Soil improvement for clay?
mad_gardener
15 years ago
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georgia-rose
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Soil Test Results from NGO Organic Farm in Northern Thailand
Comments (14)Dschall- In answer to your questions-- Compost is a free input. We make it by hand cutting the rice grass and mixing it with dried rice straw and vegetable kitchen waste. No manure. I was referring to suggestions that involved spending money when I said we had no money for inputs. I apologize if that was unclear. We have a solar panel, sugar, and an aquarium pump. If we applied the finished compost to our 4 acres it would provide almost zero improvement in pH and be washed out during rainy season. Further, the hottest month of the year here is April and we keep the compost tea in the shade, so I think it is probably aerating sufficiently. We teach Soil Science, English, and Systems of Democracy in the classroom 6 hours a day, five days a week. This week in Soil Science we taught the nitrogen cycle and how to mix inputs into compost tea differently to get a finished product that is bacterial or fungal, and which plants to which to apply which type of tea. Scrap wood is plentiful around here, especially bamboo. We do not have a shredder so it is difficult to compost or otherwise grind wood products, however, burning for ash would make the wood more easily applied. I will answer each of your questions and maybe you can explain their relevance to my initial inquiry. How many acres do you have access to? 4 How many acres are in rice paddies? a little over 3 What crops do you grow in the non-rice season? Chinese cabbage, bitter gourd, chiles, yard long bean, many asian eggplants-- however, if we cannot raise the pH signifigantly we will probably switch to crops that grow better in low pH. Does grass (not just bamboo) grow in the area? rice grass Is there anything green growing in the ditches? No, they are waterways. Are there wild or farm animals in the area? If so, what are they? Ducks Was there ever a forest or grassland in the area? Dunno. Maybe 1000 years ago? How many people are being supported by the land? 20 Do they get food from anywhere else? The goal is to be self sufficient. The low pH of the soil last year provided a smaller than necessary veg harvest and we had to raise $$ to buy food that was our intent to produce. Thus this inquiry for answers. Are they vegetarians? They eat whatever is put in front of them. If veg is all we have that's all they eat. They eat duck and duck eggs fairly regularly, as well as snakehead fish and snails that we net from the ditches. That soil test was not particularly good. Make a note for your journal to get a better test next time. --Soil test was free and is the standard test provided by Chiang Mai University. They won't do another free test for 5 years. We were lucky to get that one, as soil testing paid for by the Thai government provided free to Burmese refugees has a complicated political element to it. When these folks return to Burma, many will not have access to electricity to power a pump, IPM strategies must be developed to address their twin pests of monkeys and parrots, and they will NEVER have access to the results of a soil test. So when I say we are teaching organic farming it is in much the same vein that Hawkeye Pierce would teach surgery to a Korean med student, if you get my drift. Who is Buzz Killington? I've been working in the jungle too long to keep up with pop culture. Lazygardens, Nandina-- azolla?? Cool. we have a small pond with water hyacinth which I chop and use in a basket layered with rice straw to germinate mushroom spores. I'll look into azolla. Will the ducks eat it?...See MoreI've Started These Flower and Herb Seeds
Comments (16)Oz, Whether or not you leave them in the peat pellets is up to you. I'd base my decision on a couple of facts: 1) How soon they are going to go into the ground. If you are going to plant them out in March (and with our variable weather, that might be iffy), they should be able to survive that long in peat pellets. Once the plants are 3" tall or so, though, you may need to feed them with a water-soluable fertilizer because peat pellets are essentially "dead" and have no nutrition in them for the plants. You could use the fert. of your choice--I like using liquid seaweed or fish emulsion. 2) How warm the seed-starting room is/how quickly they dry out. One of the problems with peat pellets is that they hold too much water initally when you first add water to them to get them to "expand" and "fluff up", and then once they dry out, it can be very hard to get them wet again. So, water regularly so they don't get dry and hard, but don't keep them sopping wet. If you keep peat pellets too wet, then damping off, which is a disease that kills the seedlings, becomes a huge issue. 3) Potting them up into cups gives them a huge advantage root wise, so I always pot up into cups using a good, sterile soil-less potting mix. Look at the size of your pellets and the size of the roots you can have in those pellets. Then look at a 12 or 16-oz. cup and imagine what size the roots could attain in those. If your plants are going to be inside another 3-4 weeks, your plants could gain a lot of root growth in paper cups during that time. 4) Potting them up into paper cups makes hardening off a lot easier. With larger plants in paper or plastic cups, you'll find the hardening off process will be easier to achieve. Plants in very small peat pellets often dry out very quickly as you are hardening them off outside in the sun and wind. If it is especially windy, they can be blown out of the flat. Plants in cups have a little more weight and hold moisture better, so they are a little easier to manage during the hardening-off process. And, I've grown most of what you've started from seed and they've done well for me here. I haven't grown pilotus, though, and Texas Bluebonnets usually flower in April-May from a fall planting. I am not sure if you'll get flowers this year from seed if it was planted only recently. On the other hand, I have planted "Alamo Fire" (red-flowered) bluebonnet seed in the spring, and those bloomed in June-July. Dawn...See MoreSuggestions please: Improving clay soil in dallas
Comments (9)Clay soil is a beast to dig but it contains lots of nutrients, especially the black clay. When I gardened in black gumbo, I used a lot of soil conditioner/landscaper mix on top of the clay and kept it mulched and fairly moist. To my surprise, a few years later, I could easily dig with a hand trowel in the beds that I improved like that. Are you trying to overcome the PH with greensand? Another useful tip when excavating for a shrub or tree is to spray the area with soapy water a day before digging. I'm not a chemist, so cannot state why this works but something happens to release the clay particles and it's easier to dig and doesn't stick to the shovel....See MoreClay Soil and Wet Feet for planting of new trees
Comments (1)g'day daleblack, better late than never maybe hey? but here goes. first questions (as i have never used brunning gypsum), was the gypsum of a moist talcum powder type consistancy? second if yor soil is like it sounds why fight it? use raised beds for all gardens, if you wanted to you could do a raised bed first where the trees are going then plant the trees in to rasied bed, the main thing with trees is their feeder roots need to be well drained the tap root will pretty much find its own way. so for trees that need good feeder root drainage you need to plant them into a raised position that is you dig a slight hole into your original soil throw some good quality gypsum in (usually the best stuff is bought at a produce agency) then create a mound to what ever height you need over and above that to plant the trees into (might be anywher up to 1/2 the heith of the current root ball?), this is necessary with citrus in those heavy soils so you may get some clues from researching planting citrus trees. len Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page...See Morenippersdad
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