 years agoiam3killerbs
14 years agoRelated Discussions
To amend or not to amend? Clay soil...
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 MoreComposting clumping cat litter
Comments (33)We no longer have our cat, but while she was alive, we used stove pellets. Stove pellets come in 40lb bags for $10 or less. Pour a quart of pellets in a regular sized cat box, and spray it with 10-15 squirts from a spray water bottle, and a few of the pellets will start to fall apart into sawdust in a few minutes, enough to make it attractive to the cats, and the rest will take care of themselves as the cats use the box. That scanty looking quart will turn into a box full lush cat litter. It will absorb the smell down to nothing, and keep the box fresh for far longer than clay litter. We generally stretched the litter out to twice as long as clay litter. Then, we composted it all in a far corner of the landscape. If I were to get another cat, I'd use it again....See MoreCat Litter for Soil Improver?
Comments (12)Kimmsr's knowledge of kitty litter is incomplete, lol! Some brands are made of diatomaceous earth, which is what the poster is referring to. It makes an excellent potting soil amendment, but pretty useless as something that will improve your outdoor soil. There are also some calcined clay cat litters, pretty much as hard as Turface, that make very good additives to a potting medium. Those are very different from the soft clay litter familiar to most. Still not practical for use in situ, in the garden. As suggested, the regular addition of a combination of brown or green ingredients is what will help any kind of soil over time. Wood chips, pine bark, municipal compost, fall leaves, etc., can be added. Even the simple act of using a mulch composed of these and other organic components will find its way into the soil where it can do a great deal of good. I have a couple of loads of fresh wood chips delivered to me each year, at no cost. I have very dense red clay soil that somehow supports a healthy population of hardworking earthworms. They do all of the work of pulling the chips into the clay....See Moresoil amendments and planting soil
Comments (6)Ken, I'm glad Michaelg posted so I won't sound like a nut. :)) I agree about preparing a wider area so I just dug the whole bed out. I removed about 5"-6" of sand in order to fit the amendments (and to get rid of it). I wish I had known about the kitty litter when I was digging my beds. I get free composted horse manure locally so I use that now, but I've used the bagged cow manure from Lowe's/wherever. (Unfortunately, Black Kow is a little pricey for me.) I also use Fafard Soil Conditioner which is finely ground pine park. It's my preference over peat moss. Alfalfa about 4 cups per 10 sq ft, same amount of Milorganite (earthworms love it), Rose-Tone about 3 cups, epsom salts about half cup. You may have to hunt for it, but I added Greensand as a source of potassium which is supposed to be deficient in Florida soil. It's very slow acting. Maybe it seems like a lot of nitrogen, but there's also a lot of carbon going in. My soil pH is about 7.0 so I add soil sulfur. (In the hole I add alfalfa, milorganite and 3 clumps of bone meal around the bottom.) And I use mycorrhizae (soil microorganisms) when I plant each rose, available at Amazon.com. I have one more bed to prepare when it cools off, and I'm going to line the bottom with newspapers, leaves, pine straw, whatever to try to retain water. I know it will rot and migrate down fairly quickly but it's better than nothing. Just as a point of interest, I had to dig a deep hole (3+ ft deep) last spring in a bed I had been amending for more than two years probably to a depth of 12" - 15". I didn't hit sand until I got 3' down. The organic matter had traveled that far down in that time. It is always traveling down. That's why we replace it (or add to it, euphemistically) every year. Since I only have two roses on Fortuniana, I was/am very concerned about nematodes which thrive in Florida sand, plus my native soil was pathetic gray compacted stuff that resembled cement, so that's why I did so much excavation and replacement. When you're ready to plant, your bed will still look like sand with some dark clumps/areas scattered around, BUT in six months I had totally black sandy soil. And now I even have crumbly soil. Very cool! One thing someone said somewhere is that you do need good topsoil because of the minerals that are in SOIL that are not in sand and organic matter, so that is a very good amendment. The roses really do love that new fluffy soil you make. Sherry...See Moreiam3killerbs
14 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
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14 years agozeuspaul
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14 years agoKimmsr
14 years agoiam3killerbs
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