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soil fix my soil

moruga welder said:
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hey i found a alpaca !   :rofl:
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Damn! Thats worse than moose knuckle!
Back on topic, from discussions I've had with Gary (windchicken), I'll have to agree with able eye. The only options I have for my terrible clay are either dig up the clay and replace with "topsoil", which here seems to just be loosened clay, or amend, amend, amend. Lafayette Parish offers free compost, and craigslist offers up hardwood chips for $6 a yard, and that's without searching for free chips. Judging by results, I'll be going with the compost/ chips method personally.
 
You should be able to get manure for chit cheap. If you have room to compost it before application even better
 
Find your local county extension office and send a soil test to PSU. You are in the ridge and valley province probably,our soils are similar.

This isn't something that can be fixed 2 months before planting. You can work on your plot this season and get it prepped for next year,or amend it per your soil test instructions and ride it out this year and start working organic matter into it in the fall.
 
Pr0digal_son said:
Find your local county extension office and send a soil test to PSU. You are in the ridge and valley province probably,our soils are similar.

This isn't something that can be fixed 2 months before planting. You can work on your plot this season and get it prepped for next year,or amend it per your soil test instructions and ride it out this year and start working organic matter into it in the fall.
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Precisely....
 
"When using RCW, this type of effects can be seen during two months, after which trophic chains are active and the amount of available nutrients is increasing with time."
 
Seems two months is the starting point.
 
PexPeppers said:
i have 3 scoops of mushroom compost coming tomorrow, so that will be good. I will lay it down and probably saturate it with water every now and then, and then till it in a few days with some gypsum, verm, coco coir (i have way too much of this stuff), SOME worm castings, spent coffee (my grandma kept it for me for a long time).
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If you would like a triaxle of 25 cubic yards or a tractor trailer full of 60 cubic yards of mushroom compost I can let you know of a company that sells it for $2.00 a cubic yard. The main cost is in the transportation.  That can be about $500.00 or about that price.
 
Jabski said:
If you would like a triaxle of 25 cubic yards or a tractor trailer full of 60 cubic yards of mushroom compost I can let you know of a company that sells it for $2.00 a cubic yard. The main cost is in the transportation.  That can be about $500.00 or about that price.
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god, i dont think i need that much. anything smaller?
 
PexPeppers said:
 
god, i dont think i need that much. anything smaller?
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You would have to drive to the place down by Avondale Pa and then I am pretty sure it's free.  When I lived close to that town I would just get pickup after pickup for free but now I live farther away so I just have them ship the 25 cubic yard load.
 
I'll just leave this quote here in amongst the bullshit.  :D
 
"Three types of humus – more appropriately called “the humic bowl” – exist: mull, long-lived humus that is scarcely visible, is totally integrated with the mineral substances and transfers nutrients to plants; moder, in brunisols (immature forest soils), where the humic bowl is poorly incorporated with the soil fauna and is much less efficient for pedogenesis; and mor, characteristic of coniferous or leafy transitory forests.

Only climacic deciduous forests make mull or long-lived humus. Animal manures, green manures and composts supply primarily short-lived humus and support primarily bacteria, which encyst and go dormant in winter; but fungi – characteristic of mull soils – survive and continue to work in winter. Fungi are undervalued because so little is known about them, yet fungi and lignin from climacic deciduous trees are at the root of soil fertility and long-lived humus."
 
That sounds like a sweet deal on the 'shroom compost. 
 
Can't go too far wrong with compost, the closer to free the better.
Be careful about mixing wood in the soil. Ramial Chip Wood is highly preferred. Heartwood chips or sawdust, especially conifers, can suck nitrogen away from plants long enough to stunt them severly.
I like to use the Ramial as a mulch especially if it has already started to decompose.
 
Also check out green sand for clay.
 
Covercrops. I use buckwheat in summer. You can usually till in 3-4 crops per year. For fall, some mix of Austrian Winter Peas, tillage radish(diakon), hairy vetch, oats, rye grain, or winter wheat.
 
JJJessee said:
 
Be careful about mixing wood in the soil. Ramial Chip Wood is highly preferred. Heartwood chips or sawdust, especially conifers, can suck nitrogen away from plants long enough to stunt them severly.
 
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This is only if you till the wood into the soil no matter what kind of wood you use.
 
Still have to do the 2nd one. but it looks a LOT nicer. I still have to get some moss and other things you guys recommended. i've found that there are corn husks in the soil, so that looks good. it is supposed to snow here tonight so i had to at least lay it down. the tilling will come later.
 
 
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