Clay Soil to add or not to add sand...that is the question.

Try growing potatoes the act of trenching, filling with compost and then earthing the potatoes during their grrowing season has a good effect on heavy clay soils, but of course you may not want a garden full of potatoes!

This takes some equipment, but I've improved my garden soil a lot over the years by simply plowing cornstalks back into the ground after my sweet corn harvest. Cornstalks add a LOT of organic matter to the soil and they break down very quickly if you plow them under while they're still green.

After harvesting our corn, I mow down the corn patch with a tractor and brush hog. This shreds the stalks and leaves a thick layer of organic material on top of the soil. Then I use the tractor and a turning plow to plow that under. A couple of weeks later the remnants of the cornstalks in the soil are soft and almost gone, so I fertilize with 12-12-12 fertilizer, go over the area with a garden tiller, and plant buckwheat. The buckwheat will be blooming when we get our first frost in October, and I watch it and till the buckwheat under before it has a chance to make seeds.

Come spring, that soil will be in great shape for planting - and its texture improves every year.

>> they break down very quickly if you plow them under while they're still green.
>> I mow down the corn patch with a tractor and brush hog. This shreds the stalks

Good tips! I bet they add a lot more N if turned under green, compared to brown.

I got huge tomato v ines this year, but don;t expect any red tomatoes. Some green marbles. I look forward to adding those vines to my compost heap, but might turn them under a bed that has no perennials.

Corey

Corey, I have 6 plantings of sweet corn..and this year an electric fence around it. I chop the corn up as soon as a planting is done. Later I add some organic material and till it a bit. Instead of buckwheat, I have some daicon radishes that will winter kill.

The corn stalks are very well rotted come spring and they stay nearer the top.

It sounds great to me! I planted some daikon radishes in my best-amended bed, thinking that if they can "bust clay",l they would go crazy in my bed ... but they grew as little golf balls, not long and big.

I think even my best bed still needs a lot more compost.

All this talk about green compost is making me hungry! I'm goin' to lunch!

Corey

I read lots of these comments because I too have red clay. I got to thinking about the "forest" that happily grew here before the developer came and bulldozed, then sold the good topsoil. I never found out how deep my red clay is but the trees must have - they are still tall all around my house. So, if the topsoil comes back, I think I can grow stuff. I am even thinking about a small area - maybe 20' x 40' to mow, till and plant buckwheat and then, as above, till before it seeds.

I do know that after even a year of pine bark mulch, my garden areas that are watered have earthworms 1" down. They reciprocate my favor to them by moving the digested mulch all around and into the clay (through which they cometh).