Compacted soil with a limited variety of life, resurrection required please

[SCD4275]

Hello,
Following 8 years of indifferent results & effort on my part in my small vegetable patch, my attention has turned toward applying effective,organic solutions to a clay bound, relatively lifeless soil. I have applied a good cover of my own compost, I did not dig it in, just loosely covered on top. Any advice would be most welcome. Due to limited mobility issues I think I'm going to build up to raised beds so my foundations need to be good.

Thanks very much ,

 

[Pat]

A search on Google has many interesting articles on what you might want to do to resurrect your soil. One is to avoid traffic on the soil but that does not sound like your problem. You may want to search Google and read a few of the articles since you plan to build a raised bed on the soil for your garden. Good luck.

 

[Chuck]

Hello,
Following 8 years of indifferent results & effort on my part in my small vegetable patch, my attention has turned toward applying effective,organic solutions to a clay bound, relatively lifeless soil. I have applied a good cover of my own compost, I did not dig it in, just loosely covered on top. Any advice would be most welcome. Due to limited mobility issues I think I'm going to build up to raised beds so my foundations need to be good.

Thanks very much ,

There is a company located in Hondo Texas named Medina Inc. They do large scale soil remediation all over the world, turning toxic waste lands into fertile soil. They also have a huge business in producing organic products. They have discovered that one of the best methods of rejuvenating tired lifeless soil is to basically increase the numbers of soil micro organisms and to do this is to just feed them and that the simplest and cheapest way is to start a soil feeding regimen consists of molasses and humates sprayed onto soil that has had a lot of organic mater incorporated into it. So all you have to do is roto-till in a lot of compost or leaves or manure or whatever you have, mix molasses and liquid humus in water and spray it on. Commercial growers here in Texas do this at the rate of 4-7 gallons of molasses and 2 gallons of liquid humate per acre of land. Then they grow a cover crop of something, usually a legume, and till this under and do another application or two of the molasses. It works. I would think that all you have to do is just till in a bunch of compost and water it in with the molasses and humate.

 

[SCD4275]

Thanks Chuck, that is terrific information, as I read of your advice to apply a Molasses mixture, I was drinking my own Molasses through a metal straw. I shall get on with your recommendations

 

[SCD4275]

A search on Google has many interesting articles on what you might want to do to resurrect your soil. One is to avoid traffic on the soil but that does not sound like your problem. You may want to search Google and read a few of the articles since you plan to build a raised bed on the soil for your garden. Good luck.

Thanks Pat, I'm on the case