Re: Clay Soil
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Clay Soil
- From: J* I* J* <j*@ix.netcom.com>
- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 23:13:51 -0600 (MDT)
Dorothy C. Frisbie wrote:
>
> It was a good thing I called on a Master Gardener because I
> was told that the gypsum itself would be okay but the stuff that bonded the
> paper covering contained boron, which is a definite NO-NO here.
>
> Re Master Gardeners: One of them gave a talk to our Native Plant Club in
> which he had tests and stats to indicate that using manure in our clay soil
> areas here added too much additional salts. He highly recommended tilling
> in (or using as a mulch) a product from Home Depot called "Gorilla Hair"!
> Well, it does look sort of like it because it is shredded redwood bark!
Dorothy,
Well he may have been right on the boron issue, but I can tell you that
I have been less than impressed with the master gardeners that I have
come in contact with. If you call around to 3 different ones you are
likely to get three different answers, none of which may be correct.
Last time I tried them, I was looking for application rates for oyster
shell. 2 out of four didn't even know what it was and wanted me to use
quick lime instead, and the other two gave me far ranging application
rates (1 pound per acre and 80 pounds per 1000 sq feet respectively).
County Ag guys are a different story, they seem to know their stuff but
are mostly into large scale farm issues.
As to the Gorilla hair. As a surface mulch it would be ok. IMHO tilling
it into clay would be a disaster - like putting rebar into concrete -
just makes it stronger. I mean, that is essentially how the Egyptians
made bricks - straw mixed with clay. Find your local Navlets,
landscaping supply place or large nursery. Talk to a California
Certified Nurseryman(nurseryperson) and find out what is good locally.
Here in the San Francisco bay area (east bay actually, as opposed to the
west bay) I live on a layer of clay that is at least 15' (that is feet,
not inches) thick, and find that redwood soil conditioner works really
well. I add gypsum, and oyster shell, some nitrogen, and till it all in
to about 8 - 10 inches.
Someone else can probably talk more knowledgeably about manure, but I
thought the salts came from the urine of what ever critter was using the
area, and that the salts wash out pretty quickly especially if you
compost the manure for a while.
John | "There be dragons here"
| Annotation used by ancient cartographers
| to indicate the edge of the known world.
John Jones, jijones@ix.netcom.com
Fremont CA, USDA zone 8/9 (coastal, bay)
Max high 95F/35C, Min Low 28F/-2C average 10 days each
Heavy clay base for my raised beds.
