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What about the opposite problem? Too sandy and it's been raining a lot so it's washing too fast. I found a location within the property where the soil is actually almost pure clay. I'm experimenting with mixing a bit of it in my beds. However, the location of the clay is hard to access and it's heavy for wheelbarring it
where the soil is actually almost pure clay
Sounds like you've got a DIY pizza oven in your future
Yessss, definitely on the roadmap!
What they mean is that clay + sand can create soil like a brick. You do not want that.
A warning that clay + sand doesn't actually give you better soil...even if you don't get concrete, the drainage can still be pretty dismal. The solution apparently really is organic matter, but in my personal experience clay needs as ASTRONOMICAL volume of OM to help it along.
Pure clay - honestly needs an annual regimen of soil additions for a good two to three years to make it good. Clay can be great in low doses, but I would definitely start with a heavy pine fine/soil conditioner. combine it with composted manure, mushroom compost, Humus, or all three. If you are wanting to grow grass, work that into the first 4 inches of soil. For veggies or ornamentals, same, but more, worked and broken into the top 5-6 inches or more.
For large tree/shrub plantings, you want to dig your holes 3 times wide as the root ball. I usually break into the soil underneath where the ball is going about 50% the depth of the ball, but I make sure to fill the hole back in so that the ball will actually stick up out of the soil about 2 inches, but will be sitting on broken soil and surrounded by a mixture of 50% native clay and 50% amended soil, mixed together as much as your back can take.
Sandy soil - add compost(s). Compost from different sources and brands contain different, helpful fungi and micronutrients that you cannot find in a single source. do NOT add soil conditioner to sandy soil or It'll never hold water again. You can also add some nice topsoil. Do NOT add cheap topsoil to anything you give a damn about. It's usually soil company scraps that rot in the ground. Not even the worms touch the stuff.
Sandy Clay - you're fucked. Just kidding, but really, sandy clay is about the worst you can have. It takes sometimes years of amending to get it healthy again, but if you're in a place that naturally places sand into your soil, it's nearly unavoidable. You can break down clay with healthy amendments, but you can't always keep sand from getting in and turning it to terrible concrete.
For heavy clay, we've had good results from field beans.
Their roots do a lot of the work of pushing organic matter deep into the soil for you, then just cut them down and leave them there to decompose and feed the worms at the end of the season.
The next year the decomposed roots become drainage channels and the worm population has increased tenfold.
Not really a quick process though.
I love this plan. I prefer a peanut but legumes in general create very happy soils
This guy soils.
I have a grass north facing backyard in Missouri that is 99% shade, clay, with dogs. All organic as we are paranoid for our babies. I’m screwed but we are trying. Monthly humichar and will add finest pine we can get our hands on then message you for more advice.
Thanks, So do you think adding some of that clay soil to my sandy beds is a good move?
I'm trying to do strict permaculture here, never brought anything from outside. I'm working mostly with our own compost (food and poop) and also lotd of cow manure. I also have access to some forest floor where I can scrape some topsoil
Depending on how much compost you have, I would start there. If you're willing to put in some digging, spread that manure and compost in a thick 2+ inch layer and break it into the soil. If the manure is rather hot, let it dry out first in thin layers before digging it in. A few days under the sun would be okay. I would only add the clay later, if it seems like the compost and manure is doing a good job of revitalizing. Depending on how composted the manure is, you can plant right into this mixture. Otherwise you may need to wait a little while for it to all breakdown. You just magically want to avoid adding heavy clay directly to heavy sand. Unless you want to harvest bricks later on.
Mixing clay and sand together is how potters make a stronger clay. Just for what it is worth.
Organic matter is the answer to both sand and clay. Our soil is largely sand and clay. We got some fine aged wood mulch with light humus from our local landscape supplier. We worked in compost and used the aged wood as mulch the first year, then worked Alfalfa pellets (the kind from the livestock feed store) in with the wood, worked that in, let it sit over winter. Next year mulched again with the same stuff, and did Alfalfa over winter. We occasionally use Dr Earth Organic fertilizer, but we use way less than it calls for. We did use a couple bags of "clay buster" garden amendment on one part of the garden where the clay was particularly dense, but we just used it once. I think the Alfalfa and mulch is doing more. We also used narrow width concrete blocks (4x8x16) to border our garden beds. This helps with elevation- as you build soil it will fill bed and it will be higher than the walk ways which can minimize flooding/wash out, and it also holds the soil and mulch where we want it despite wind or rain.
Our soil in the garden has gone from light tan to dark brown in about 3 years. The Alfalfa is the key, imo. Hope this helps.
Hort here and agree this works well. I’ve used composted pine bark with 80% fines to 20% bigger bits. Works well for clay and sandy soil.
Add organic matter
Just about the correct answer no matter what.
Besides the organic matter and gypsum, consider adding some more minerals and till in some rice hulls to help with drainage. For especially dense soil, I sometimes even till in some pumice or volcanic rock fragments to help add drainage.
If your thinking gypsum a “sodic dispersion test” will show if the clay is responsive or not. Some alkaline soils are and some are not.
Oooh that's a good point. I guess I've been stuck in my own situation for a while that I didn't consider that. Cheers.
If your yard is full of that stuff, plant daikon radishes across the whole yard/garden. When it comes time to 'Harvest', wack down all the leaves & stems (in a perfect world, mulch, but a rough hack chop is fine). Get all the way to the base of the plant, directly above the ground material. Then cover with cardboard, soak, and leave over winter. This does multiple things.
- Daikons are easy to grow, and take up a ton of volume. so even this clay dirt will grow a large daikon 'harvest'
- As with all plants, the vast majority of the organic matter is coming from CO2 in the air being converted to various sugars and proteins and stuff. You're using these as a vehicle to pump organic matter into the dirt.
- Daikons grow aggressively and take up a lot of space, but once they start rotting they have a very low density, this helps aerate the ground
- Over the winter and coming spring, the large holes left in the ground will fill with rain water and soak deep into the ground, like 3-4 feet deep.
- All that rotting material will develop a very healthy biome of fungus, bacteria & worms to help the micro ecosystem support a range of plants. The presence of these life forms means you can mulch other partially developed compost so over the coming years you can pump more nutrients into the ground by disposing of your organic waste (peels, etc)
You're not adding any nutrients this way, really. But it makes the nutrients currently present in the soil much more bioavailable and easier for roots to spread.
Very cool idea and good description.
using cover crops that eliminate compact like deep rooted grasses, forage turnips and legumes like alfalfa can help, adding sand can help,gypsum is helpful...the addition of bark and organic matter can help as well. You have options
For clayish soil devoid of earthworms, syntropic agriculture could be an excellent solution. Syntropic farming focuses on mimicking natural ecosystems to regenerate soil health, increase biodiversity, and improve crop yields. By incorporating techniques such as mulching, diverse plantings, and succession planting, you can improve soil structure, increase organic matter, and attract beneficial organisms like earthworms. This approach not only enhances soil fertility but also helps in retaining moisture and reducing erosion.
Surprised at the responses on here considering this is permaculture.
The first step is not how can I charge this soil, but how can I work with this soil to achieve my goals. Op what do you actually want to grow? There are lots of crops, particularly perennials that thrive on clay.
Also amending clay soil at scale is a huge undertaking for a non commercial operation and would not recommend. If you're set on having top quality soil just put in raised beds.
This! The princple "the problem is the solution" is core to permaculture.
The website growveg.com recommends mixing in chunky organic materials such as leaves. They also recommend planting things that like clay soil like lettuce, chard, snap beans, brassicas, sweet corn, pumpkins and squash.
https://www.growveg.com/guides/growing-vegetables-in-clay-soil/
Now, I don't have personal experience with clay soil, so I'm not making any promises 😄
Gypsum, increases soil permiability without effecting ph.
My man.
Zone 4a, soil is alkaline. I'm planning to make it more acidic by adding lime and coffee grounds. It also Rained earlier today. Last year, I pulled out the grass thst used to be there to make a garden, since I didn't want to use raised beds. After doing that, I put cardboard on top, then some garden soil on top. 1yr later, most of the cardboard had decomposed so I tore up the remaining pieces and mixed them into the soil. I did a soil test today by digging up a hole and waited about 4 mins and nothing alive showed up. I did this test twice. I have seen earthworms around the area but none in the holes I dug up. In the attached picture, I can mold and shape the soil like play-doh. Instead of it crumbling. Yesterday, I shoveled up the soil to loosen it. I can add a photo of the area if needed.
correct me if I'm wrong but isn't lime alkaline and coffee acidic. They'll probably just cancel each other out?
Oh ur right! Thanks so much, just coffee then.
You'll find that coffee is extremely ineffective for any sort of worthwhile scale. Sulphur would be the best choice, and will likely need annual applications if you're trying to alter a pH for more acid-loving plants.
Rain is slightly acidic, and despite many, many years of application, my soil remains quite alkaline. Sulphur moves the needle for a period of time.
All of that being said, you need organic matter. Compost is a stellar step towards improvement.
Before you do any amendments (coffee is fine right now)…do a proper PH test. Aluminum sulphate is organic and will lower ph if you need to…I only use it for blueberries and white pine as my soil is almost perfect 6.8 ph. Peat moss can also help but both coffee and peat moss will take more material than using the elements directly I mentioned
Can peat moss be sustainably harvested? I know there’s a big push to phase out peat in compost here in the uk.
No
My understanding is that the peat in the USA comes from Canada. They have a ton of peat marsh to harvest from and they are not having the same issues with overharvesting that the UK is.
A cursory Google says Canadian peat is formed faster than we use it so it should be OK. But I didn't dig too deep so idk if there's more to it.
Aluminum sulphate is organic
It's a salt, it's not organic.
I thin they mean that if added to soil from which food is grown, the food is not automatically disqualified from being called “organically” grown. However in the USA it’s not on the permitted list, all I can find is an application to add it in 2016.
Also aluminum sulfate is a potent soil amendment. Don’t go adding it without first addressing the tilth and consistency with organic matter, especially if you’re not familiar with its use. Too little will have no desired effect, while too much too quickly can stunt your landscapes ability to uptake and process phosphorous.
Try addressing the soil texture (e.g. adding organic mulches) to your gritty clay before toggling with elemental amendments. Aluminum sulfate or other sulfate compounds would be a great way to increase PH, but you may find that simply adding organic components may address both issues without the need for added compounds.
Garden Sulphur can bring down the Ph, but if you have free lime in your soil like I do, it will be a long battle.
You Can use wood ash too from your fire pit. I put a layer down as dressing around my blueberry bushes and they seem to be really happy about it
wood ash is highly alkaline, pH of 10 or higher. It would not be good for acid loving plants.
Oh shit lmao well I guess I’ll leave it be since it’s happy as it is, but I’ll keep that in mind!
Use sulphur not coffee grounds, coffee grounds don't really buffer ph much
Edit: also don't use lime
Yup. OP, I used this and it worked well. My soil tested at a PH of 8. I now have it down to 6.5, where I want it.
Is Sulphur toxic though? Like will this harm other microbes?
I’m looking for a more natural alternative to chemical manipulation. Like I’m tryna keep he life in my soil, not strip it dry with chemicals.
Sulphur is a natural element that comes out of the ground near volcanos and stuff.
Look for "elemental sulphur"
It's not bad for some microbes, keep in mind that your microbe population shifts based on the pH of the soil, so if you have high pH soil you have microbes that like high pH, and as you lower the pH they will die off and be replaced with microbes that like lower ph, so the answer is "yes and no"
Elemental sulphur is actually not very bioavailable to plants and depends on sulphur loving microbes to break it down, a byproduct of this is they create sulphuric acid which helps lower the pH of the soil. This is a natural process
So essentially, you are feeding the microbes with the sulphur, the microbes in turn lower the pH, you need microbes for it to work
it doesn't dissolve in water, if there weren't microbes to break it down it would essentially be no different than adding any other kind of rocks
Depends how much you add, like most stuff. All living things need some sulfur.
This is only tangentially related, but in Wisconsin we grow a lot of alfalfa. Alfalfa is a particularly sulfur hungry crop. In the last 20 years or so, alfalfa farmers found their crops were sulfur deficient. It wasn't a problem before.
Turns out what changed was diesel and coal. Old diesel had a fair bit of sulfur in it, which would change to sulfuric acid in the atmosphere and rain down where the alfalfa would take it up. Coal has a lot of sulfur too, but the smoke is better filtered now, too. These fixes helped deal with acid rain, but now alfalfa farmers have to supplement sulfur.
These days in the US we get about 2-6kg of sulfate deposited from rain per hectare.
https://heyzine.com/flip-book/796fbdb6dc.html#page/16
Oh, consider added char too. It has a lot of the same properties as organic matter but sticks around for thousands of years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
Sulfur is a mineral that is naturally found in the soil, and if you add it to acidify your soil, it is not acidic itself, it is slow acting, getting processed by the soil microbes into acid in the soil slowly over months and years.
I will be looking more into this.
I was visiting a farm and they said they used sulphuric acid as a fertilizer. I looked up what sulphuric acid is and it said “battery acid”. Lightly researched it and just thought it was just another way we’re polluting or planet (RoundUp also comes to mind) through the hands of careless humans. But I will be looking more into this, thanks!
Sulfur adds flavor and odor to flowers and foods. Too much is a hazard, the right amount helps makes things delicious.
But is it a toxin? Like glyphosate & battery acid/sulphuric acid, for example. Will it kill surrounding microbes or will it enhance their life/nutrient rich?
Edit: Nevermind i looked it up. Soil microbes convert sulphur to sulphuric acid. So I will not be using that ever. Case closed!
Edit2: I wonder if I could use inside of eggs for their sulphur to use in my garden as a natural sulphur additive XD
No, it's a mineral. Phosphoric acid by itself is no bueno for plants but it's a great pH down additive that adds phosphorus. I can promise you that it's good for plants in small amounts. You can even get wettable sulfur for plants specifically to spray them to keep pests away and it's still safe and organic. The sulfur you get from eggs isn't magically a different sulfur than you get from the mineral form - it's just less and less available easily.
Edit: I double checked. Microbes mostly convert sulfur into sulfate, which plants can uptake as a nutrient. You just don't want it in excess or used at the wrong time or in the wrong way. I can promise you that my own garden has large fruiting mushrooms coming out of the grow beds and when I accidentally over used some stone dust minerals one year and got it too alkaline, I added sulfur and STILL got blooms of blue oysters.
Oh, I read that sulfur gets converted to sulphuric acid, which is also known as battery acid I guess.
Do you eat the oysters? Do they contain a high amount of sulfur because of that? (Knowing they are notorious for holding heavy metals/toxins in their fruit bodies)
For the first 2 or so flushes, no - I don't eat them for a new bed / bag. But after that, yes - absolutely. I hope you don't take offense to this, but to me it sounds like you're over-Googling and need a teacher for this stuff.
By that logic you shouldn't eat vegetables because they contain oxylates and all kinds of other harmful chemicals, also vitamins can be quite deadly and vegetables have vitamins in them and so do fruits, and you shouldn't use water because that stuff will also kill you
Apples and cherry seeds, as well as others contain cyanide, so if you ever composted those or bought compost that had stone fruits in it, chances are there was at one time cyanide in it
Any sulphur in your garden even from eggs is going to be sulphuric acid at one point because it needs to be in that form for the plants to take it up
Elemental sulphur is also acceptable to use for certified organic foods so if you ever buy any vegetables that come from a place with a high pH they will have used sulphur
Does it kill mycorrhizal fungal networks?
Looks a little like mine. As other have said, wormcastings, compost and coffee grounds. Thoroughly decomposed woodchip from spruce, hemlock, cedar, etc. Would be a good addition. We'll Aged straw or clean hay could help too.
Is it huge acreage? For a garden plot, or for maybe sub 5 acres of intensive row gardening - coco choir (alternative to peat). Peat is also an option but waaaay more expensive. Choir compresses like crazy for packing so you could take a truck a trailer worth and treat at least an acre. But nobody's spreading choir on 300 acres I know that....
Lowering soil pH on any significant scale is really really hard. As other have said, I guess sulphur works to a degree though I've never delt with alkaline soil, outside of really really mis-mixed potting soil (new hands on deck) in which case the answer is dilution. Maybe talk to farmers in your area and see what they do. Idk if you have much land to manage, but if you do have forest acreage with pine of any kind, start making chips & needles mulch and pile it super high and let it compost over the course of years, and eventually use that as an input...
Also, you should try introducing some intentional cover to the whole area. Prime candidates are 1) nitrogen fixers like clover and vetch 2) deep-rooting annuals, like alfalfa, and mallow, and/or "wide" rooting annuals like turnips, radishes, beets. Just all over, let them go feral. The idea is adding biomass and feeding the biology. 3) any edibles that come free, that are able to self-propogate, could be green onions and cilantro and arugula and mustard...
Where I live it's very dry season/wet season, so timing dispersion of the seed is crucial, cause i'm only irrigating cultivated beds. Don't wanna waste it - if it takes you'll never need to buy seed again. For me, it would be the first rain in the fall, and very very early in the spring... so I'd look around for some of those kinda seeds online in bulk, pick some stuff out, and have it ready for the fall, for gentle temps and rain.
Just think about trying to generate more biomass everywhere around the garden site. Soil improvement is a feedback loop of thriving biology. Just more mass, more bugs, and therefore more bacteria and fungus in the soil. I haven't delt with soil like yours, but it can be surprising how much soil can improve just from natural cycles, just from a nudge in the right direction. Check out Geoff Lawton and his whole shtick. He just digs swales, plants a few crucial species, and then it's hands off from there. Australia has very calcitic, alkaline soils in the desert if I'm not mistaken....
My lot is basically a potters field. I know a guy who cleans horse stables. For three years he dumped about 90 yards of stable bedding on my lot. I added in about 100 yards of compost too. Three chip drops and now I have loam. Beautiful black well draining loam. There is no such thing as too much organic material when you got straight up clay..
Absolutely not an expert. Looked clay like to me. First comment seemed to confirm.. anyhow just saw an article today about expanded shale as a soil amendment/conditioner for a heavy clay soil. I looked quick after reading the article and it didn't seem like expanded shale was readily available but i still thought it was worth mentioning. Good luck
Gypsum and worm castings. Repost if you do a chemistry test but I would guess >8 pH. So souring it with coffee grounds makes sense, it’s called buffering.
Coffee grounds do little to buffer ph, spent grounds have a lot of the acid extracted and even fresh coffee will wash out quickly, better off to use elemental sulphur if you want to lower ph
Agreed on the elemental, my original statement was poorly written. I started to type elemental sulfur for its acidity properties but too much will shock plants in a landscape setting when not used carefully which is why gypsum would be the better choice to soften the heavy clay soil OP has presented and provide plant available sulfate and of course the king nutrient, calcium. Using the spent grounds would be more of a low dose nitrogen feed than anything which is why I would suggest top dressing with that waste stream.
Yeah gypsum for clay is awesome for better soil texture is mostly why I use it. I didn't know it made sulfur more available.
Elemental sulphur has been great for my garden though, it's fairly slow working so I don't worry about it too much
It absolutely adds plant available sulphur.
Nice
Open the structure with porous volcanic rock like pumice or scoria and then fling organics on top.
Start cover cropping
Trade clay for compost. Good trade 🤙🏼
Green manure is your friend here. Hungarian grazing rye is very good
Biochar, lots on YouTube about it
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Soil scientist here. Lots of good answers already, but I never see people suggest the things I've been using for fifteen years: pine fines/soil conditioner. Cowart has a very cheap brand that works better than anything I've seen. Adding "organic matter" can mean anything, and is in general, a very good Idea, but certain substrates can combine with clay and create a more cloggy, muddy texture in the short term prior to breakdown and can take a season to really show good progress. Adding in pine fines with the organic material (such as worm casting, compost, humus, etc) immediately aerates the soil and helps break down the clay. Combine this method with a good high carbon-solution can make immediate and amazing changes.