Using Groundcovers to Improve Soil Organic Content
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
2 years agoRelated Discussions
Growing new grass in shady area with high clay content soil
Comments (4)A picture would be worth a thousand words here. Bringing in soil might be good if you suspect the original soil has been washed away for some reason. Some trees will react to hard soil by sending their roots out at the surface. Then as the tree ages, the roots become larger and expose themselves above the surface. If that is what has happened, then adding soil on top of the natural grade will cause you drainage problems and could cost you extensively if water pours into your basement (worst case). Adding soil should be done with considerable forethought as to the consequences. Another thought on adding soil is to keep it lower than the root bark on the trees. Tree roots flare out from the base of the trunk. If you bury the root flare completely, then you are burying tree bark. Tree bark will often rot when it is below the soil level. It is best if you leave some root flare above the soil level to be sure you are not burying tree bark. Tilling is a bad idea for many reasons. One of the obvious ones is that you have roots everywhere. You can't till tree roots. A much less obvious reason is that tilling destroys soil structure by fluffing it up. Once it is fluffy it has to settle again. That process takes 3 years. When it finally settles it will settle unevenly leaving your surface bumpy. Grass seed should never be mixed in with surface soil. It always goes on top of the surface. Many people recommend "scratching" it into the surface but that is not necessary. Nor is covering it with straw. All you need to do is loosen the soil at the surface (1/16 inch deep) before you apply the seed, then apply the seed, and finally roll the seed down with a water filled roller (rented). Seed should remain at the surface. If you insist on straw, as goren said, be careful not to use hay. Hay is forage for animals and has seed in it. Straw is the left over after the seed is threshed out. New seed must be watered 3x per day at breakfast, lunch, and dinner for about 10 minutes. The idea is to provide enough consistent moisture for the seed to swell and open (germinate). Unfortunately these are the exact conditions that crabgrass seed needs. For this reason grass seeding is most successfully done in the fall after crabgrass has stopped germinating. Also grass sprouted now will have weak roots that cannot stand up to the summer heat and dry weather. That might not be that much of an issue in your area. Don't assume you have clay. Fill a mayonnaise jar half full of dirt. Then fill the jar completely with water and a drop of soap. Swish it around and let it settle. You will see rocks and sand settling immediately to the bottom of the jar. In an hour all the silt will have settled. At that time if you have clay, the water will be cloudy. Let it sit another day and see if the water clears up. If it clears then you do not have clay. Clay will cloud the water for days and days. There are several conditions of minerals that cause soil to seem to be clay when in fact there is no clay at all. Don't be too surprised by this. Adding gypsum without doing this test and a soil chemistry test can be a mistake. I disagree with goren on mowing height. The only grasses that need to be mowed lower than 3 inches are bermuda, centipede, bentgrass, and some zoysias. Kentucky bluegrass (which you can't grow in shade) should be no lower than 3 inches. Fescues and all the other grass types should be mowed back to 4 inches. Usually this is a mower's highest setting. Grass grown in the shade needs to be longer simply so it can photosynthesize. Can you post pictures showing the tree roots and one from a distance showing the trees with the canopy?...See MoreImproving Soil Structure of Sandy Soil
Comments (23)ibuzzard - yes, constantly adding organic matter after harvest before the next crop. To speed things up bring in a lot of organic matter as manure + bedding to compost in piles set aside from the current gardening beds. Then after harvest rake those on to the beds if you let some lay fallow or put what is crumbling & dark brown on beds you plan to replant right away. It takes awhile to build enough compost to cover all the beds at all times, but with diligence you can do it. The small animal manures like chicken & rabbits are potent, but not the quantity you'd need. Get a hold of some horse manures and you'll be able to speed up the process. Ten years of using chicken, duck & rabbit manures from our backyard animals (Plus liberal amounts of used coffee grounds + shredded leaves mown over on the lawn in fall. Plus our kitchen waste compost bin contents.)... didn't up the soil organic matter content as much as when we started adding horse manure as well composting first in piles or spreading in fall on fallow beds. Volume made a huge difference though I was quite skeptical in the beginning, afraid of weeds & then learned about the herbicide residue in some hay fed to livestock. I made sure we used manure from horses fed alfalfa hay instead. Now after at least 3 years of horse manures we no longer need 6-12 inches of it added in the fall to break down. The soil is light, fluffy and diggable with hands rather than pickaxe like before....See MoreMeasuring soil organic matter
Comments (3)The "jar test" is, as I call it, a simple test. Over the years when compared with the tests results I get back from Michigan State University the level of organic matter in my soil is about the same. Many other people that have used that test and a good reliable soil test lab tell me the same thing, the results are about the same. kimmq is kimmsr...See MoreSandy Soil Improvement Using Crowded Seedlings
Comments (13)Thanks for the feedback, everyone! > What you are doing is growing a green manure crop I absolutely agree. I'm just trying to accelerate the process, from seasons to weeks. > Choose vigorous, fast, deep rooted plants. I've been planting cowpea, primarily. It has deep taproots as you recommend, and the seeds are large and contain 25% protein which will add significant nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil. I'm also trying wheat because it looks nice like a lawn grass when crowded, and it's also high in protein, though the seeds are small. > The flaw in your plan is that these plants will be unable to leave behind any minerals or nitrogen that was not already in the dirt I'm using a ridiculously large number of big seeds which are rich in protein. I believe that the amount of nitrogen, etc added from the seeds alone would be significant. > The main disadvantage I see to your plan is time scale. It'll take a LONG TIME to improve your soil substantially by simply cover cropping. I hope to achieve very fast results with the deliberate crowding of the seedlings. The top portion of the soil could be saturated with little roots within 2 weeks, creating lots of channels for water infiltration. It'll probably take much longer for the roots to rot to the point where they'll help the soil to hold more water and nutrients, though. > How deep? How far do you have to dig before you get to a different material? I've not dug deep enough to get to a different material, but it's more than 10cm deep. > you have no earthworms is you have compacted sharp sand. I thought so initially, but since I started watering the soil, I've been seeing earthworm casts at the edges of the area, where some weeds have also started springing up. > Was this a real garden bed once? If so, how did it end up with so much sand? The owners gave up on growing things there and just wanted it to look 'neat' with no weeds....See MoreMischievous Magpie (CO 5b)
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