Clay soil next to a creek

[Trickee]

I have been scouting out some areas to move my seedlings to when they're ready... and I would like to use this creek close by but the soil around it has loads of clay in it, I heard that's not good. Water pools on the top of the soil for longer than usual which means drainage is going to be a problem, right? I have grown before but this will be the first time I have done it away from my house. I would rather not have to carry some nice soil from home to the grow site but what do you think? Will the clay be OK?

[MongyMan]

Clay soil is no good Trickee. One of the most important things the roots need, is to be able to breath easily, which in clay they can't. Clay does contain allot of nutrients though, so if you improve the drainage by building raised beds to grow in and mixing in course river sand, composted vegetable matter and a bit of dolomite and blood n' bone, you can end up with one of the best soils to grow in. A damp ball of it compressed in your hand should fall apart easily when poked with a finger. You get out what you put in and soil preparation is pretty much number 1 in my book.

 

Peace MongyMan

[Trickee]

OK thanks Mongy, it looks like I will have to give it some work before letting my plants fight it out

[danoz]

man clay is so mis understood

 

clay is just a reference to particle size soil particles which are <53um in size are defined as clay.

 

Bad clay is clay which is dispersive like the one u mentioned,

 

good clay is formed by lots of clay balls (AKA water stable aggregates) where the tiny clay particles are glued together with Mg and Ca and Fe and soil microb skeletons.

 

Sodium is like the anti glue for clay and when clay is unglued all the clay particles are seperate from eachother they form one giant solid block of poor structured soil.

 

to fix poorly structured clay add cations from fertiliser or gypsum dolomite and lime are good sources of cations too (Ca mainly) but dolomite and lime will not perculate and leach down into soil they will be bound only affecting the top 5-10cm whereas gypsum given time and rain will leach to 1m improving the clay as it goes. Organic matter is the best for improving clay structure because it feeds the microbes which will glue the clay into water stable aggregates.

 

clay has an awesome water holding capacity and nutrient content sometimes and always a good nutrient retention.

 

a great book is "the nature and property of soil" brady and weil however it costs $150 good text costs fuckloads

[Trickee]

Sounds like you know a thing or two about soil danoz Thanks for the tips. I was hoping not to need to bring all of this stuff down to the creek but I guess I have no choice unless I find another spot.