RpR said:If you can afford it, when you plant trees, or just to give you places to put them in the future, rent a skid-steer with a large diameter post hole digger and drill a hole as deep as you can below each tree, six feet minimum.
Fill most of the hole with rocks largest on the bottom, then sand.
This will give you a dry well that will remove excess water.
Three feet of dirt for growing should be enough depending on the size of trees you will put in.
GregC said:If you put your location in your profile, people in your hardiness zone can be of great help. I'm way too North for a tropical paradise.
stone said:The problem with using equipment to break up the clay.... Generally it just adds to the problem.
Bringing in soil and adding it to the compacted soil generally means having low organic sand piled on top of compacted clay, now two problems rather than one.
Lot of people looking for that instant easy fix, and.... End up making things a lot worse.
Personally, I've been having the best luck by piling large piles of organic material, and leaving it for months... Think about what the compost pile does for the soil it is piled on...
Eventually the organic material gets used, and then.... I can do something with the area that I had it piled. Makes it a lot easier when the microbes have loosened the hard pan.
JuniperAnn said:Texas A&M recommends expanded shale for aerating clay soils, but I don't know how much that would cost in bulk. Probably a lot. :/
One option for lowering your costs / efforts would be to alternate amended areas with areas filled with clay-friendly plants. Zone 10 is sometimes considered to be the start of the tropics, so we here in the subtropics have some choices with a fairly tropical feel.
For full sun, maybe consider:
Crinum lilies
Agapanthus
Some native hibiscuses (kostelezkya virginica, hibiscus laevis)
Daylilies
Baptisias (baptisia alba, baptisia australis, baptisia australis minor, baptisia bracteata)
Chile pequin (a native pepper that I hear is very hot)
Turk's cap
For part shade, maybe
Sabal minor (our only native palm, I believe)
Sago palm
Canna lilies
Althea
Daturas & brugmansias (if you have no small children or particularly adventurous teens around; they're hallucinogenic)
Chile pequin
Turk's cap
Ginger lily / butterfly lily
Spider lilies (hymenocallis)
Passionflower (passiflora incarnata or passiflora foetida are natives)
(Multiple edits to get rid of extra "help" from autocorrect).
Mr_brightside said:I appreciate the comment! But now I'm a little confused, could you explain how using equipment to break up clay adds to the problem?
Mr_brightside said:
So when you say to alternate amended areas with clay-friendly plants, basically I would plant some nice things on the list in an area and let them grow for a while...but after a while I would dig them up and move them or something?
RpR said:Stone do not forget the hill he is planting on is not natural so he is not destroying the natural ecology.
I have planted a lot of trees, more than I want to remember with a post hole digger and where soil had been added in housing areas breaking through the unnatural, usually clay, new soil allows drainage that decades of mother earth news type process will never do.
Failure to break through results in dead trees.
Casey one thing you can do if you get a post hole digger, as I said get the largest, diameter and longest one possible and drill a test hole to see what is down there and how far it goes.
Drill a hole or holes, different depths , if necessary, and fill with water.
Check drainage rate.
If it does not drain, you have serious problem.
stone said:
Re the suggestion about using an auger, and rocks, and whatever.... Remember the bathtub experience? I wouldn't plant anything with an auger.
stone said:Interesting that people are doubling down on the use of an auger/fence post digger for planting....
I would be interested in hearing how those trees do after several years down the road.
I have been brought in to 'fix' an auger planted orchard... and while I attempted to fix the root zone by loosening the clay in a wide area, and adding manure and mulching with wood chips.... woulda made better sense to have just planted the trees in a wide hole to start with...
I did also plant a number of new trees...
If you bother to do the research... You will learn that the extension service talks about the trees roots getting 'trapped' in the auger dug hole and circling around just like in a container... The roots just can't escape into the native soil.
stone said:Interesting that people are doubling down on the use of an auger/fence post digger for planting....
I would be interested in hearing how those trees do after several years down the road.
I have been brought in to 'fix' an auger planted orchard... and while I attempted to fix the root zone by loosening the clay in a wide area, and adding manure and mulching with wood chips.... woulda made better sense to have just planted the trees in a wide hole to start with...
I did also plant a number of new trees...
If you bother to do the research... You will learn that the extension service talks about the trees roots getting 'trapped' in the auger dug hole and circling around just like in a container... The roots just can't escape into the native soil.
stone said:Interesting that people are doubling down on the use of an auger/fence post digger for planting....
I would be interested in hearing how those trees do after several years down the road.
I have been brought in to 'fix' an auger planted orchard... and while I attempted to fix the root zone by loosening the clay in a wide area, and adding manure and mulching with wood chips.... woulda made better sense to have just planted the trees in a wide hole to start with...
I did also plant a number of new trees...
If you bother to do the research... You will learn that the extension service talks about the trees roots getting 'trapped' in the auger dug hole and circling around just like in a container... The roots just can't escape into the native soil.