Re: Compost
- To:
- Subject: Re: Compost
- From: M* T*
- Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 05:34:10 -0400
IMO, you'd have to do more than till in some mushroom soil and peat to make
soil "too" good, if that's, indeed, possible. Of course, there are plants
who prefer lean soil, but the majority will thank you for every goody you
can add to natural lousy whatever you're blessed with.
The key, IMO, is to mix it thoroughly into the native stuff and double
digging doesn't hurt. If you simply have a thin layer of grand stuff and
then the native garbage and put your plant in the goodies, then plant roots
will not want to leave the comfy layer for the hard times stuff and be more
subject to water stress when it gets dry. Most soils - except for those
incredibly deep, black ones in the Midwest - tend to have a rather shallow
layer of "topsoil", ranging from an inch or so to up to a foot. Once plant
roots penetrate that, they go into the subsoil as a matter of course - and
some go into the soil many feet. The key is their being able to penetrate
into the subsoil.
The problem is not adding organic material to your soil, it is the
interface between anything you add and what is there naturally that can
stop plant roots from moving out of their little planting holes. In clay,
if you only dig a hole the size of the rootball, it can act just like a
pot, esp. if the sides of the hole weren't broken up and got sort of slick
in the digging process.
Much best to amend the entire planting area instead of only the hole you're
digging for a specific plant...that way the roots will work their way out
of the tight ball they formed in the pot or while B&B'd...that's the key.
There is a school of thought that maintains that trees and shrubs will do
better if the soil in which they are planted is not amended at all. I
think this has to do with the interface I mentioned and not just the
difference in native soil and amended soil....that's my personal opinion
after having planted a *lot* of woody plants over the years. I think this
has to do with the fact that many people will dig a hole, amend that soil,
plop in the tree and wonder why it doesn't thrive. So, if you say don't
amend, just break up the soil, the plant might have a better
chance.....people do tend to take "instructions" very literally when there
is little experience to contradict them:-)
Plants don't know whether you added the organic material to the soil you
planted them in or whether it came that way. In nature, you will find
areas with deep rotted leaf litter and black humus about 5 feet from the
side of a windswept hill where no leaves gather and rot. Plants grow
through both kinds of soil as a matter of course...they don't care as long
as they can *move* their roots through the soil and locate the kinds of
nutrients they want.
Peat has no nutritive value; merely adds organic matter to soil and acts
more as a water holding or drainage assisting item (depending on whether
you're starting out with clay or sand)...also does a bit of acidifying.
Spent mushroom compost, OTOH, is very alkaline, I understand (never have
gotten my hands on any), but has nutrients...so using both it and peat
ought to result in something fairly neutral, depending on quantities.
When you add nice organic material to the soil, it doesn't just sit there
and stay forever. It gets "used" up by plants and other organisms and if
you don't keep replenishing it, in a few years your soil will be back where
you started....one of the reasons to keep a good mulch going as a continual
replenishment.
So, go ahead and till in your amendments, say I....your plants will be glad
you did.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor: Gardening in Shade
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----------
> From: James N. Tilton <tilton44@erols.com>
> Date: Thursday, September 16, 1999 7:22 AM
>
> Hi all-
> Donna's post about compost has me wondering. We're putting in a new
> large bed later this month that will have 2 trees, about 15 shrubs, some
> grasses, dwarf pines and, of course, perennials. An employee at a
> garden center advised against making the soil too rich (when I asked
> what I should amend with) saying the plants will suffer when they grow
> through the "good" stuff and hit the #$%&! soil underneath.
>
> We were going to till in some mushroom soil and peat. Are we wrong to
> do that? Is it possible to make the soil "too" good? TIA
>
> Barb (zone 6/7 southeastern PA, where *yippee!* we're getting rain and
> winds so strong I can, as I type, hear furniture sliding on the deck!!)
>
>
> James & Donna Davis wrote:
> >
>
> > I can't wait to start on my flower beds. my stuff will think they
have
> > died and gone to heaven.
> >
> > Donna in NE Mississippi zone 7
>
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