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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Clay, long, technical.

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  • From: "Doreen Howard" <doreenh@ticon.net>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Clay, long, technical.
  • Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 12:41:37 -0600

Joe Hecksel wrote:

> Michael Dirr is a horticulturist at U-Georgia who specializes in
> landscaping plants. Much of the U-G Athens campus is covered by red
> clay (laterite). One planting technique that works well for fussy
> plants is to bury half the root ball in the soil and then to mulch to
> the top half of the root ball with bark chips. The roots can draw
> moisture from the soil and can extract nurients from the 6" layer of
> decomposing mulch. One of the things that makes this techique magical
> is that the mulch layer can be much lower pH than the clay. The lower
> pH of the mulch makes a different set of minerals available. Kind of
> like having a hardware store next to a grocery store. Handy.

We had gumbo clay very similar to Dirr's along the Gulf of Mexico swamp in
Texas. We were about 5 inches above sea level in an area that averaged 60
inches of rainfall annually to complicate problems. The standard way to
plant trees in these conditions was to dig a hole half the rootball depth
and then create a mound around that hole that reached up another foot or so.
When the tree was planted, half its rootball was in clay and the other half
was in decent soil composed of compost, shredded bark and peat. This
positioning allowed the tree to create abundant surface roots that sustained
it when the clay was waterlogged. Also, the berm or mound created around
the tree fostered immediate microbe activity. In time, shredders, fungi,
bacteria, nematodes and worms worked their way into the clay, loosening
bonds between stubborn ions. Trees planted in this manner always thrived
and produced good quality fruit. The clay eventually yielded its trove of
minerals, phosphorous and other nutrients so important to fruit production.
Doreen Howard,
Wisconsin Zone 4b, acting like Zone 8 this winter.





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