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How to counter crusting soil

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posted 8 years ago

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Hello,

My soil, (which is mostly straight compost) gets hard and crusty after a while. Any suggestion how to counter this? Usually it is covered in mulch but right now for instance I have a bunch of seedling beets coming up making it difficult to mulch. I would prefer to not have to buy anything . Thank you!

Ben Johansen

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posted 8 years ago

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Hey, Chris. Do you happen to know a basic makeup of your soil? I'd wager a guess that you've got a decent amount of clay in there... Crusting soils can be a result of many things, excessive salt, low organic material, improper tillage, the list goes on. Clay is typically a common denominator. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to this. Is your compost chunky at all? I've had issues with spreading other peoples' compost on my garden, only to find big lumps of uncomposted manurah in the mix. These unfinished butt-nuggets have a tendency to dry out to an almost brick like consistency , even repelling water at times. This is a result of a stage in the decomposition cycle having too little available h2o to complete the cycle and turn into friable material. If threres too much carbon, and no available water, not only is the nitrogen unavailable, but theres a chance that a lot will gas off and be lost altogether. Does your compost consist of a lot of straw, or maybe winter manure from cows or horses? Winter manurah usually has a lot of dry grains and grasses, as well as low moisture, so that could be a factor. Horse apples are also notorious for not breaking down in compost piles- horses only have one simple stomach, so their terds are rather unprocessed, and the fibrous nature of horse poo lends itself to maintaining its own structure. I'd say, if you're seeing white chalky buildup on top of the crust, its a salt or calcium issue; otherwise, my moneys on your compost soil drying out too quickly, which would suggest to me a need for mulch. Dyou have problems with beet emergence through mulch? I usually add a light layer of straw over mine after planting, and they come through just fine. Lawn clippings would be ideal for this. Hope I didn't geek you out too hard. Baby them beets, man.

Casie Becker

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posted 8 years ago

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If you have access to fine sand, a thin layer on top shouldn't hurt germination rates. Sand is translucent enough to allow light to penetrate while still separating the soil from the drying and crusting affects of the air.

Christopher Ro

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posted 8 years ago

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Thank you for the input. The compost is free from the city of Berkeley. It is what they make from the organic materials bins they pick up with the trash and recycling every week. Since it is readily available I use a lot of it. These beets are planted in almost nothing but this. I have had good results with it, but yes I have had it repel water! The other things I add are grass and leaves as well as some kitchen scraps mostly coffee grinds and egg shells.

Cristo Balete

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posted 8 years ago

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Mulch, mulch, mulch. You've got clay there that will probably always dominate the mix, even if you add compost. Keeping it covered with at least 3", if not 6", of mowed grass, weeds, tree leaves will keep it damp enough for the worms to come up and help it. Crusty-ness means it is drying out too much and the minerals are showing. You want those minerals still in the dampness of the soil so the roots can take them up and get them into your food. Very good nutrition in clay, but it's crucial to never let it be exposed to the sun. Maintain a thick, thick mulch over the top. In the fall when the street trees are dropping their leaves, go around with a broom and some big plastic garbage bags and collect as much as you can.

An important distinction: Permaculture is not the same kind of gardening as organic gardening.
Mediterranean climate hugel trenches, fabuluous clay soil high in nutrients, self-watering containers with hugel layers, keyhole composting with low hugel raised beds, thick Back to Eden Wood chips mulch (distinguished from Bark chips), using as many native plants as possible....all drought tolerant.

Marco Banks

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posted 8 years ago

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Ditto on the mulch. It may be a textural thing—the compost being too fine. A generous layer of chunky wood-chip mulch to top of all that compost would keep it moist and give it some texture in the years to come as it breaks down.

"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf

Cristo Balete

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Christopher, I would avoid redwood bark chip mulch as it has growth inhibitors in it. All wood chips suck up the nitrogen so it doesn't get down to the roots, so if you are experiencing this in a vegetable garden you'll need your annuals to get all of the nutrients they can, as quickly as they can. If you have a free source of bark chips you can always compost them off to the side, then use the broken down chips, but that could take years for those things to break down.

Marco Banks

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posted 8 years ago

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If I can respectfully disagree with you a little bit Christo, wood chips do take a bit of nitrogen initially, but only in that very narrow band of space where the chips meet the soil. So yes, a quarter inch or so of the soil profile will be adversely effected . . . . initially. But if you are putting 6 or 8 inches of woodchip mulch down ON TOP of the soil, and not tilling it into the soil, the fungal and microbial growth below the soil, the earthworm castings, as well as all the poop and exudates from all the other biology in the soil will more than make up for that 1/4 inch zone between mulch and soil.

One ways to understand the principle of "use the edge and value the margin" is to see that narrow zone between mulch and soil as an edge, alive with biological activity. Within 6 months of laying that woodchip mulch down, that "edge" will be rich in nutrients and life. It will go from being marginally nitrogen poor, to one of the best places for plant roots within the whole soil profile.

Gregory Mosher

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posted 5 years ago

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So, everywhere I read,including here, seems to agree that mulch is the answer.

I added a few bags of compost tilled into my garden for this year. It sounds like the straw, horse manure, winter compost that was mentioned and I can confirm that the manure turns to a brick. So does my soil.

I've planted everything, chard, lettuce, beans, salad mixes etc, a few days ago. VERY hard crusty soil, so I want to mulch it asap, but (like the crusty soil) will the mulch prohibit the seedlings from emerging? should I mulch the whole bed or just my rows, etc?

Thanks in advance folks.

Meg Mitchell

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posted 5 years ago

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Gregory Mosher wrote:So, everywhere I read,including here, seems to agree that mulch is the answer.

I added a few bags of compost tilled into my garden for this year. It sounds like the straw, horse manure, winter compost that was mentioned and I can confirm that the manure turns to a brick. So does my soil.

I've planted everything, chard, lettuce, beans, salad mixes etc, a few days ago. VERY hard crusty soil, so I want to mulch it asap, but (like the crusty soil) will the mulch prohibit the seedlings from emerging? should I mulch the whole bed or just my rows, etc?

Thanks in advance folks.

If you do thin mulch then I think it would only discourage the seeds that need light to germinate (like lettuce) but if you have a thick layer of mulch, some seedlings might germinate, get partway through the mulch, and give up before reaching sunlight. After planting seeds and before the seedlings come up seems like it would be the hardest time to mulch. If you put the mulch down first, you can poke holes in the mulch to plant your seeds in, and if you wait until you can see the plants, you can mulch around them.

You don't want to leave any soil bare so I think you want to mulch the whole bed.

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Cristo Balete

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Gregory, in your list of what you've done to your soil I don't see any mulch.

Mulch is a top layer only, 3", preferably 6" thick of mowed weeds or leaves, small organic particles, maintained at that thickness, which might mean topping off that top layer every two weeks.

This layer is not tilled in, it's not mixed in, it stays on top because it blocks the sun.

It's the sun that dries out clay or manure, and causes them to get hard. Keeping the sun off of the soil keeps the moisture in, brings the worms up, and allows all the soil critters to do better, because they don't like dried-out soil any better than you. :-)

Bryant RedHawk

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Christopher Ro wrote:Thank you for the input. The compost is free from the city of Berkeley. It is what they make from the organic materials bins they pick up with the trash and recycling every week. Since it is readily available I use a lot of it. These beets are planted in almost nothing but this. I have had good results with it, but yes I have had it repel water! The other things I add are grass and leaves as well as some kitchen scraps mostly coffee grinds and egg shells.

Compost acquired from most all municipalities are not finished compost, they make a great start to get to compost but they normally get it gone far before it should be used.
I have taken samples from two cities near me and both were about half way to being good compost.
What that means it that the stuff will behave exactly as you have described, crusting.
To mulch already seeded ground, lay the mulch between your rows so the seeds can germinate, once they are up you can bring some mulch up around the plants.

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