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

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  • From: Rodney Eveland <Reveland@WYOMING.com>
  • To: Nafex <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] RE: Clay, long, technical.
  • Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2003 14:31:27 -0700

>Hi Rodney:
>Help me out. If memory serves, you are in Wyoming near Sheridan and the
>average rainfall is 8" to 10" per year. If so, that might be one of the
>factors that exacerbate barren bentonite.

Actually I live closer to Newcastle and the bentonite outcroppings are
often surrounded by spruce trees in an area that most years gets more
like 20 inches of precipitation.


An extract from this URL http://froebuck.home.texas.net/toppage4.htm
follows: (note the TEXAS URL)

Gypsum: Ignore any advice about adding gypsum to our blackland prairie
soils. This advice properly applies
only to clay soils that are sodium based (sodic) soils. Texas black
land prairie soils are calcium based (calcic) soils, with a natural pH
in the range of 7.0 to 8.7. Adding more calcium in the form of gypsum
(calcium sulfate) won't do anything beneficial and can actually be
detrimental if it increases the calcium level even more. Also, contrary
to what you might have been told, gypsum will not lower the pH of a
calcic soil.

There are various types of clay and the "gardening solution" can be very
different. That's why it's important to know what type of clay one is
dealing with. I have at least three different varieties on my property
so I must first test the water holding capacity before planting in any
given spot (no sense in planting in a bath tub).

The next URL http://www.csminchem.co.uk/bentonite_qpn.htm mentions that
you can buy either Sodium or Calcium based bentonites.

The next URL
http://www.dutchbulbs.com/bulblady/may2002/thedirtondirt.htm points out
that organic matter is the best solution for clay. Extract follows:

"Since ideally you want something
sandier, it sounds logical to
add sand to your clay to get a better
texture. This is not a good
idea. Did you know that if you mix clay
and sand and add a bit of
straw to it you can make adobe bricks?
Not an ideal growing
medium!

If your soil is somewhat black in color
it is probably alkaline -
calcium rich clay. Too much calcium is
not a good thing – so if
you do as your instincts tell you and
start adding bone meal,
soft rock phosphate, mushroom compost,
and/or chicken
manure, you're overdoing it and creating
problems for yourself.
Instead, you want to incorporate lots of
compost."

The whole point being that one really should talk to a someone who is
knowledgeable about the clay you are dealing with before trying to amend
it with anything other than organic matter. I have seen people put wood
ashes around their newly planted trees simply because their relatives
back East did it. I used Ammonium Sulfate to treat some of mine on the
recommendation of the folks at SIMPLOT and a soil scientist. Some of it
became much easier to work and now has a gritty texture, but some of my
other clay did not improve one bit.

Georgia loves it's clay so much that they study it:
http://www.gly.uga.edu/schroeder/clay/clayfaculty.html
and http://www.gly.uga.edu/schroeder/clay/clay.html

These folks http://www.the-southern-gardener.com/ love clay for its heat
carrying capacity and the fact that it takes a while for it to warm up.
That's probably what keeps my plants from wakening too soon in the
spring and then suffering frost damage. So I guess clay isn't all bad.

Know your clay......;-)




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