Clay

[texastepin]

I dont change my water and haven't for many years, I have enough plants in their that keep things clean and dont have to mess with things. Ticks of some people when they see my water clear and I dont change water lol, other wise I would use the water for plants

Yea it sounds like you have or had a cool set up with fish tanks. After a while the driftwood, sphagnum moss, and plants, kinda equal things out. I had discus and wild caught fish. man I miss my fish tanks. If your tanks a large enough, taking a 5 gallons out, and replacing it won't disrupt the tank chemistry. At least it never did in my years.
 
man I'm a huge fish lover. Do you think I could see some tank pics?

 

[robbyjoe01]

Que looking at that grey block reminds me of what the Ozarks is- a big rock with a little dirt on top. You can keep your grey clay I have enough crap to till up

 

[queequeg152]

Mine smells like crayons once you get about 8 inches down. And red like crayon too. But it can be the best growing you've got if you do it right.

 
eh...
 
personally i dont think you should be adding clay to a potting mix... but clay is a simple reality when you are growing in the ground.
 
its important to know WHAT clay you are dealing with becuase you have many types of clay... bentonite type clays hold lots of cations with their anions.
 
the non plastic clays that are friable are called kaolinite? they dont have these huge shear faces rubbing against eachother like sheets of paper... thats bentonite.
 
kaolinite clays are like... fish scales all mashed up and stacked nicely like a shuffled deck of cards? the stuff has less resistance to shearing so its more powdery.
 
sorry its been a LONG time since i took that geology class( online class LOOOOOL).
 
the kaolinite clays are shitty and dosent hold much charge. and dont consolidate real well so it drains better tan bentonite. i think mica is a form of kaolinite?
 
anyway if you have the bentonite clay a little will go a long way i suspect... like less than 10%. to much clay an actually cause problem where nutrients cannot move through the soil well enough.
 
i think if you have a clay rich soil, you actually need higher salinity and lower PH to get the same amount of nutrients to the plants if i remember right.
 
 
BIGGEST thiing with soils IMHO is air filled porosity and air permeability though. imho this should be number 1 in all soil mixes and soilless mixes. you should be getting at least 50% air filled porosity... stuff like rockwool  and peat lite is way way up there like 90+ % air.

Que looking at that grey block reminds me of what the Ozarks is- a big rock with a little dirt on top. You can keep your grey clay I have enough crap to till up

 
at least you can build good foundations! dont bitch lol.
 
the clay down here is so expansive... many measures need to be taken to ensure that foundation issues dont crop up.
 
guess how many new homes here have properly engineered fondations? its not many.
 
guess who has the biggest foundation repair industry in the USA? ill let you guess.

 

[hogleg]

Mine smells like crayons once you get about 8 inches down. And red like crayon too. But it can be the best growing you've got if you do it right.

 
When I lived in Petaluma you could't dig more than 8" down without hitting red adobe clay. Turned in a bunch of organic matter and goodies, It was the best garden I ever had. I had a cherry tomato bush that was 6ft tall and 7ft in diameter. Also best tasting potatoes and carrots I ever grew too. It's true clay can be awesome when its done right.
 
The most sought after Bordeaux wines that go for thousands a bottle because of thier soil are grown in red clay laden soil. ieetrus, nuff said.
 
But yea I think covering your drainage holes in a pot with clay is a bad Idea.

 

[EvanWilliams1988]

Here in Indiana I get yellow clay in our yard.

Not sure if it'd be worth working with though.

 

[queequeg152]

Here in Indiana I get yellow clay in our yard.

Not sure if it'd be worth working with though.

 some iron oxides can be yellow.
 
squirt acid on it! see if it turns red!!!

 

[solid7]

Here in Indiana I get yellow clay in our yard.

Not sure if it'd be worth working with though.

I had really hard packed loamy/clay soil when I lived in Kansas. Like somebody else here mentioned, I turned in some organics, and after 2 consecutive years of this, (leaves from the oak trees and all of my grass clippings) it magically became the best garden I've ever had in my life. I didn't even fertilize it. (other than a few dead fish at the beginning of the season)

It might be a mother bitch to get a tiller into it - I had to do it about 2" deep, over several passes - but I wouldn't write it off until I tried it for myself...

Since I moved to Florida, and had to become a full time container gardener, I've never had to work so hard to grow food in my life!