Clay soil

[jfrye01@live.com]

Anyone grown palms in clay soil? Around my house, I have a couple inches of good soil on top of sticky clay...I'm wanting to plant my Trachy on the east side of my house, but it has the most clay...I have absolutely no idea how to amend the soil like some say, and I imagine my attempts would do more than good...any tips?

Here's a picture of my soil: http://postimg.org/image/5zmuculj7/full/

Edited March 13, 2014 by jfrye01@live.com

[stevethegator]

In my experience trachies grow well in heavy clay in Georgia, they thrive in it actually. Still, I'd listen to the advice of others on this board and end as they say to be safe!

[Hammer]

Lots of clay out West here too. Clay can be a good thing to have. It will hold moisture and nutrients better than SOME other types of soils. I would suggest you dig a hole, pour in a bucket of water and see how long it takes to drain. Planting your palms in a bowl that holds water for long long periods will kill them. If the clay drains then you should be fine.

To amend the soil you could add gypsum. Also compost and mulching liberally will really help improve your soil structure. I've been mulching my place since I bought it 18 months ago and I am already seeing significant improvements in soil quality.

[KennyRE317]

lots of compost and gypsum. I didn't even have those couple inches of decent soil and my clay didn't drain at all. with compost and gypsum the soil now drains decently after about 6-8months

[jfrye01@live.com]

Thanks for replies...do you simply mix in the amended material with a shovel, or is there a better way?

[DoomsDave]

jfrye:

Clay is okay, but it's your climate that's going to be the challenge.

I've got clay in my garden, but I never get cold enough (pray PRAY!) to hurt a Trachy much.

Where you are, it might be a good idea to build a mound of well-draining soil and plant the palm on top. Cold, wet, soggy soil when the palm can't grow might be a problem.

On the other hand, there are people who raise Trachies in Vancouver, and let's hear from them, too.

Let us know what happens and what you do. You are on the edge of the envelope.

[KennyRE317]

I'm not sure if I quoted you but this is how I mixed it in, remember this area of the yard was a disaster, water would literally sit on the surface until it evaporated and no water penetrated past the first inch or 2 from the surface. i bought this house about 3 years ago and the previous owner just didn't take care of the yard so the tough clay was almost as hard as concrete. I'm in pretty decent shape, as i do all the landscape myself from moving 20yards of dirt, digging out mature 15-20' citrus trees and breaking slabs of concrete with a sledge. the point is the clay was so tough that when i dug out the old grass i would take a pickaxe and swing it as hard as i could into the ground and i might be lucky to get past the first 4".

what i did was mix the compost into the first 8-12" of clay then spread the gypsum and mixed that right into it. almost immediately after mixing the gypsum the clay didn't bond together as much and with the worm activity from the compost this whole area drains out pretty well now. after a good rain the water would still puddle but after a couple of hours there would be no more standing water.

captions for the pictures:

1) a couple inches of compost laid ontop of native clay, i did drench the area with the compost on top before mixing

2) compost mixed in, again a lot of water afterwards

3) gypsum in the first half of the area

4) first half done and starting the 2nd half

5) starting to level the area as well as raking out the clay bricks that didn't want to break up, there were no more rocks in those piles

6) all done

Edited March 13, 2014 by KennyRE317

[KennyRE317]

things would have gone alot quicker had i had access to a truck and/or a tiller

[Palmdude]

Kenny, In my own yard I'm lucky enough to have good draining sandy soil but I've done a few landscaping projects in that concrete like clay soul around here as well. Good organic material is always incorporated in all my projects and then for the hard cement like clay, I break it up with a landscapers axe break it up and add a decent amount of play sand along with some organic material. It usually is about four to six inches thick (the clay layer) after amending the whole bed not just the planting holes it's a totally different story and the sand and organics seem to keep the clay from binding up again and voila!!!! I nice planting bed!