jaxs
Elite Member
Black clay around here shrinks when dry causing cracks up to 3" wide. Summer 2020 I did an experiment that has surpassed my expectations. In about half the fruit and nut orchard and beneath shade trees in the yard I dumped compost then drug it with a box blade so that compost fell into cracks. As compost settled over the Summer I repeated the process to fill cracks. By summer's end cracks had opened farther and new ones appeared so I used box blade to fill them with sand. Cracks appeared in 2021 (I assume in different places than 2020) so I filled those. 2022 has been hot and dry but there are fewer cracks and they are narrower than just outside of where I filled in 2020 and 2021. The orchard trees and grass around yard trees have better color than nearby. This year I broadcast 18-24-12 while dragging compost plus I did yard where there's only grass plus balance of orchard.
The idea is to get benefits obtained from sub-soiling under trees where sub-soiling would damage roots. Assessing results after only two years makes me think this is a good plan where turf and other plants are grown because crop suffers less damage plus fuel cost is much less than pulling a heavy plow. This would be doable with a small tractor incapable of pulling a deep plow or even without use of a tractor. Having sand in strips here and there will allow deeper aeration of tight clay soil and better water infiltration when cracks close in rainy season. I only wish I thought of it several years ago so that I could see results after more years. If one had access to saw dust or small chips I believe it would do very well.
The idea is to get benefits obtained from sub-soiling under trees where sub-soiling would damage roots. Assessing results after only two years makes me think this is a good plan where turf and other plants are grown because crop suffers less damage plus fuel cost is much less than pulling a heavy plow. This would be doable with a small tractor incapable of pulling a deep plow or even without use of a tractor. Having sand in strips here and there will allow deeper aeration of tight clay soil and better water infiltration when cracks close in rainy season. I only wish I thought of it several years ago so that I could see results after more years. If one had access to saw dust or small chips I believe it would do very well.