Best method to deal with rock hard clods of clay in otherwise friable soil?

We grow on most of the 'almost an acre' around our home.
A few years ago a neighbor offered to plow up the old garden spot from more than fifty years ago...he used a chisel plow so really loosened deep but I think it was too wet at the time (both to plow and the weight of the tractor) and that added to but did not cause the problem.

We've since only done what is our normal with hand tools, planting cover crops, chop and drop and keep it mulched and planted with mostly annual vegetables although I'm slipping in quite a few perenniels here and there

We only use a broadfork to loosen beds rotating between several beds yearly.

Most is wonderful and loose and grows great crops but there are fist sizes rock hard chunks of clay that are only penetrated by occasional bermuda grass roots.  Water slips around the clods just like they were rocks.

Early on I added gypsum and a bit of coarse lime...have not had a soil test.

Patience will win out I know but wondered if anyone has any methods to add?

What I have done in the past with some clods that were hard as rock is to put them in a bucket of water for a few days and then pour out the mud.

Thanks Anne!
I think I'll try that with a few.
Did you break them up smaller first?

That reminds me of when I did some red clay slurry for 'mud' dyeing on a cotton t-shirt

Anne's idea is a good one.

The challenge is ensuring they won't form into another brick when it dries again. Even if you add straw-like organic materials, you could be making cob.

While soaking, I would also add all manner of crude organic matter with lots of compost and garden soil, some biochar, and semi-rotted matter. A matrix that holds moisture will help ensure clods don't form again.

Come to think of it, spreading thin layers of raw clay slurry over active compost heaps might be the easiest way.

My personal experience with clay is to let it dry and then break it up into a powder and then sprinkle it in layers in the beds with lots of organic matter in between. In fact, I found that a couple of my raised beds that had lots of punky wood and well rotted compost, needed some clay to help it hold water better, so when I was building my most recent bed I tried doing the layers of clay powder and it seems to have helped a lot. It doesn't really  have to be a fine powder - 1/8 tsp size or so? I use a club hammer and whack it a few times.

That said, I generally add biochar to my compost, which then got added to the bed, so there's some of that there also.

I was going to make a quip about setting the clay aside to build an RMH or cob shed, but alas, Douglas beat me too it!

Judith Browning wrote:Thanks Anne!
I think I'll try that with a few.
Did you break them up smaller first?

My memory says they were too hard to break up that is why I put them in the bucket of water.

I had enough water that what I pour out was not like a brick.

As Douglas suggested, I started to mention maybe adding gypsum to the mix though I was not sure if that was a good idea or not.

Maybe mixing with so well-composted leaves and compost into the bucket of mud and water would help.

Thanks to all of you helpful folks!

I'm now planning to try a slurry but I might throw in some cloth scraps from my natural dye days just for fun as it's a dark clay and I've only dyed with the red stuff.

We keep open tubs of washing mch water next to this garden...just soap nuts used and many times only water so I think my clay clods can get tossed in one and even if we use the water more is added frequently....thinking outloud here

Judith
I live in the Ozarks as well. You're in a creek bottom corect? I live on a south facing slope with a circle drive and the ditch to said drive drains at the bottom of  my clearing. I have been blowing all my fall leaves to the same spot. My initial thought was the leaves would rot and catch some of the erosion from my ditch before heading on down the hill. Time has passed and I have harvested the leaf mulch several times so it is a bit of a small pond after a rain. I have been tossing clod's in there and they seem to break down and mix in well.I do try to turn it once a month or so.

Maybe something like that could work for you?  

Marty,
Thanks!
Where we lived in the country we gathered leaves like you mention...here there are not so many but maybe slipping clods in the mulched paths might work if we can step on them and not trip over them....we are constantly adding scythed grasses to the paths.

This has been a trade off here in town...first place we've ever lived where I can push a fork or shovel in the ground and not hit a rock...no pry bar or anything

When I dig up the ones that are literally rock hard I just chuck em in the woods.

Judith
Ive heard tell there are such places in the Ozarks. My little slice of heaven is not one of those places.

I get a fresh crop every year of volenteer rocks! Far and away my most productive crop! :/