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nafex - [nafex] Preparing clay soil for raspberries

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  • From: Pete Tallman <pete_tallman@hotmail.com>
  • To: nafex <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [nafex] Preparing clay soil for raspberries
  • Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 09:38:46 -0600

Responding to the note from Jay Cutts about raspberries in heavy clay soil: I
was told a long time ago that adding sand to the clay soil was akin to making
concrete or bricks, probably not the way to go. I will go through my process
for creating soil in my area of Colorado, which might give you some ideas.
Soil was pretty heavy clay. What I needed is lots of organic matter. I
rototilled the row to be planted, in my case about 3 ft by 30 ft, planning
for two rows of plants. Once that rototilling was done, dug out the loose
tilled stuff and set it to the side of the row. Then I rototilled the bottom
of the trench. To this, I added lots of peat moss (maybe 4 to 8 cu ft for the
row), 1/2 yard or more of prepared compost mix, and some soil sulfur and
triple superphosphate according to package directions. Rototilled all of that
to mix in at the bottom of the trench. Restored the earlier loose stuff back
to the row and rototilled again to mix the top layer into the prepared layer.
I think of it as planting in a 3 ft by 30 ft clay flower pot.  

Pete Tallman
Longmont, CO  zone 5 or so



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