How to kill green algae in the garden soil?

[gary350]

My garden soil has turned green as grass with algae how do I kill it?

Garden soil has never had algae in 50 years. Too much rain soil will not dry out in 55° weather, soil is green as grass. Algae has killed all the strawberry plants but all the plants are fine. Some of the Romaine lettuce died.

Google says, pour bleach on it, scrub with soap, pressure wash it.

 

[Anniekay]

You must have very, VERY wet, mucky soil for algae to grow. Are you sure it isn't moss? The soil needs to be conditioned as in adding amendments, such
as sand and compost to improve the soil structure and aerate it by forking it to create air pockets. Using an algaecide would be just a temporary fix.

I wouldn't say the algae killed the strawberries, staying in boggy soil did that.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have heavy clay, I burn it and smash it up, much better than sand, terracotta is light and porous, sand is heavy and tends to sink.
I would say hoe regularly to establish a tilth, a top layer of loose earth that drains and protects. Once you have it you can hoe a large area quite rapidly, weeds get chopped up and mixed in while young and tender, and it is a good way to incorporate a bit more compost, the algae won't survive that.
Forking is a good idea, in case you don't know it it is not digging, but driving a fork in at an angle to the horizontal and then just lifting the earth a bit and sliding it back out.

 

[gary350]

Our town has free, leaves, grass, tree, tree limb pickup. 100s of truck loads go to the recycle center where it is ground onto tiny pieces then bull dozed into 20 ft deep piles 400 ft long. Anyone that wants free mulch can come get it they load you free. I usually rent a $60 dump trailer to haul 10,000. lbs. to my 30'x60' garden. If I add too much mulch soil is 8 PH. PH will drop to 7 ph next year and 6 ph the a year later. I finally have my soil down to 6 ph again. Our rain season started 2 weeks ago soil drains much better than it did several years ago. We had 8" of rain 2 weeks ago garden had 4" of water standing in it for about 2 hours then it was dry. When soil gets a certain dryness I can hoe it in 35 minutes. Algae appears to be gone until the next rain. I have about 4000 carrots in 4 rows. 30 cabbage, 30 cauliflower, 30 broccoli, 60 potatoes, cilantro, 60 lettuce, 40 napa, 100 garlic. Google says, algae is a sign you have very good soil because algae is not easy to grow. Everything is good except dead strawberry plants. We are zone 7a 30 miles south of Nashville TN. New zoning puts up in 8a now. Our 1st frost is usually Nov.1 but no frost yet this year it was 41° this morning. We have freezing 31° forecast later next week. Last year we had -7°f Jan 15 and 16.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

See what I mean, he can hoe that lot in 35 minutes, do that regularly and you will catch almost every weed before it gets past two leaves, and the algae disappears.

Gary, thinking about what you said about drying out and such; Have you considered putting a heavy layer of that stuff underneath the top soil rather than on top? You could scrape it off with a mini digger and put it back, it would give you a layer for heavy rain to drain into which would hold the water and keep it moist from below, a bit like Hügelkultur, and the moisture rising would bring the fruits of decomposition with it. I wonder if it would affect the ph differently?

 

[gary350]

See what I mean, he can hoe that lot in 35 minutes, do that regularly and you will catch almost every weed before it gets past two leaves, and the algae disappears.

Gary, thinking about what you said about drying out and such; Have you considered putting a heavy layer of that stuff underneath the top soil rather than on top? You could scrape it off with a mini digger and put it back, it would give you a layer for heavy rain to drain into which would hold the water and keep it moist from below, a bit like Hügelkultur, and the moisture rising would bring the fruits of decomposition with it. I wonder if it would affect the ph differently?

I cover the whole garden with mulch then till it into the soil. I never leave the mulch on the surface. This makes a very nice soft soil.

 

[cpp gardener]

Go get some of that compost-y mulch and put a 3”+ deep layer on the bare soil. It will smother the algae and decompose over the winter. Next Spring, after you plant seeds/starts, put down another layer of mulch. It smothers weeds and algae and decomposes and feeds the plants.

 

[MiTmite9]

My garden soil has turned green as grass with algae how do I kill it?

Garden soil has never had algae in 50 years. Too much rain soil will not dry out in 55° weather, soil is green as grass. Algae has killed all the strawberry plants but all the plants are fine. Some of the Romaine lettuce died.

Google says, pour bleach on it, scrub with soap, pressure wash it.

Whatever you do, DO NOT pour bleach on your soil. I'm pretty sure Google never instructed anyone to bleach treat their garden soil.

 

[Charlie 001]

Wet , compacted soil and low light levels are the usual conditions for algae ,liverworts and mosses to grow. I guess if you’ve not had this problem previously , weather conditions have changed a bit for you.
its unlikely that the algae killed the strawberry plants. That would probably be the wet
the algae won’t do any harm. In fact probably improved biodiversity
don’t use any products to kill it because those products will kill everything else
The best thing to do is improve drainage keep a good mulch on
there is a thing called strulch that will do the job

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Whatever you do, DO NOT pour bleach on your soil. I'm pretty sure Google never instructed anyone to bleach treat their garden soil.

My guess is that as they talk about scrubbing and pressure washing they were talking about patios and he missed that bit. I scrubbed my patio down with bleach, it did a great job, but I worried a bit about the grass along the edge of the lawn where it slopes to and all ran off. I thought "Oh well, I can never get the mower under that edge, it'll save me using the shears on it". Strangely it seems to have had no effect.