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soil Amending Clay Soil

Helldozer

Helldozer

Hey All,

I have a few questions about amending my clay soil. I'm a first year grower, in the ground and I'm trying to keep this as inexpensive as I can. I currently have two options, steer manure and a few bags of chicken manure OR "Super Humus Compost" from a local landscaping company. I believe that they get their compost from Santa Clara County and is described as "Green Waste."

I can find free horse manure around here also. However, I'm not willing to make multiple truck loads to get it, because I need so much and I don't think it is composted. So, from what I understand, I'd have to use it next year.

Specs: 35 feet x 20 feet = 700 sq. ft.
Adding 2 inches of compost and/or manure.

Which should I use to amend the soil and get it ready for my peppers? OR, should I mix the compost, steer manure, and chicken manure? Should I add anything else to it?

Thanks!
 
maybe you can do it the "farmer" way... make a soil analysis in a lab and you will see what you really need ? N P or K and then you will be able to amend right on!

and also remember that you will have to biild up your soil... can take some year sto have something full of microorgansm and good soil condition.

but a big pile of manure is usually good... be carefull with chiken manure i think its pretty heavy and can burn roots or injure them...
better if you compost it.

peppers need a good drainage and plenty of sun. Happy growing!
 
Hey thanks Hammerfall, appreciate the feedback. I have found another option.


Just found a guy who will drop 5 to 6 yards of horse manure/pine shavings off to my house for free! Part of it has started to compost, but the other has not. If I amended the soil now, would it be ready by the beginning of April?
 
Another good (cheap) way to do it is with pine bark chips. I broke up some clay beds, (35'x2') last year with a couple of bags tilled in each. The beds worked great for tomatoes, had good drainage. The beds look really good this year, but I will probably add a couple of more bags.

Clay, at least around here, is generally high in nutrients because it traps it. Adding manure is great for giving helping to break down the clay, but you probably wont need it for added nutes.
 
personnally i would drop it in the garden, mix everything with the actuall soil and let it rest till april! if you could put over a plastic or something to keep moisture and heat in that would help a lot to decompose!
 
Hey thanks guys. I just read somewhere that the pine shavings rob the manure of nitrogen. So, that doesn't sound like such a great deal now. I don't want to have to amend that with nitrogen.
 
As far as the pine shaving robing the manure of nitrogen, I do not think that is exactly true. My guess would be that the overall amount of nitrogen is greater with it, due to it also absorbing urine, but the amount of nitrogen per lb or yard might be lower when you include in the shavings and or straw.

I would go with the free manure, and as far as the non composted free manure.... I would take that too, and tarp it to till into the soil in the fall. I <3 free manure tilled into my garden in the fall with chopped up leaves and other "natural" free items. It works well and its a good way to get rid of allot of fee yard waste. I am debating asking neighbors for their leaves next fall.

If you can not have a pile of manure behind the garage for 6-9 mons, and want something easier to store, natural, and fairly cheap. You might want to look at getting alfalfa pellets and molasses to till into the soil before winter or early spring. Both can be found at tractor supply/agg stores fairly cheaply.....

Good Luck hope to see/hear how this year goes for you!
 
if you have heavy soil you can ammend with horse manure and sheep to help.. but willstill be heavy and clumpy... to break that and help with drainage and clumpiness add sand
it will help a lot and also help microorganism. this way you rsoil will be more "soft" and adding later compost will improve it...

peppers hate big heavy damp soil. (like most of any plants and trees)
 
Pine shavings, pine bark mulch and pine sawdust are all great agents to break up clay.
Uncomposted horse manure will give you lots of weeding to do, but that will be OK.
You will have built up great back muscles from turning in all the organic additives. :rofl: But above ALL, with clay, add Dolomitic lime -the powder, not pellets if you want effects this season. It is practically impossible to overuse lime that is well mixed into ordinary clays.
 
The reason that bark "robs" nitrogen is because that when bark decomposes, it reqires nitrogen to do so. If you want to use bark, you will need to increase the amount of nitrogen in your fertilizer. Nitrogen in the form of Ammonium (NH4) or Nitrate (NH3) is what you are ultimately looking for. However,it needs to be a small amount because it is quick release and considered "hot" when in large quantities. I would add something like an Osmocote 14-14-14 fertilizer because it has both Ammoniacal Nitrogen and Nitrate Nitrogen but because it is a coated, slow release fertilizer,it won't burn your plants.

For such a small area,it is possible to change the soil profile of what you have. Adding organic matter such as the composted manures will help tremendously. As will the addition of some builders sand. Builders sand has rough edges on the grains of sand and are good at creating large pore spaces. Play sand has smooth edges and will not create large pore spaces,so there is a difference. The addition of sand will help to break up the clay particles and increase your drainage and allow oxygen to move into the soil.

Clay has the smallest particle size of any soil, the smallest pore space but has the largest amount of surface area. The increased surface area is great for retaining water but doesn't allow oxygen to come in. That's why the addition of sand and organic matter is key.

As to your available composted manures, all are just fine however, they really should be composted at least 6 monthsto be safe for the plants. The reason that chicken manure, fresh anyway, is harmful to plants is because of the high amount of nitrogen that is immediately available. It is too high in a quick release formof nitrogen, usually Ammonium. That's why an aged manure is better.

The bagged chicken manure or poultry litter is ready to go. No composting required. The Humus would be god as well. Humus basically describes composted matter that is not quite returned to soil yet but has no identifying material in it. Meaning that it has decomposed to the point that it's not easy to tell where it came from.

Hope this helps.
 
The free manure + pine chip mix sounds awesome. The pine may actually be a blessing in disguise in your case. The part-composted manure might be too hot for an April planting, but cut with the pine you have a milder mix. You might want to work in half now, and leave the other half in a pile to burn down. Use that to top dress after transplanting, or, if you are direct seeding, after the seedlings are at least 4-6 inches tall.

I second the recommendation for adding lime. It helps break down the clay. I also add wood ash. Ash has a high pH like lime, and has the added benefit of adding some nitrogen and other trace nutrients.
 
Wow, great information all. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it. I think, because of the lack of space to store half of the manure, and wanting to be ready to go by April...I'm going to go with the "super humus (green waste)". I'll add 2 inches of super humus, then add about 28 cubic feet of last years Miracle Grow soil from my containers, and then throw in a small compost pile (about 3 months old) in there. The compost pile I have is only like 4 foot in diameter and maybe 3 feet deep. So, not much, but maybe enough to break things up.

Do you think that will prep the soil well? I don't have really much to spend on the soil this year, and it's my first year in the ground.

Thanks all!
 
I don't think I can afford to buy that much sand. If I added a couple of big piles of leaves, would that help? Now, they are oak leaves too. I don't know anything about leaf type, or even if it matters that they are oak.
 
you can just throw 3 or 4 bag of sand ti start with...
or maybe you could seperate your garden in section and make some soil test... like one with full compost, sand, manure etc.. other section nothing. othe rleaves and pine barks etc.... this way you could see what is heppening and what to use ! just giving ideas...
 
I'm not a fan of sand since it is inert. You can achieve a healthy aerated soil without it. Leaves are fine, but they need to be composted first. If you build a pile of just leaves you can get it to break down into leaf mold, which is awesome for soil. Do a google for "leaf mold" for thorough instructions.
 
I grow in clay soil. I dug out a lot of the clay and replaced it with dirt and soil. I was considering using sand to help with drainage but I'm in agreement with Pepperwhisperer . However, I kept the small rocks I dug up and threw them in my mix. I dug about 2 feet down and removed the clay. It was mostly clay.

Edit: I've been adding coffee grounds and egg shells to amend my soil. I bet coffee grounds would be great for breaking up clay. Egg shells can't hurt either. I've just been trying to add more and more organic matter to my soil to make it better. Before this area had no bugs or even earthworms. Now it's thriving with bugs and earthworms, hehe. The area I dug up all the clay had construction on it, so they put in cheap filler. I found siding, nails, and other materials in the ground. That's part of the reason i decided to just dig a lot of it out. It also floods a little bit in this area and I wanted to mitigate the flooding. What I've done so far has reduced the flooding drastically (can't get rid of it since the whole area slightly floods every so often). It used to flood whenever it rained fairly heavily.
 
Good stuff Dulac. I dump my daily coffee grounds out in the garden, no need for composting first. Also egg shells and banana peels. The vermin aren't interested in them and they all do good things for the soil.
 
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