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water repellant spoil
On 1/11/2014 12:47 PM, 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. With a hose-end sprayer, apply a mix of water and mild, unscented liquid soap. The soap will act as a wetting agent. You want it unscented so that it does not attract bees, hornets, and wasps. After you get the soil a bit damp, apply a generous amount of gypsum. Lightly water the gypsum to just damp it and prevent it from blowing in the wind. Two days later, water it a bit more to start disolving it but without any runoff. Two days after that, water it well (but not to the point of runoff) to start leaching it into the soil. -- David E. Ross Climate: California Mediterranean, see http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary |
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