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Seattle, Washington

My soil is bone dry. It wont absorb any water. What can I do?

6/27/2002 12:51:43 AM

Seattle, Washington

I forgot to add, I did amend the soil with gypsum, steer manure, and compost, but is still too dry to absorb water. I already planted the pumpkins. What am I to do! Is there a solution to this delema?

6/27/2002 3:31:48 AM

Webster, NY

I'm not an expert, but I never heard of soil too dry to absorb water. Maybe it's too hard and needs to be worked more??????

6/27/2002 7:11:48 AM

Garden State Pumpkins

I think steelydave has it right. If the hardpan is that bad you might have to think about giving yourself a raised bed this year of peat moss,cow manure and pro-mix. Get a drill and a long one inch bit and start drilling the hardpan. Done it been there.

6/27/2002 7:33:18 AM

Cologne / Germany

Had the effect once in some planting pots stored in the sun. Water went through without any sign of soaking. Took me 2 hours to get the soil wet.
Would suggest to construct something like a "collar" around your plants and fill it up with water several times until soil starts to soak. You should start misting your patch to gently add some moisture before watering with a hose.

6/27/2002 7:37:06 AM

Stony Plain, Alberta (near Edmonton)

I agree with alex, especially peat moss. It will act like a big sponge when mixed with the rest of your soil. Sounds you might need a truckload of the stuff. Grass clippings, and any other organic matter would help too along with some sand. Here is another suggestion- use a wetting agent such as Kodak Photoflo (avaliable from photographic supply houses) use it sparingly with a watering can. It is non-toxic, but try it first on an small patch of soil and see if it works.

Dave
P.S. The soil here is bone dry too- it was 34C (93 F) here yesterday, and we've had no significant rain on over 6 weeks. But the soil here is granular sandy loam.

6/27/2002 7:58:00 AM

Rexburg, Idaho ([email protected] )

More water! Try overhead sprinkling it.

6/27/2002 9:18:39 AM

In the shade - PDX, OR

I am interested in the raised bed technique. Does anyone know how deep vine roots go down? I have an issue with poor clay soil too. I was thinking of training a vine over some planter boxes containing rich soil. (good quality compost and manure)

Hey Jaba - How far down did you till and what was the percentage of your amendments to your original soil? (or clay)

6/28/2002 1:08:31 AM

Seattle, Washington

Ceis, I could only go down about 5 inches, and then piled the soil up. There was just too many rocks to do much more.
Here is an update: I dug into my compost pile of which we have not done anything with for the last 2 years. Great stuff!! I took bucket loads to the patch. I lost count. It improved the soil a great deal. I used probably 1/3 of each. soil, manure, compost, which I found out was too much, but the addition of the compost from my pile did the trick. It looks pretty good.

6/28/2002 2:14:24 AM

Grants Pass, Oregon

hey Ceis- where at in Portland are you from? I live in Grants Pass.

6/28/2002 11:41:07 AM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Jaba - I did almost the same thing, except I dug down about 2 feet where the main root balls would grow and back filled with pure compost. My small patch was double dug to about 1 ft deep. You might have a tough time when the roots hit the clay. Your mix sounds pretty good and the roots might run shallow.
It is very difficult for water to penetrate solid clay. (the particles are so close together they don't allow the water through.) You'll have to soak it to get enough H2O through - also try not to let it dry out completely.

6/28/2002 12:58:37 PM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Hey Polka - I am on the west side near Beaverton. I saw that you were in OR. too and read your diary. This is my first year growing AGs. I have gleaned a Ton of info from this site. I ordered both of Langevin's books & I should have them next week. I probably made a lot of mistakes already, but will have to see what I come up with in Oct.
Grow 'em BIG!!

6/28/2002 1:07:41 PM

Seattle, Washington

Thank you for your help guys, I really apreciate it.
Barbara

6/28/2002 1:42:02 PM