Improve Heavy Clay Soil

What type of manure, chicken, cow, horse.

U don't have to guess if have clay soil when you try to dig in it is when the shovel bends and you spend an hour using a pick to dig a small hole

hey!
your book,does it contain all studies for all claims? i kinda expect it to be,you being scientific and all.
thanks,

My landscaper just putting a sand instead of soil I just find out now I don’t know what should I do 😢

I'm wondering if he used all-purpose sand or horticultural sand as there's a clear difference in the size of the sand pieces.

I stopped with the reference to agricultural fields watered with salt water. Give me a break.

Also, saline and sodic (alkaline) are different things.

Great advice. I’ve been gardening for 30 yrs. and I continue to learn. I thought adding sand was bad but I can see the value. However I agree that incorporating organic matter over time is ideal.

I have red clay soil. Calcium and nitrogen deficient . I supplement with souliable Gypsum

What do you do when your established garden is removed for foundation work on the house?
I'm left with big chunks of clay against the new foundation. Break up the chunks into a mud and form a ramp away from the house? Then, build a bed of my clay soil glazzed in sand on top of that? Loose dirt on top of that? We have about 6 inches of really amazing soil before we hit wet clay. Our clay stays wet.

Great wisdom. Thank you

How can you sit like that so long?

stop waffaling

Legend. Thanks mate!!

Overall, good advice. And it maybe necessary to till the first time you're growing. But don't kid yourself that there's "no soil structure to destroy because you don't have a garden yet." Silliest thing I've ever heard. Whatever is growing in the soil, whatever is living in the soil, create the soil structure. You'll destroy it, and it might be necessary. But it's there.

I live in Chicago. I had 18 inches of clay topsoil, with yellow clay underneath. We had the sewer drainpipe collapse. They dug a trench 30 ft long x2 feet wide. So, I had a lot of that yellow clay to deal with.
I used gypsum. Let it sit and percolate for 3 months. Had to pulverize it with a sledgehammer. Then I added sawdust, sand and compost, all in equal amounts. Used it in raised beds, adding 3" of compost and 1/2"sand, and 1/2" peat moss for 2 years. That's how long it took to make it decent.
The vegetable garden was turned every spring for as long as I can remember. When I got my shot at it, I double dug it and added a mix of compost 3/4to 1/4 sand about 3". That year the plants were enormous and my mom freaked out.
So, the best way to improve any soil is, COMPOST.

My take has been (for a long time) that the best thing to do is to disturb it as little as possible. That's mostly alluded to at the end of the video where the advice is no regular rototilling, keep it mulched, treat it like an established bed. I note that all of the things that people are supposed to buy and have to be mixed in, which goes against the advice to disturb it less. Basically, if you keep some mulch on top, the cracking issue is avoided and over time the creatures that live in the soil will establish a structure that holds air and drains water. Tilling undoes all their hard work. There are no instant fixes. Also, of course, if you must disturb the soil never do it when the soil is wet. That's just begging for a sticky clay mass that will dry as hard as brick.

Yes, adding organic matter is the way! Another easy and effective way to do this is to grow a cover crop. For clay soil you'll want to pick really tough plants with strong root systems like sorghum sudangrass, okra, cowpea, sunn hemp, sunflower, safflower, flax, etc. and grow them in a diverse planting of 8 or more species. In general you tailor your mix to your soil texture and conditions (i.e. low nitrogen availability, lack of structure, the presence of hardpan, etc.). Cover crops pump organic carbon straight from the atmosphere down into the soil in the form of photosynthates, and feed the soil microbes that actually improve the soil in the process. At the end of the season, you'll also have tons of mulch to cut down and feed to the soil, further increasing organic matter levels. I've seen cover crops turn rock hard dirt into dark, friable soil crawling with worms in a single season. They're even more powerful if you combine them with soil amendments like compost and manure. It may take a whole season but it's worth the wait. Plus you can interplant them with tougher veggies that do well in unhealthy soil such as beans, potatoes, and sunchokes.

I have been teaching these same principles for aquariums. Aquarium substrate needs to be soil with a sand cap to prevent leeching into the water. This simple system works miracles in an aquarium. It is a joy listening to you Robert.

Will a Ruth Stout approach work on expansive clay in Colorado?

Charcoal is amazing for our little microbe friends, id definitely look into it for that reason alone.

Fungi help break down clay, deep wood chip mulch is great for this but it takes time. 👍🏻

Young plants have a problem getting their roots to break through clay,

Charcoal (biochar) actually works for clay soil much better than sand because it promotes soil biology. The main problem is source material availability.

...I really enjoyed your common-sense approach....this newbie gardener thanks you

Downplaying biochar? Poor research dude

Thank you sir. Very helpful.

excellent! infio. i have listened to many videos already, but this is top notch .Please tell me which state you belong to. as that also makes difference for me when taking pointers . texas heat and drought has too many variations i need to adjust

Great… I got sand sand and more sand

Great video. I'm currently double digging my garden beds, removing the top 6 inches of heavy clay, then using a fork to aerate the bottom layer of clay before mixing it with mushroom compost, worm casting, and bark mulch to prevent further clodding. I also added live earth worms, red wigglers, and rotting plant matter (mainly vegetables) to further enrich the soil. I'm looking forward to next planting season! Thanks again!

You really need to do your research and you are perpetuating the sand myth. There are tons of university studies about adding just sand to clay soil. Here’s an excerpt from the university of Arkansas:

“First let’s talk about soil particle size. Clay, silt and sand are actually just names for different sizes of soil particles (see image below). Clay particles are the smallest and tend to be very tightly layered together. This arrangement in part results in slow movement of water into and through the soil. If the clay soil gets compacted and loses some of its structure, the result is even worse drainage.

Image sho sizes of different soi

Sand particles are the largest and tend to be more loosely arranged which allows water to pass through quickly. If you mix sand into clay, the clay particles will fill in all the open spaces between the sand particles and often the clay will act as a ‘glue’ sticking all particles together, ultimately resulting in a more dense soil.

In fact think about the ingredients to concrete, which are gravel or sand and a fine particle binding agent (AKA cement which is derived from limestone and sometimes clay). Similar to how cement will bind particles of gravel to create concrete, clay soil can bind with added sand particles to create a more dense soil.

Where this myth gets even more confusing is that most soils are not just 100% clay, 100% silt or 100% sand, they are naturally a mixture of some combination of all of these particles. The relative percentages of each determines the soil’s texture.

Adding sand really helped to loosen that 5-inch layer of topsoil. This summer, I am adding "dehydrated cowmanure". When the June draught hit, my soil retained the water from my soaker-hoses.

I got fed up with my soil, after I had several planting failures, now I am adding alot of sand, manure, compost and tilling all that in. No damage would be worse than what has been😅. Let's give it a serious try!

In nature, plant roots grow in soil (a combination of clay, slit and sand) in other words, inorganic material.. You won't find plants growing in organic material like compost or manure. In nature, organic material is always found on the surface; never buried in the ground. If you want to follow nature (and you should), never work in or bury organic material into your soil. Never throw organic material into a planting hole. And remember, organic material NEVER becomes soil. Soil comes from broken down rock. When organic material is finally completely broken down through the composting process, two elements remain: CO2 and HO2.

Just for the record the cheapest way to get gypsum is get a sheet of drywall and bust it up with a hammer. Its just pressed gypsum between 2 sheets of paper covering.

If you have clay soil add a thin layer of gypsum, alfalfa pellets, finely shredded leaves, a light layer of sand, shredded paper, and kitxhen scraps and till it all in when fall comes. Cover with another layer of alfalfa pellets then shredded leaves and grass clippings mixed. Let it all break down over winter and you will get good producrivity come spring.

Great help for my efforts to improve my clay soil.

I dugout my whole front by hand and sifted it also breaking up the clay clumps just added some compost hopefully I get some good crops out of it as it was back breaking but the earthy smell was relaxing

Wow! Great info! Thank you

You just saved me hundreds, if not thousands of $$$. Thanks!🙏✌

Sand will turn clay to cement if you are not careful - plus requires huge amounts….loads of organic matter over many years is what’s required clay sucks big time…gypsum takes ages to break down and will excessive calcium to most soils…

Why don't they sell bags of silt so we can mix clay, silt and sand?

I didn't watch the video yet but I will to see how our methods compare. Having clay is great. Add organic matter as much as you can get, the proper microbes, fungus ( I use happy frog 🐸 fertilizer for fungus)
Cover with clean non colored cardboard and hay on top of that. Introduce earthworm's if none show up. Of course rototill the whole thing first if you can but it's not 💯 percent nessasary . Plant thru the cardboard . Plants like comfrey have a DEEP ROOT and break up hardpan and bring minerals to the surface and make plenty of vegetative matter to build more soil. I could go on but if you just do this the second year your garden soil will be completely different and will get better every year.

Thanks for shareing

M

Excellent information. Thank you sir.

Exactly what I am looking for, very much thank you!

I live in Georgia, and have established 2 yards in red clay soil that have been scalped for new construction. Red clay soil is very hard when dry. The following is what has worked for me and is mostly in line with what is stated in the video.
Work in composted pine bark(organic matter). 1 part compost to 2-3 parts soil. Even this amount of organic matter seems to disappear in the soil in a matter of a few years. Work in a thin layer of pine bark nuggets also. These will break down over time and it seems to keep the soil softer longer. Plant your plants. Finally put a mulch that will break down (wood chips, pine straw, pine bark nuggets, finely chopped leaves, etc). The mulch is the key to lasting soil improvement in Georgia red clay. The only disagreement I have for Georgia is the thickness of the mulch. Pine bark or wood chips thicker than 2-3 inches have caused disease problems for myself and others. You could go thicker with straw, probably thinner with finely chopped leaves, but get it thick enough and I suspect you would get the same problem. I am always hoping to find a easier way, but over time for Georgia red clay under your shrubs organic amendments then mulch seems to be the answer.
Additional I'd recommend pinestraw for perennials that sprout from the ground like daffodils.

I've read that the bond between water and clay is very strong. So much so that much of the water is unavailable to plants (source: Botany for Gardeners 3rd edition by Brian Capon, Chapter 8, page 180)

Is this true? and does it also apply to any macro or micro nutrients? (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, etc)

Why would adding compost to clay soil improve it?

As I understand it, to improve the soil we need to:
- Change the relative proportions of clay, sand, and silt (which just refer to different particle sizes, not to any specific element)
- Make the proportion of these homogeneous across the soil we are improving

How does adding compost on top of the soil achieve the above? Why couldn't I add silt and/or sand to the top of the soil to achieve the same effect?