Fran Farmer wrote:
songbird wrote:
Fran Farmer wrote:

I've been away for more than a month, and although Himself did a lot of
watering, there are some places where the soil has dried out to such an
extent that it's now baked and water repellant and all attempts at
normal watering (ie hoses and sprinklers) are proving fruitless.

How have others coped with this other than puddling and making mud pies?
This does seem to work, but I'm sure there will be some reason why I
shouldn't do this even though it can't be because of soil structure
since where there is none to begin with once it's as dry as a chip. I
also do not like using soil wetting agents since I've never been able to
find out what it does to earth worms and I know they will return
eventually, once it rains or the winter comes and the weather cools.

i asked some other folks what they would do and
i have gotten several different replies:

- mixing water and molasses at 10-20:1 ratio.

Now that sounds interesting. I'm wondering if they suggested molasses
because it would help with keeping/fostering biota?????

I have a massive drum of molasses in the shearing shed which is a left
over from when there were horses here. I'll hunt it out and give it a try.

let us know if it does seem to make any difference.

i'm not sure what their reasoning was other than
perhaps it would help as a wetting and clumping agent.
encouraging biota would be the great side benefit.
that you have it on hand is great. i'll be listening...


this morning i was feeding the worm bins (nos 5
through 15) to get them ramped up for spring. i had
stuff from garlic, and a whole bucket of chopped dried
alfalfa and trefoil, along with the usual veggie
scraps. after a bit i decided to take a few cups of
the worm castings and put them on top of the potted
plants i'd recently repotted, to give the potting
soil a boost of bacteria, fungi and perhaps a few very
tiny worms. after doing that and watering them well
i was rinsing out the small container i used and was
thinking of you down there trying to get very fine
soil to wet and how nice those little worm castings
were staying together even though they were soaking
in water. so for the longer term, encourage worms
however you can. they'll clump some of that dusty
soil together.

i also had someone post a short article about how
some of what happen with superdry dusty soil is that
the plant waxes coat the soil particles making it so
tough to get wet and hold moisture again. another
good reason to have worms as the passing of dirt
through the gut of a worm will grind all those
pieces together making it much easier to wet again.
not counting all the other benefits.


- adding compost and mixing it with the top layer of
soil. i suspect adding moist compost would be even
better.

- using more compost to cover the gardens once it is
moist again to keep the moisture there from escaping
easily.

Both of those make good sense, The latter suggestion is similar to my
'mud pie' making tactics so I know that will work.

and when it rains, run out and pull some of the mulch
back from your favorite plants or those in the most risk
as then the water can reach the soil easier. then when
it stops raining put the mulch back over. leave some
mulch in the rain, of course, to protect the soil, but
if you have a really deep layer it sure doesn't hurt to
peel some of it back until you know you are getting
plenty of rains again.


- bentonite clay (not sure why anyone would add clay
to dusty soil, but perhaps it would help make granules
or clumps)

That suggestion is interesting too but all I know about Bentonite is
that it is traditionally used to stop leaks in dams ('ponds' in USian??)
if a farm has a leaking dam, bags of bentonite are poured in to stop
the leak.

yes, we tend to call them ponds here, i think most
people think of things like Hoover Dam when they hear
the word dam being used. around here it is so flat
that ponds are not in danger of leaking, they are
just deepened spots in the property where it suits.
this whole area used to be pretty much nothing but
wooded swamps, and of course, ages ago an inland sea,
glaciers, etc.


- which i think is what gypsum would do too for that
type of soil but i've never had to deal with that myself
so i can't speak from direct experience.

how is it going? making progress?

I'd say a tentative 'yes'. I've been gradually going round and paying
close attention to spots within areas where he just applies a blanket
watering. Working as a team seems to be a bit more effective in getting
water to the really precious things but it's still just about survival
and I'm not expecting things to do any thriving - that would be a
bridge too far.

We got a bit of rain yesterday (Hallellula!) and so that will help.

oh, that's great! yes, i know how that feels when it is
so hot and dry and all you are hoping for is a decent long
spell of nice gentle rains to soak everything down. i
hope the weather continues to favor you there.


Nothing, but nothing can ever replace the effectiveness of rain.

yeah, things grow ok here with our well water, but they
do much better with rain. trace nutrients and a bit of
nitrogen come along with rains in our area.


I
suspect the only thing to do from now on is to completely cover the more
sensitive growing area (veg) with shade cloth in high summer and either
never go away for more than a few days, or just admit that it's time to
move to the burbs or bring in a bulldozer and get rid of the lot and
then lay down pebbles.

i'm not sure what you already have in place, but
things like shelter belts, and wind breaks can also
help a lot. and interplanting with deep rooted
perennials (chop some back every once in a while),
they'll help keep things cooler, protect the soil
from evaporation losses and bring up both moisture
and nutrients from further down than most garden
veggies will go.


songbird