Soil Improvement

[cdarden]

My new lawn is heavy black clay. How much Garrett Juice should I apply to mellow and soften it? Can I apply dry molasses in addtion to the Garrett Juice. If so, how much dry molasses should I apply. Do I need to till this into the soil?

[CaptainCompostAL]

The number one best soil amendment for all heavy clay soils is compost!
The second best soil amendment for heavy clay soil is well aged or composted sawdust. It is better and cheaper than gypsum.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Just to expand on why the compost and sawdust works on clay to soften it...

It is microbes in the soil that will soften your soil for you. They produce glue that will bind the clay particles together to form larger particles. Larger and larger particles will form until they reach a physical limit depending on what else goes on in the soil. Anyway, the largest particles are called crumbs. That is the soil structure. You want a crumb structure.

Other microbes will push the crumbs aside to open up air passages in the soil. When it rains, those air passages become water passages allowing water to flow freely into the open soil instead of off the top.

Compost and sawdust bring in the microbes you need to open up the soil. By applying those products on top of the soil, the microbes will wash down into the soil and start working for you.

If you till a crumb soil, the crumbs break apart back into dust, the air passages get chewed up, and the microbes that did all the work get disbursed into the soil. This is all bad news for your soil tilth.

[Kent]

How can you improve the soil of an established lawn?

[CaptainCompostAL]

Compost on the lawn to supply extra beneficial soil microbes and humus.

A high protein/nitrogen fertilizer like corn meal or alfalfa meal, to build healthy green grass.

[Kent]

So, I just spread the compost and cornmeal on top of the grass? I have a lawn that is a bermuda/st augustine mix. I want the st augustine to take over.

[The Ent]

That's going to come down to a sunlight question.

Bermuda will dominiate if there's lots of sunlight. In shady areas, the bermuda will fade and the St Augustine will take over.

[JimKing]

You guys are great at explaining things...

What do you think of aerating your lawn? I to have clay. I put out benefical nemo last year and Greensense fert. twice. This spring I aerated and put a dirt with compost (called Rose Soil).

Is that OK or just a waist of time?

[compostguy2003]

I'd recommend you use a very finely composted top dressing, especially since you aerated the lawn. You must be sure that the material is fully composted. The fine particles will work into the lawn area and between the blades of grass, and into the holes that you craeted.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I'm roaming around the old posts on Dirt Doctor to see what questions have gone unanswered. This topic had a question about aerating just a few posts up.

I'm not against mechanical aerating, but I don't think it is necessary unless something has gone wrong in your organic program. Here's why.

If you bring in a mechanical plug aerator, you can punch a few thousand holes per thousand square feet. But if you establish a healthy, microbially active soil, they can punch about a trillion micro holes per square foot. That's about a bazillion micro holes per 1,000 square feet :shock: There is no way a mechanical tiller can aerate anything like the healthy microbes. All you have to do is feed them regularly and don't poison or drown them.

[CaptainCompostAL]

Dave's right! Microbial holes in topsoil are definitely more powerful than mechanical holes that can be down by a spade fork in the soil! (LOL)