Clay soil dries to a hard crust.
Clay soils are a common feature near mountain ranges where rock breaks down. The soil is composed of tiny, fine soil particles that pack together so tightly that water will not drain easily. Clay soil often remains wet and slippery well into spring and then dries to a hard crust in summer. Most soil experts recommend that you enrich clay soil with organic amendments before planting in it. Organic amendments improve drainage in clay soil.
Instructions
1. Break up your clay soil to a depth of 12 inches by hand with a garden spade, or with a cultivating machine such as a rototiller.
2. Select nitrogen-rich organic amendments to incorporate into your clay soil. Good organic amendments include peat moss and compost as well as well-rotted manure.
You may also add wood chips and sawdust. Wood amendments will lock up nitrogen in the soil. If you add wood amendments, you must add extra nitrogen to the soil for plants to use.
These organic amendments will help add nutrients to your soil and aerate it for improved drainage. Spread amendments over your soil in a 4-inch layer, or approximately 3 cubic feet of each amendment per 1,000 square feet of soil.
3. Plant a nitrogen-filled cover crop such as clover, or one that will fix nitrogen from the air into the soil such as a legume crop. Good legume crops include pole beans, bush beans or soy beans.
4. Plow your cover crop under with a rototiller to mulch it into the soil. A cover crop mulched into the soil will help to aerate the soil and will add nitrogen to the soil as it decomposes.
Related posts
Plants will not grow well in clay soil.Clay soil is soil in which the individual particles are as fine as dust. Clay particles pack together very tightly so that air and water cannot move well thr...
Clay soil can be farmed with a little preparationIf you have a plot of farmland that has a high clay content in the soil, it will be very difficult, if not impossible to farm. Particles of clay wi...
Clay soils compact, keeping air and nutrients from reaching plant roots.The ball and ribbon test provides an easy way to identify clay soil. A ball of wet clay soil can flatten into a ribbon 2 inc...
Clay soil can be difficult to work with.Clay soil can be difficult if not impossible for the casual gardener to work with. Clay soil is very fertile but needs to be loosened up a bit to allow tend...
A variety of organic materials can help soften clay soils.Clay soil is composed of tiny, tense, closely spaced particles that limit good drainage. During spring months clay soil is typically slipp...
