Soil Secrets - how to loosen up clay soil

[Brian Gallimore]

good info about secrets of soil health from Howard Garrett:


Howard Garrett Weekly E-Newsletter
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Howard-Garrett-Weekly-ENewsletter_vq4662.htm
Soil Secrets?
(There really aren’t any secrets. Just stimulate life.)


"Unhealthy and healthy soil from the same site."

Question: Is there anything I can do to loosen up the clay soil in my front lawn?  When it rains, it has the consistency of pottery clay, but when it stops raining, it dries out quickly. I have been in this house for seven years and aerated once. Any suggestions?

Answer: All of the organic amendments directly or indirectly help loosen and soften the soil. The key to friable, productive soil is abundant life in the soil. When the soil is healthy by being rich with biological activity, it will not erode or compact during rains, it will hold moisture at just the right level - thus cutting water costs, and it will create excellent crop production. Healthy soil contains significant microbiotic life. The microbes create organic matter that helps build the glue in the soil that creates the texture that allows rain and irrigation to soak in, oxygen to breathe in and carbon dioxide to breathe out.

Use this thought model. Before choosing a product to use on your property ask this: if I purchase and use this product, will it help or hurt the life in the soil? When the beneficial bacteria, fungi, protozoa, insects, earthworms and others are healthy, growing, and reproducing, the soil's chemistry, biology and structure will be soft, crumbly and productive.



Best for Soil Health

• Compost and organic fertilizers
• Rock minerals - lava, granite,
• greensand, zeolite, gypsum, etc.
• Sugars – molasses, cornmeal, etc.
• Mulch covering all bare soil
• Infrequent deep irrigation when needed.

         
Worst for Soil Health

• High-nitrogen, synthetic fertilizers
• Toxic pesticides
• Bare soil
• Excessive tilling
• Foot and vehicle traffic
• Overwatering and frequent
• light watering

 
  

For more detailed information on soil building, check our new book – Organic Management for the Professional.

To purchase the recommended products (if not in your local retail stores), visit the Natural Organic Warehouse.

If you have any questions on this newsletter or any other topic, tune in Sunday 8am -11am (CST) to the Dirt Doctor Radio Show. The phone number for the show is 1-866-444-3478. Listen on the internet or find a station in your area. Organic Club of America Members can log in on Sunday mornings to see the Dirt Doctor's Live Broadcast.

Please share this newsletter with everyone in your address book and all of your friends on Facebook and Twitter to help me spread the word on organics.

Naturally yours,


Howard Garrett

[RoT Obie]

I definitely agree with the assessment that promoting life is the key to promoting good soil, however, I do wish the dirt doctor gave us some more direct advice.  In my experience, not all organic fertilizers will benefit compacted soil - alfalfa meal, in my experience, can form a really nasty hydrophobic layer on the top of clay soils which makes matters worse. 

My practical recommendations to loosen the soil in our area:

1. Compost tea - it adds tons of organic matter and the microbes themselves that will actually start the process of creating good soil.

2. Fermented bacteria: Lacto Bacilli products such as EM1 or raw milk, or a good raw apple cider vinegar (which is just bacterial broth).  These are anaerobic bacteria that secrete acids of one kind or another - if you've ever mixed clay with vinegar, you know the vinegar eats up the clay and makes it more pliable.  This is the same principle we're after. 

3. Endomycorrhizae - these are a kind of fungi that share cellular functions with plant roots and exude a chemical called glomalin which causes soil particles to bind into larger aggregates. 

The mycorrhizae only need to be inoculated once per planting in gardens and once per year in lawns.  The compost tea and fermented products should be used regularly - at least monthly, more is better. 

While all of my recommendations fall under the general umbrella of promoting life, hopefully their specificity helps.

[Brian Gallimore]

thanks for the extra info!

I don't guess I've heard of anyone applying apple cider vinegar to their soil.  What are the guidelines for application rates?  How do you know if you have 'good' vinegar to start with?

[RoT Obie]

Thanks for asking Brain!

As far as guidelines go, it depends on the plants, but a general rule would be about 1/4 cup vinegar per gallon of water per 1,000 sqft.  Garrett juice contains apple cider vinegar as well as kelp and a couple of other thigns, I believe, so it seems like a product that Mr Garrett probably advocates.

Good vinegar will be branded as "raw" and to "contain the mother of vinegar" or something to that effect.  You should also be able to simply see the mother of vinegar, which is a protein strand - the vinegar will look like hazy booze!  The only place that I know of to buy it would be as a health food product at GNC...not exactly a garden shop. 

Instead of apple cider vinegar, I'd recommend the product EM1 - effective microorganisms.  It is a specific combination of anaerobic microbes that are great for the soil, and it is easy to buy a small bottle and brew a much larger batch.  You can easily find instructions by googling for "activated EM1" - you can turn a pint bottle of EM1 into a 5 gallon bucket of activated EM1 by mixing it with some water and molasses for about a month.  That stuff has similar usage rates, which can be found online as well.  This will get you the same effect as the vinegar, with a more robust, thriving biological component. 

[gringogigante]

I hve an area in my very clay soil in Allen, and I'd like to start preparing areas that i want to plant stuff in a year or more from now. Does anyone know of or recommend a "schedule" of how to turn clay soil into more healthy soil? For example, today I should till the soil and add _____. Next month, turn in ______ to the soil.  A few months later, add ________. SO that over the course of a few seasons or years, the soil would be perfect....

thoughts?

[Brian Gallimore]

I would personally take a different approach to loosening the soil rather than turning in materials and trying to work it.  (lots of work, and every time you 'break open' the soil, you are going to oxidize and then lose a large amount of organic material)   I would add compost and native wood mulch to the top.  Might 'plant' some dandelions.  I think that is it, nature will work to loosen it up.  Critters will start carrying organic matter down into the clay and mixing it in.