Amending Soil without Adding in Moisture
a1an
6 years ago
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6 years agoa1an
6 years agoRelated Discussions
adding soil amendments
Comments (18)ranger - "in some cases" as I said, it is not a good idea. IF it worked for you, great. It may work for other people and you should by all means share your success with it. I guess I was just reiterating your caveat that it didn't apply in all situations; for that I apologize for not reading your advice more closely. And furthermore, in some cases(!), your advice IS actually better than tilling in peat or another 100% organic additive. Yes, they all breakdown. Faster in very warm climates like Texas. More on their breakdown in a moment. But point being, I am in fact glad you have stated that this worked better than adding organics for you, because I can totally believe it did. "The simple and best answer is, whenever you can." That's a very simple answer. So simple that sometimes it is wrong in fact. You can almost always have too much of a good thing. If you added so much organic material that it becomes a significant, say > 30% fraction of the soil mix, and if it does breakdown too fast you will be left with a quagmire that is lower than the surrounding soil. Also, you can have a situation where a fair amount of the nitrogen you add to the soil is wasted just helping the organic matter to decay. So I guess my main point is there's no one size fits all for fixing soil. Even my own views have changed. 10 years ago I would have said gypsum was a scam, that it didn't do anything. Because that's what my observation was. Then I moved to an area with the type of clay that response to gypsum, or more specifically the the calcium ion. Because I've actually mainly applied calcinic lime. Now I would recommend it, but only to people with this type of clay. Basically the Ca++ displaces other ions like Na++, Mg++ and to some degree H+ obviously, this alters the way the clay particles clump on a microscopic level. Areas of my yard that used to be permanently muddy for days after rains now drain very quickly. This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sat, Nov 15, 14 at 17:14...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 MoreWhich is a better amendment...garden soil or soil conditioner?
Comments (12)Thanks guys. I bought some of the garden soil yesterday before I read your replies but I'm returning it tomorrow and buying the soil conditioner like y'all advised. Is there a difference in the one at Lowes (Scotchman's brand I think) and the HD one (nature's helper)? I ask because the HD one comes in 1.5 cubic ft. while the other is 2 cubic feet. Just looking to get more bang for my buck. I'm going to use pine straw to mulch the bed. There are two pine trees in my front yard that are dropping needles anyway, so putting anything else down would be silly on my part. But not quite as ridiculous as dumping a truckload of gravel on the beds without any concern for the integrity of the soil or the next homeowner who has to spend many hours of back breaking tedious work to dig it all out after it has spent many years sinking into the ground! ...Sorry about the rant, can you tell how much I hate the gravel heehee. Are there any other amendments I should add? I purchased a bag of MOO-nure also for some added goodness(the store didn't have Black Kow). In case you need some info: the soil is going to be slightly rocky since I won't be able to get out all the gravel, besides that it appears to be kinda sandy on the top layer and as I dig deeper it appears more yellowish orange, almost like there could be some clay. I'm going to plant some dwarf gardenias in that area along with some tulip bulbs and some annuals for now. Thanks in advance!...See MoreSoil amendments: clay soil, fully planted beds
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 Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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