clay soil break up help

   / clay soil break up help #1  

BrettW

Platinum Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2002
Messages
657
Location
now in S.C.!!
Tractor
Yanmar FF205D
Guys,
First of all, thank you to the many of you that have responded to all my posts over these last few years.
Here is what I have to do. I have a new house (and I can't wait to post a pic of it!!!!) with about 2 (almost flat) acres of field grasses, thorns and fire ants, and super packed South Carolina red clay. I will buy a small rotary cutter to take care of the high stuff but after running over the clay with my tiller the other week, I'm wondering if I need to crack it loose before launching a full scale attack and trying to get a "yard" look. So, will a box blade with the teeth turned down do this well enough? Or would a middle buster drug back and forth be better? I'm planning on getting a box blade to grade it out. I just don't want to "blow up" my tiller on this clay. Also, how deep should I till? thanks once again, brett w
 
   / clay soil break up help #2  
Brett, I think if you want anything but the native grasses in that clay soil, you will have to bring in sand and loam to build up the top layer. If you want to break up the clay before adding soil, boxblade scarifiers will work, but if you are not careful, you'll end up with a mess. If the clay is too dry, you'll just end up with lots of football sized clods. If it's too wet and malleable, you'll just make narrow furrows through it. Catching the clay at the right level of moisture and using a tiller is probably the best you can hope for. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

I think if it were me, I'd try to get the clay as level as possible and then just bring in good topsoil and sand for my lawn. Maybe someone else has a better plan, but I just don't have much luck with sticky, gummy clay. It does make great pond dams though. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
   / clay soil break up help #3  
If you are getting a BB anyway, I'd sure recommend using the ripper teeth and loosening it up a little to make it easier on the tiller.

Someday, I plan to build a ripper (using the teeth from my BB) that I can pull independantly of the BB. I figure if/when I'm breaking up hard ground, I can pull it a few times at different angles. It will break up the soil, PLUS, if there are any hidden obtacles, I'd rather find them with a ripper tooth that the tiller.

That's my two cents.
Ron
 
   / clay soil break up help #4  
Brett
I doubt I have the answers you need, I have hard packed tan colored clay soil on upper areas of my property and have not really found a good way to do anything with it. Around my house I have dumped 5 semi-trailer dump truck loads of black dirt and attemped to incorporate that as best I could.

IF I was able to do it again, FOR AREAS WHERE I WANTED PLANTING BEDS, FLOWERS, GARDENS, ETC: I would probably use a middle buster or sub soiler set it as low as I could pull it. Then I would go over it with the box blade with the teeth set down, then I would till it. Then I would dump some truck loads of black dirt on it, even if he dirt was only spread 1" or 2" thick, then I would till that into the clay. The I would dump some more dirt on the areas where I wanted a garden to raise them above the lawn areas by an inch or two.

AS FOR THE LAWN AREAS: I would probably skip the sub-soiler, I'd run the box blade, then the tiller, then dump some dirt for a 1" layer, then I'd probably set the tiller to 2" and just till the 1" layer of dirt into the top layer of broken clay so that you have a 50%-50% mixture of dirt & clay in the top couple inches of soil. You won't have the best lawn be out there, but it would be better than what I have! I have areas where I have a decent dirt-clay mix, and I have other areas where there is a thin layer of dirt sitting on top of clay and those areas are prone to erosion, etc.

I am fortunate that I don't have a lot of lawn area around the house that is like that, but I bought 4.5 acres next to me and reclaimed a 2 acre field that is becoming lawn. There are areas full of native grasses that I am just mowing, but there are some really bad spots that will require me to tear them up and start over. On those areas, probably totaling 1/2 of an acre, I plan on doing what I wrote above.

AND MAKE SURE YOU DO IT WHEN THE CLAY IS DRY.
 
   / clay soil break up help #5  
Brett,
Georgia clay here so I feel your pain. Adding top soil and tilling in is great advice but a big job for two acres. Sand or gypsum tilled in helps break up clay and again is a big job on two acres. If the time and budget allows those are your best options. If not I would talk to the county extension service first, get a soil test to find out how much lime and what type of fertilizer you need, then have them applied by one of the Ag supply companies. Spend your summer getting the grade the way you want and plant a cover crop this fall. It is a bit late to do it now with the Southern summer on us. In the early spring till under the cover crop, or green manure, to add some organic matter to the clay. That will get you started on developing some top soil and have you ready for spring seeding.

Congratulations on the new homestead.

MarkV
 
   / clay soil break up help #6  
Hi Brett,
You make me recall over 30 years ago, we purchased the last house built on a new sub division street. It was all clay. I hauled in a few pickup loads of chicken litter (included shavings) and tilled in. Planted bermuda grass seeds & kept moist till it came up. Shortly thereafter I fertilized it a couple times with commerical fertilizer. Before the summer was over we were mowing it 2/3 times per week.

One neighbor came over & asked me what kind of miracle grass seed I used. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Good luck with your lawn & new house.
 
   / clay soil break up help #7  
The amendment of clay with gypsum is pretty wide spread.
 
   / clay soil break up help #8  
Brett,
There have been mixed reviews about using sand in clay soil. Not sure if it really causes a problem. But tilling in topsoil, gypsum and anything organic is a safe bet, and can work to condition your clay.

Our garden ~15'x30' is (was) hard clay. After two seasons of adding leaves, gypsum and a little topsoil, the ground is really showing improvement.

To get things started, I use a middlebuster to turn the soil pretty deep (no established topsoil to disrupt). Then, the tiller makes unbelieveably soft fluffy soil. The scarifiers on my BB don't dig as deep as I would like. For me, the middlebuster is a better choice, as I would like to condition as deep as possible, so plant roots have a place to grow. The tiller handles the ground much better after middlebuster treatment.

You may not need to till real deep for a lawn prep, I don't know. Also, maybe some lawn grasses grow well in clay, I don't know that either. Expensive "seed bed prep" devices like Harley Rakes don't "till" very deep at all...a couple inches I think. If you wish to condition the clay first, till in gypsum and all the organic material you can find.

Also, talk to a couple of your local, dedicated (ie not Walmart, Target or Ace Hardware) garden stores/nurseries.

OkieG
 
   / clay soil break up help #9  
When we moved in we planted -- worms. They work slowly, buy they are pretty effective at losening soil over time. Strangely enough, there didn't seem to be any worms in the soil when we moved in. Maybe too much lawn poison. We planted them in a few places and they are all over the yard now. I like worms. This may not be useful advice in the short term, and may not apply to your soil conditions, but I thought I'd mention it.

Cliff
 
   / clay soil break up help #10  
<font color="blue"> we planted -- worms. </font>

Cliff,
Is your soil clay? In my garden, seems like worms and clay don't mix. I planted worms the first year I turned the garden. You have never seen such a mass exodus. Worms were escaping in every direction. Even though my soil is getting better, there are still no worms daring to live there. I plan to try "planting" some again soon, though.

OkieG
 
 
 
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