too much clay!

[grows]

Hi IC,

For starters, im at 29N
i was planning on doing an outdoor this year, the issue is in my area the soil is SO CLAY FILLED ITS CRAZY. Me and another person dug out a large hole we were planning on using, added peat, perlite and potting soil.

things were going great as far as site preperation... untol the rain
im guessing the clay that was at the bottom of the hole doesnt drain well, cause where was one a hole is now only a pond.
its drainging slow, but im afraid of what might happen when theres a plant in there!
any solutions or advice greatly appriciated

 

[JGP]

Quoted from OT1

My advise is this.Do not dig holes and try and enrich the soil within it or sink bottomless pots, both methods act like sumps and the enriched soil will go sour.The best way to deal with clay top soil is to cultivate a big area by digging properly. Like this I have had plants with root systems 3 to 5 ft in diameter on each plant. Clay soil in naturally rich in all nutrients so does not really need base fertilisers. Do not bother digging anything in, if the soil is acid, top dress with dolomite lime. Once the plants are growing mulch the whole area with as much organic matter as you can.So get a fork out and turn the whole area over to cultivate the soil. Then your plants will have no restrictions and they can spread their roots as far as they like.

 

[grows]

the issue is that the soil here isnt just mainly clay its ALL clay.
and im not fully understanding your advice, could you elaborete?

 

[niceeven]

Well grows

I would say that if your drainage is that bad you may not have other choice but to use pots.
It's hard to say without seeing and knowing how much rain exactly your guys got. I mean, was it a diluvian downpour? It's draining slowly, hours or days. Without seeing if you have really poor drainage then pots may be your only option. Is it possible for you to use pots at your grow area or would they stand out too much?

That's just my two cents, you may get better answers.

 

[JGP]

Just use a garden fork to turnover the top 6 inches of soil, goodluck.

 

[grows]

i dont think that turining over the top 6 would work.. and i suppose i could use pots but i thought that it might affect yeild size?
the rain wasnt even so bad about a day or two of thunderstorms, but not horrible, and its taking DAYS to drain

 

[wilbur]

what was said before is that if you dig the soil/clay and add lots of compost yr plant will sit on top of the clay and its roots will radiate outwards instead of down.

yr plant will feed in the stuff you've built up. you will need to add GYPSUM at the maximum rate suggested on the pack. this helps drainage. get the gypsum on the ground NOW ... even before you dig as it needs some time to do its thing.

if you build on a slope you should get ample drainage.

you may have to drive a stake beside yr plant when it's small because shallow-rooted plants often get blown over when they get big.

you will not build a great garden in one season. it will take time ... like seasons. perseverance furthers!

cannabis will grow like this! give it a try! become an expert in this field!

 

[niceeven]

OK then your drainage is BAD very bad. Pots: you are right bro, but, there is no limits on the size of pot, right? Meaning that some people have been known to use massive ones.

Now, if you do that you are condemning yourself to water regularly. Something to think about. The best thing I can think of with the info I have is to compromise: Do what the others have said, they obviously know what they are talking about, you can use some gypsum to break the clay a little but ad to that bringing in more good soil in order to built a bed, a raised bed that is. If your drainage is that bad you may not have the choice.

But I mean, is it guerilla? Do you have far to go? How many plants do you plan on having? Because that way, boy, oh boy you may have to bring in quite a bit of soil!!! The advantage with going to a raised bed from pots is you would not have to water as much as the tap root could find some water in the soil down below.

Not sure if that helps at all but it's just ideas to work with.

 

[Still Invisible]

Pile the soil up into a hill about 2 feet high or more and plant on the top.

Digging in some perlite would aerate the soil; perlite is very light so easy to carry to the site; just wish they would pack it in green bags instead of white; makes me nervous carrying this bright white bag over the hill.

 

[h.h.]

Dig deep and mound up.
Your hole is essentially a pot. If it's deep enough the water level will drop below the roots. If it's mounded, rain water will be shed away from the hole. Don't just mound the mulch, mound the clay around the hole first.

 

[wilbur]

and if yr guerilla growing rake up all the leaf litter etc around the place and use that for yr grow plies too. add biochar!!!

 

[supermanlives]

make mounds or use pots with no bottoms

 

[JOE CHRONIC]

Hi IC,

For starters, im at 29N
i was planning on doing an outdoor this year, the issue is in my area the soil is SO CLAY FILLED ITS CRAZY. Me and another person dug out a large hole we were planning on using, added peat, perlite and potting soil.

things were going great as far as site preperation... untol the rain
im guessing the clay that was at the bottom of the hole doesnt drain well, cause where was one a hole is now only a pond.
its drainging slow, but im afraid of what might happen when theres a plant in there!
any solutions or advice greatly appriciated

Dig your holes and place 3 pieces of 2" PVC pipe vertical from the bottom of the hole to 6" above the soil.(evenly space the 3 PVC pieces around the hole)
This will get air to your roots allowing the water to evaporate quicker and give good air flow...

 

[blazeoneup]

Yeah I would just make elevated pots. Rather then digging a hole just build a pot above ground on the surface. Problem solved.

 

[JOE CHRONIC]

Yeah I would just make elevated pots. Rather then digging a hole just build a pot above ground on the surface. Problem solved.

I also agree with blazeoneup,

Unless you have a height limit with the added dimension of the pot height, with that much clay in the soil it's ruff.
I had pretty bad clay soil, I went with holes due to height restrictions, you can see how I dug holes in my signature link...

 

[groady-ho]

Yeah I would just make elevated pots. Rather then digging a hole just build a pot above ground on the surface. Problem solved.

^^^^^^^^ this..gypsum, green sand work really well to loosen up clay soil..

 

[squarepush3r]

If you start with a 30 gallon smart pot, will the roots continue to grow through the bottom into the soil?

 

[DeliciousBuds]

I had the same problem and ended up solving it by using a post hole digger. You see, underneath the 6 feet or so of clay was a layer of sand. The hole I planted in was 3 feet deep so I only had to dig down another 3 feet or so to reach the layer of sand. I back filled the 10" wide hole with gravel and completely solved the drainage problem.

Hope that helps : )

 

[uk ftw]

You gotta ammend it in width mate because there isnt enough air when you get past 2ft

Just dig it 6-10" deep and as wide as possible this is what works for me and OT1 who is pro

Dolomite lime down will break it up and some compost for good measure

 

[greennuggets7]

Im in the sam boat. What Im doing is adding about a third of different types of compost, some lime, and some expanded slate. I posted a thread about exp. slate but apparently not many people have heard of the stuff look it up. Either exp shale or slate, supposed to be real good to aerate roots.