Subject: Re: Nasty clay soil

From: [email-masked]
Date: 30 Mar 95 12:50:18 CST

Clay soil needs work and patience. Dig it several times before planting.
Add plenty organic matters before each digging. The soil will improve
each year. No gravels. I also found out that autumn digging is very
effective for areas that have winter ground freezing. When ice forms
in the soil, it tends to aggregate into many small particles. They
expand and loose the soil. I have not figured out why this happens
more to digged soil. I hear gypsum helps too, but I never tried it.

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From: [email-masked] (Richard Campbell)
Date: 31 Mar 1995 20:04:13 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] writes:
|> Clay soil needs work and patience. Dig it several times before planting.
|> Add plenty organic matters before each digging. The soil will improve
|> each year. No gravels. I also found out that autumn digging is very
|> effective for areas that have winter ground freezing. When ice forms
|> in the soil, it tends to aggregate into many small particles. They
|> expand and loose the soil. I have not figured out why this happens
|> more to digged soil. I hear gypsum helps too, but I never tried it.

   So anyone with experience adding gypsum to clay soils?
I saw some at the nursery yesterday professing to do just that,
loosen the soil.  I sure don't want to muck up my soil any worse
than it is and I've been adding organic matter but I've been
wondering ever since seeing that bag of gypsum...

-- 
Rich Campbell
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Michael E. Matthews)
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 01:20:14 GMT

>    So anyone with experience adding gypsum to clay soils?

I am not a soil expert, but I have used gypsum and it seemed to
help a good bit. I have heard on the net, however, that how
much it helps depends on the *type* of clay. What it is
supposed to do, when it does work, is pull molecules of clay
around molecules of gypsum, forming little clumps that don't
stick to each other in the cohesive mass that clay otherwise
does. This makes the clay more permeable and workable. 

At any rate, it is unlikely to do any damage since it is pH
neutral, and being sulphur and calcium (I think) it adds these
micronutrients which many plants, such as tomatoes, love.

Michael in central Va