Re: re. The no-till revolution (was planting roses in clay

Joe Seals wrote:
> 
> Jennifer:
> 
> I've found that traditional roses do remarkably well
> in unamended, untilled heavy clay; indeed, they seem
> to thrive where I've planted them in the past
> including in the heaviest of clays, the sticky red
> clay soils of the southeast U.S..
> 

Joe
I'd just like to endorse generally what you have said, which is largely
in line with the most recent practices by the no-till school, many of
whose findings have over recent years turned coventional wisdom on its
head.

Firstly they would entirely agree with you that tilling of clay is not
the best way to deal with it and actually slows down any improvement.
They would however advise the addition of amendments to the surface
around the bushes to improve at the same time both the wet season
drainage and the dry season retention of available moisture in the upper
layers of the root zone, where the plant's main feeding roots should be
situated. 

This application of amendments is typically done very much in imitation
of nature by adding successive layers of compost and their attendent
protective organic mulches (such as shredded bark or wooodchips) over
the root zone of each rose. The compost needed is not a great quantity.
About an inch of fully matured product annually is quite sufficient,
especially on a soil as potentially fertile as a clay. After the first
dressing round the new plant, the annual replenishment is simply spread
on the top of the previous mulch at the beginning of the main growing
season and a new cover of mulch added. It is beat not to bring these
layers right up to the bush, but leave a sligh gap so the bark of the
stem base is not softened by contact with damp organic matter, which can
sometimes induce rots.

> This is not to say that work must be done should you
> notice that your clay is poorly drained or is
> compacted or is studded with large rocks.

No-till practice tends to ignore these sorts of problem in most cases.
The drainage will naturally improve surprisingly quickly by the action
of the amnedments added to the surface and can further be helped by
siting each plant on a slight mound, and unless the rocks actually form
a continuous pavement in the soil they can  be themselves very useful,
especially in heavy soils, to help improve drainage. We have lots of
rocks of a great range of sizes, he largest at least as big as my head,
underlying most of our property, which is an ancient abandoned
riverbed.  we dug an awful lot out to begin with, but  eventually found
the plants did not mind them at all and even seemed to approve of the
rocks by wrapping their roots round them. The soil drains amazingly
-sometimes even a bit too easily, but it is actually a light loam rather
than a clay.

We began our garden nearly fifty years ago when none of the no-till
techniques were in common use and I am sure if we were starting again
now we would leave far more of those rocks in place, quite possibly only
removing those which stick dragon's teeth up in the lawn to trap the
mower blades and a very few others where probing forks could find no way
through to deeper layers where shrubs or trees were to go in. Even in
our vegetable garden, if we had then appreciated the great advantages of
raised beds, we could have saved ourselves hours of hard work forking
out stones which menaced our carrots and other deep rooted crops and
finding ways to dispose of them.
> 
> I've noticed, too, that roses given "pretty" holes
> with lots of amendment don't do any better than nearby
> unamended roses in the long run (although they sure do
> shoot up in the very beginning).

Again the no-till fraternity would entirely agree with you. With the aim
of disturbing the natural soil structure as little as possible they
advocate the smallest hole which will take the roots without cramping
them and on heavy clays even suggest leaving them a bit on the high side
and building up a slight rise on the surface to improve the drainage
initially while the amendments are doing their thing.

The hole should  always have its sides roughed up a bit with a fork
before putting the bush in. It has been found that a perfectly smooth
and rather compacted surface on the sides of a planting hole can quite
easily fool the roots into thinking they are still confined in a pot and
they have actually been known to circle round and round and never find
their way out. Another way in which they can be induced to spread
further afield is not to put any extra food into the planting hole. The
amendments applied to the surrounding surface if sufficiently widespread
will rapidly encourage a spread of roots into a vigorous and effective
feeding organ making full use of the sheltered rich topsoil under the
mulch, just as nature intended.

Even though so revolutionary in much of its thinking, the no-till method
continues to increase its following because it definitely works and at
the same time greatly reduces the work involved in establishing gardens,
especially those on the more difficult soils.

Moira

Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata NZ, 
where it's Summer in January and Winter in July.
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