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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@dotnet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Clay water retention
  • Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:57:03 -0600

I have a lot of heavy clay soil here, also.
The short version is that I recommend you put a layer of straw or grass hay down this fall so that you can hold as much moisture into the clay over winter and spring. Keep the mulch in place as long as you can next year, watching for signs of it being too wet and just take off a little at a time if it gets too sloppy underneath. That's what we do for fall-planted garlic and it works well. I haven't tried it yet for spring plantings, but I might be next year if things don't dry out enough to finish the fall plowing....
This doesn't work if you want the ground to dry out in spring for equipment to drive on it, but if you are doing things by hand or with small machines (tiller, etc), then it may be something that helps you.

In general, over the long term, more organic material will help keep the soil more stable in extreme weather. Clay holds a lot of moisture in it, but the texture variation from slime to brick is hard to deal with. I have some areas that are just going to be always in pasture hay or turned into orchards. No-till is a great solution if I ever figure out how to implement it here, and if I can get the seed or plants into the ground to start with and get them to grow....I would like to get as many trees as I can, then it turns into Never-till.

Dan




  • [Livingontheland] Clay water retention, Dan Conine, 11/12/2006

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