Re(2): No Till for sandy soil?
theryans@xtra.co.nz writes:
> I have never myself
>grown bananas and have no idea what sort of roots they have. Perhaps it
>would be worth making deeper subsiduary hollows just where they are to
>go and so giving them a bit more working depth. However, I have no doubt
>that if you CAN manage around 8" to start with the combination of
>natural downward penetration of the organic matter and the action of the
>burrowing roots themselves will quite quickly produce whatever depth of
>improved soil they need to flourish.
I've noticed that bananas have thick shallow roots (they blow over easy
when loaded up with fruit). I know the soil has small amounts of organic
matter because whenever i've flooded areas, bits of roots and woody
material would float on the water. Not much though. The sand here also
has odd layering. There seems to be alternating layers of really dark
almost black bands, mixed in with very fine and clean yellowish sand. I've
dug down about four feet once (boredom :)) and seen the layers throughout
the soil profile (at the bottom of one hole, there were square and
circular shapes too).
I've also noticed that when I flooded my tomato patch this year, the black
silt would feel like "slip" (liquid clay).
>
>The theory is that, provided you keep up the supply of humus by regular
>mulching your good growing soil will not be permanently confined to the
>original hollow, but will gradually involve a building up of the deeper
>layers as well and this will almost certainly include an improvement in
>their water-holding capacity as well as their nutrient content.
Interesting. That would most definately be a good thing since if I am
going to grow this banana for fruit, i had better provide it the best soil
that I can.
