digging in limestone in the mallee

[lungfood]

Has anyone had any experience in digging and growing in ground thats full of limestone, bits of clay and malee everywhere. I dug a few holes by hand about 30cm deep

then piled up my own home made soil maybe 20 to 30cm with limestone rocks stacked around it.

I just want any tips or advice on how to make this work best.

Ive also added a small amount of water crystels in the lower part of the hole.

I would appreciate any tips from the farmers out there who face the same conditions, got mega bush but shitloads of limestone.

[Creeky]

30 cm isnt deep enough and limestone and clay isnt desirable mate, u would have a to dig a pretty big hole and fill it with good quality soil if you were to plant in that sort of area your roots need to grow an expand well an they will just struggle in clay an limestone, id suggest dig a bigger hole much bigger or use big pots, if your from south aus i would have my plants already goin aswell if i was in your position to bud, best of luch cheers.

[Auntynorm]

G'day LF.

 

One thing for sure, you will never need to add lime. Is it solid limestone or rocks and shit mixed in? If it's only rocks etc. you should be ok. Get a Ph test kit, not one of those probe things, and do a check of the dirt. If you have access to animal manures, use them, along with blood and bone and potash. Add a good layer of mulch to keep the roots cool and conserve water. If the soil is in the base range, as opposed to acidic, you will need to add something like iron chelates, to get the correct ph of around 6. A bit either way is ok. Chuck in some pics, this will give us a better idea.

 

:guitar:

[lungfood]

G'day LF.

 

One thing for sure, you will never need to add lime. Is it solid limestone or rocks and shit mixed in? If it's only rocks etc. you should be ok. Get a Ph test kit, not one of those probe things, and do a check of the dirt. If you have access to animal manures, use them, along with blood and bone and potash. Add a good layer of mulch to keep the roots cool and conserve water. If the soil is in the base range, as opposed to acidic, you will need to add something like iron chelates, to get the correct ph of around 6. A bit either way is ok. Chuck in some pics, this will give us a better idea.

 

:guitar:

[lungfood]

Cheers lads, I did make the effort of adding pot like structures with no bottoms to add extra room, a few are also in pots and the rest are in mounds that are above and below the ground, I use pot ash in my soil mix which is composted dark soil mixed with potting mix with NPK fert added in advacne, will organise some pics soon.

[lungfood]

Went out late this arvo and added a shitload more soil around my plot and around the mounds that alrealy exist for the babies, they range in height from 15cm to 40cm, I started putting them out towards the

end of sept and dunno what strains they are but would be 4 different types as I pick the fattest seeds pop a heap and pick what looks good and give others away to good home ha ha, the soil I added is mix of potting mix, home mixed soil for my veggie path so hopefully that will give the girl a bit more room for their feet out bush, Will get pics soon plus want girls to get big cos its just endless miles of bush and no one else

[Auntynorm]

G'day LF.

 

Do you have trouble with critters that love a free feed, rabbits etc? They can be a bastard, roos, goats, deer, cattle, even camels can bugger things pretty well too.

 

:guitar:

[lungfood]

There few critters about the place, mainly got roo's, rabbits and emu's that dont mind ya garden but lucky enough this year has had more rain than usaul so grasses, weeds are cranking which will keep em happy for a while till

the place starts to heat up and dry out more, besides that we use fencing, even strong gill nets that are invisible but tough, also moth balls help. Ya can also have few plucks at targets and just noise alone can keep critters away and maybe sticky finger fuckers ha ha. Im lucky enough to be surrounded by bush that goes miles. I dont mind the animals if they do their thing away from my own thing. I lost a few seedlings to ants ages ago so ended up getting ant granules. I am going from seed so even now got few popping plus up to christmas Im willing to put a couple more seedlings, kinda back up to what may turn male, Ive learnt things can be unpredictable so just have couple babys ready to go. I heard dog shit can help with critters and theres probably a few smells out there. Anyway have a good one mate

[Auntynorm]

G'day LF.

 

Dog shit helps to keep rabbits away for sure, and I'm pretty certain that it will deter the roos. Even snap one off yaself, leave a calling card. Human shit will deter just about anything, they all fear man. For centuries the Chinese have used human waste for their gardens. Lots died from stuff like cholera, but never mind, plenty to go around.

 

:guitar:

[lungfood]

Seen a few people use moth balls and they swear by it, as ya know there's no shit houses in the wild bush so had to snap one off few times before ha ha.

Old gill nets are good for keeping things out, they are strong, invisible, have lead weights on the bottom plus easy to peg down and tie top to tree branches, you can also roll one up into a bag and carry it anywhere compacted. Another thing to hide stuff is I spray paint pots in a normal dull camo patten in similar scrub colours then get few branches off peppercorn tree to use as template and spray over the branches leaving an outline of the branches over the top of the camo, its good for hiding the straight lines that stand out in the bush, like pots, star droppers, posts or whatever has straight edges, Its cheap and nature has all the templates there for ya to make things invisible.