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Posted by 16park (U14665852) on Friday, 29th October 2010
just applied barrow loads soil improver (rotted tree prunnings)has anyone advice as to what else can apply to help break clay in soil
Try local stables for horse manure. It needs to stand for a few months to rot down but if you get it now then it should be OK by the spring. If you are not growing anything on the plot then you could apply it and let the worms do their stuff!
I have Essex clay soil and for the first few years after we moved in I mixed equal parts of horse manure, topsoil and my own compost and spread this over the beds in Winter. The worms and the weather did most of the hard work for me.
Nan x
the first thing on all clay soils is to check the acidity
if it is acid lime will work wonders
Sharp sand lightens up clay soil - we have put it on our patch and it has made a huge difference
At this time of year you should be turning over the soil to leave large jagged clods. If we get the frost we had last year, then the freezing action will work on the clay so that that it rakes level with a floury texture.
, in reply to message 1.
Posted by Amazingrotavator (U14058080) on Monday, 1st November 2010
Loads of mushroom compost and rotavate in.
We bought some agricultural gypsum to add to our clay soil. This seems to have helped. You just spread it on the soil and work it in to the top couple of inches of soil with a how. Sometimes it is advertised as "clay breaker".
It seems to stop the clay sticking together as much when you dig the soil and it is not supposed to alter the PH of the soil from what I have read.
It cost us about £30 for a bag but it covered an area of about 16 foot x 80 foot. Might be worth trying.
, in reply to message 1.
Posted by ageing_hippie (U6742113) on Wednesday, 3rd November 2010
This is the time of year to collect leaves and stack them to make leafmould. We gave a key to our site to the council roadsweeper who delivers tons of leaves from the parks and the roadsides. We stack them on our plots in containers of chicken wire or pallets and after a year they have rotted down into lovely dark leafmould. Although leafmould itself is low in nutrients, it improves the soil structure and helps the soil hold on to nutrients that are there.
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