Re: Addition of sand to improve soil
- To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Addition of sand to improve soil
- From: J* F*
- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 00:33:08 -0500
First of all, thank you all for the responses to my sand question. Here is
my situation.
I live in North central Ohio and my gardens are located on the
gently sloping remains of a glacial morraine. My first garden is located
near the 'top' and has rather deep topsoil. The second one is located
further down and has been farmed for years. The topsoil is much thinner
here with much of the underlying clay icorporated in the root zone of an
AG. The first garden has responded well to o.m. additions and have produced
my largest AG's(400-550 Lb range). I have added o. m. to the more clay
second garden and it has proven very difficult to incorporate evenly into
the soil. It retains a sort of marbled appearance. The o.m. I add is
compost,aged manure or leaves.
The reason I thought of sand as a solution is that there are areas
in our fields where sand has collected in 'bars' from times of excess rain.
The soil has a much better texture here and tends to be more
productive(deluges excluded). The sand and some o.m. tend to collect in
these areas and then get disked in together. The resulting soil seems to be
very good but rather risky place to plant. Well, thats were I'm at.
Usually the drainage of my second garden isn't that bad but in
times of heavy rainfall the combined effects of o.m. and clay can cause the
soil to get rather soggy and drain slowly. I have had some stump rot
problems in this area which may or may not be caused by this. The disease
problems usually show up after rainy periods.I have also read that a coarse
sand is better than a fine sand and that a fine sand can really foul things
up. If not sand then what? gypsum? that new product I saw advertised today
called profile?
Basically I think i will need to improve the soil texture and drainage to
make the pumpkins grown here competitive.
Thanks for any input,
John
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