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Re: Ashes - not texture, pH

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Bill wrote:

> Clay is usually pretty
>good pH and nutrient-wise, 

Careful, Bill. Even though you threw in the qualifier *usually,* your
statement is SO wrong about the clay in my part of the world that I wonder
where on earth such *good* clay can be found that makes you say this at
all? Certainly not major parts of the SE U.S.

The clay where I come from, Bill, and for this whole area, is quite acidic.
Mine's at 5.3 pH, which is horrendous for vegetables, but blueberries do
fine, as do azaleas and rhodies. (One of the very few benefits, IMO.)
Further, our soil (and I imagine most others in the region) is very low in
both magnesium and calcium. Surely you've heard of our (in)famous *red
Georgia clay*? Some places it's even redder than terra cotta. Bright burnt
orange -- a truly shocking color.

We bought this house just a little over a year ago partly because by some
miracle I'm still trying to figure out, this property actually has a
thinnish layer of brown soil over the top of all that clay (tho studded
with more rocks than a rock garden). I've seen that on only one other
property in this general area (not that I've made that big a study), and
it's not far from us. This brown soil is an inch or so in some places to 6
or 8 inches or more elsewhere. I really do consider it miraculous. Yet,
even that layer of brown stuff is very acidic and not very fertile, but at
least it's not clay. Whew!

Just had to speak up on the issue of clay and pH.

Patricia
West Georgia, Zone 7b


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