How to plant plants in clay soil? 7 effective ways.
But what about those who want to harvest outdoors? We’ve already talked about sand, now let’s discuss sound. We thank the moles and worms that tirelessly dig passages in clay soil and make the clay suitable for growing plants. If anyone thinks you can drill holes in the sound and replace that cloak, they are mistaken.
By thanking the soil structures for the soil structures and dead plant roots that they constructed on the site before we arrived, we will make sure that their labor was not wasted. Only a moral creep would poison someone on their side. Those who disagree can express their opposition and are divided into the smart ones (they will reduce the use of poisons to zero) and those whose brains have been crushed by the crown of the king of nature.
I don’t know how to lure moles into their personal territory and explain to them that there are limits beyond which a sad mind meets them, but it’s easier with worms. They feed on organic material that pulls them from the surface into the ground, and all you have to do is scatter all sorts of cleaning products around the ridge to keep the worms living close to the food source and not crawling far away.
Unfortunately, most cleaning is done in the city, and the worms are found in other places. How do you continue cleaning so there’s no smell, no mosquitoes breeding?
There are several options: dry it out, freeze it on the radiator, cover it with earth and plant seedlings on it. A useless option is a dense packing without air access in polyethylene, because in this case the very microorganisms that are involved in the creation of fertile soil with a pleasant fragrance do not multiply when cleaned.
Suppose we brought dried seashells from the city in March, and now, in May, we go to the cottage with seeds, which are best placed in the ground, so that they begin to germinate and in a few months to harvest.
It’s scary to think how we’ll start sticking a shovel into the heavy earth, digging out huge lumps of clay, breaking it up into smaller lumps, then agonizing over developing the seeds so they don’t end up deep in the Rissen soil, where they sink at the first rain, or at the surface, where they dry out and hardly ever hatch.
I tell you what species I prefer to plant in clay soil.
First. The untouched floor is just above the trampled floor, and I cut the clay from pathway to pathway with a sharp knife, put a band of seeds in the gap, or put one. The gap in its shade accumulates moisture and drains the excess to the lowered areas. Additional shading with straw or needles is very useful. In a moist atmosphere, microorganisms multiply quickly, which can structure the clay floor layer and gently support the roots of young plants.
Possibility two. Keep last year’s layer of leaves on the ground, which can also be covered with paper and cardboard. Bury everything with a plant cone, sprinkle sand with the seeds or put the seeds on a sandy cushion and lightly cover with sand.
Third option. We take the loosened soil that the triggers have prepared for us (I am especially pleased with the lack of weeds), with needles, chips, chopped straw, and in the extreme, mixed with dried tea spatulas and shredder paper. The seeds, laid out on a bare tone, are covered with a centimeter-long layer of this mixture and covered with spandex to add and maintain a porous structure during the rains.
Fourth option. Cut weed cones out of the ground with a knife when they are there, and use pot seeds grown in purchased fertile country instead. Weed root cones are placed in fenced aisles where they are appropriate. The weeds quickly take root in their new place and turn into a thick grassy pathway that is not slippery and does not dirty your feet.
The path is especially pleasant if you put fine pebbles on it. However, a rag placed on a damp shade is a great way to go. Roofing material is also good. Cut cones can be used to reinforce the pages of the flower bed basket, or buried in the middle of the tuber of the plant, or backfilled trees in the pits.
Option five. The first in the ground seems deep and nettlesome. Slightly press with something, at least the edge of a board, small furrows, put the seeds and fill them with cut green plants. They give moisture and shade and a layer of porous organic matter, which is easily penetrated by the names of young sprouts.
If the place is overgrown with grass, you can backfill it with rye. Rye rye rises up to a height of 2 meters and creates such dense shade that the weeds can’t stand it and disappear. However, it is not only about shade, but also about the outflow of roots. And then after rye can be pulled in the traditional type of narrow strips.
It is much easier to catch after rye. Narrow ridges resemble their brethren, but the example is not to pour fertilizer solutions into the middle of the narrow beds. The sound itself is the full Mendeleev’s table and needs no additives.
The sixth way is narrow – over-cultivated beds with wide corridors, which are littered with all sorts of organics.
The seventh way is to use my favorite boards from any old fence. Once we put a wide door in an old barn on a cushion of grass clippings. We got a cozy room with a table and chairs on it. The table was removed for the winter, and seeds were poured on the boards and nailed so that the seeds fell into the cracks. In the spring, green plants appeared, under which we identified basil and parsley. The boards were comfortable to walk on, and the plants were slightly pushed up by the wood fibers, which watered the moisture near the cracks.
The next year I put the rider on top of the old door boards and again watched the joyful sprouting at the intersection of the cracks. There was rapid growth on all sides, the roots blissfully under the wood. It held both the cold and before the heat, preventing both excess and lack of moisture. The floor was clearly improving – the red tone under the boards had turned into a soft, fertile floor.
At the rate of forest destruction we are now witnessing, our whole globe will soon look like Easter Island, where everything was and now there is nothing, and building wooden huts will become a luxury for the Old Backwoods category. We wouldn’t dare remember the cozy wooden structures for plant roots. But this method is still available today.
How to make fertile earth from clay or earth: step by step instructions
Often we do not have the opportunity to choose a place with good, fertile soil. We have to adapt to what we have. We will go into detail on how you can improve clay and tonneau floors to get rich plants from vegetables and garden crops.
Both types of floors contain increased amounts of sound particles: at least 10-30% clay and more than 30% in tone. It is these particles that determine the main disadvantages of these floors:
- They take a long time to warm up in the spring and freeze hard in the winter.
- They are poorly permeable to moisture and air;
- In the dry state they are extremely difficult to handle, because in terms of density they resemble concrete;
- Highly acidic.
Work to improve the floor with high sound particle content should be carried out regularly and continue for more than one year. The reward for the spent effort and time will be a large number of vegetables and fruits, grown with their own hands.
Step 1: Drainage
One of the main disadvantages of clay and tonneau floors – they leak water. During heavy rains, it stagnates on the surface of the ground, because the particles thickened by moisture do not allow it to penetrate deep into them. As a result, the plants begin to rot and suffer from a lack of oxygen. You can get rid of this problem with a drainage system.
Is it necessary to equip a drainage system on site and determine a little research? Take a hole about 60 cm deep and fill it with water. If the water is not completely absorbed in one day, you need to equip a drainage system. Depending on the condition of the site (the amount of sediment in the soil and the height of the groundwater table), drainage is made superficial or deep.
Surface drainage can be point and linear. Point drainage is a system of collecting water at certain points: Under drainage, in depressions, etc. With linear drainage, a system of flatter ditches is placed along the plot to divert water from flowerbeds, paths, lawns and buildings. Trenches are made under the slope. After them, excess water flows into some place – a pond, gorge or a special well. Thanks to such a system, the site is quickly freed from excess moisture, and its plants do not suffer from stagnant water.
Deep drainage is usually organized in areas where, in addition to clay soil, there is a risk of flooding, also because of the quality of groundwater. Surface drainage in such an area can not be completed by the diversion of water, so a deep system is added to it. It consists of a system of pipes, located under the slope at a depth of 0.5-1.6 m. Water from them flows to the end point of the water front.
Are you tired of fighting with stagnant puddles and excess moisture on the site? Urgently install a drainage system.
Step 2: Reduce acidity.
There are many ways to determine the level of acidity of the floor. However, gardeners know without a determination that most often the soil acidity is elevated. This is another reason why vegetables refuse to get good yields in such soil.
There are various ways to reduce the acidity of sound and loamy soils.
Lime. For deacidification used slaked lime (for), which is made under the digging at the rate of 300 – 400 g per 1 square meter. However, when applying lime, you need to be very careful, because it interferes with the absorption of phosphorus from the plantings. For this reason, Kalk is used no more often than once every 3 years.
Dolomite flour. This is a safer deoxygen, so it can be applied in the spring as well as in the fall. In addition, dolomite flour improves the structure of heavy soil and lightens it. The application rate is 400 g per square meter.
Ash. Ash plays a double role: it reduces the acidity of the soil and at the same time is an excellent fertilizer. However, it requires the addition of at least 1-1.5 liters of ash per 1-1.5 liters of soil. For dacha owners, it is quite problematic to find such a quantity.
Acidic soil on the plot can ruin many plants and all efforts to expand them. How to fix the acidity of the floor on the beds and in the garden?
Step 3: Improve the structure.
The fine particles of clay combine with each other to form a dense mass in which air and water hardly penetrate. It is extremely difficult for plants to survive in such conditions. To help them, it is necessary to solve the problem of clay and loamy soil – to make it lighter, more porous. After that, moisture and oxygen will be able to penetrate to the roots, and useful floor microflora will appear in the soil.
How do you improve the structure of heavy soils? There are various possibilities.
Sand. The most well-known and most common way to improve the structure of sound and loamy soils is to bring them sand, that is, sand. For this purpose, coarse – from 1 to 4 mm in diameter – river sand is used. In order to significantly reduce the density of heavy soil, you need to add at least 15 – 30 kg of sand per 1 square meter.
Peat. Peat not only dissolves heavy soil, but also saturates it with nutrients. Peat is more amenable to loosening: it is light, loose, has a fibrous structure. After its use the soil becomes airy and watertight.
Topsoil, however, has a significant disadvantage – a high degree of acidity. To reduce it, the rate of limestone should be increased from 400 to 700-800 g per 1 square meter per lime floor with the addition of peat.
Organic waste. Household waste, which is usually sent to the trash can, is also well solved: potato peels, plant residues, earthy nuts, etc. All these wastes need to be shredded and dried, or at least dried. In this form they are stored until the fall or spring, and then simply scattered on the surface of the floor and everything is recomposted.
Perlite. Perlite retains moisture well and relieves heavy soil. It is better to apply it in the upper part, and in the lower part – at least 10 cm from the surface.
Mayscotch. After collecting mayscotch from plants, you should not throw away or burn these plant residues along with the floor – but to digest these plant residues. Although they are replaced within a few years (and some plant parts are very tough, causing them to decay over a period of time), they improve soil structure.
In addition to the above, coconut shavings, gravel, and linen bark (waste products from flax processing) are also used to solve the problem of sound and loamy soils. They are scattered on the surface of the floor, and then deepened into the ground while digging the trench.
Step 4: Fertilizing.
To improve sound and loamy soils, fertilizer should be applied regularly. However, for such floors, it is better to use organic fertilizers rather than mineral fertilizers, because they both nourish the heavy soil and improve its structure.
To enrich sound and clay, it is recommended to use horse or sheep rot, as they decompose the fastest. Mature compost can be used. The humus is applied at the rate of 2 buckets per 1 sq. m. of area, and then dig to a depth of 15 cm. Peat is often added to them.
Step 5. mulch
Another important step to improve the structure of heavy soil is mulching. This simple process retains moisture in the soil and protects it from drying out. This keeps the floor from having a thick crust, cracking, and absorbing water better. In addition, mulch decomposes over time and adds fertility to the floor.
Mulch soil and clay can only be mulched with organic materials: grass, straw, peat, leaf fall, decomposed sawdust, etc. The effectiveness of mulch increases if you add compost (5 kg per 1 sq. m.). The decomposition of the mulching material will be accelerated.
First of all, on heavy soil the mulch layer should not exceed 2-3 cm. Over time, it can be increased to 6 cm. Before covering the floor with a new layer, Fauler mulch should be mixed with the top layer of soil.
Spread before the mulch and shave the floor. Do not mulch with sound and clay until the top layer of the floor and is completely dry.
Step 6: Sow sawgrass.
Another important technique for improving the fertility of sound and loamy soils is the use of surprises. Surprises can be sown after harvest in early spring or fall. In the spring, they should be mowed at least 3 weeks before planting the main plants. After mowing, incorporate the surprises into the soil to a depth of just over 10 cm.
If sown in the fall, they can be left on the surface of the floor until spring and spread on the ground only before the new season begins.
To improve the sound and clay in the plot most often sown white mustard, phacelia or lychee (suitable for autumn sowing). Not only do they increase fertility, but they also structure heavy soil.
Find out which groups to plant in your plot to improve the floor and greatly increase yields.
If you have clay or clay soil, in the first years of its development, try to give preference to those plants that are “by your choice”: cabbage, strawberries, lettuce, currants, grapes, roses, portulaca, etc. They tolerate the lack of oxygen in the soil and high moisture levels well. For other vegetables, make high beds and use the resulting fertile soil when growing.
