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Ok, the soil where I live is horrible.It's dense and almost sticky. I cannot grow my favorite vegetable, beets
I've never had this problem anywhere else. With this dense soil the beets apparently can't expand and grow. I get beets that look more like pieces of thread.
Last week I bought topsoil for the first time ever. Miracle Grow. Well, turns out this soil is more like a bark mulch. It would have to be ground in the blender to become soil. So my question is, what can I buy? I don't have enough compost or I would try that. I was wondering about indoor potting soil. What do you think? I want some fine, smooth soil.
Ok, the soil where I live is horrible.It's dense and almost sticky. I cannot grow my favorite vegetable, beets
I've never had this problem anywhere else. With this dense soil the beets apparently can't expand and grow. I get beets that look more like pieces of thread.
Last week I bought topsoil for the first time ever. Miracle Grow. Well, turns out this soil is more like a bark mulch. It would have to be ground in the blender to become soil. So my question is, what can I buy? I don't have enough compost or I would try that. I was wondering about indoor potting soil. What do you think? I want some fine, smooth soil.
You need some additional amendments to go with the Miracle Grow together with your own natural soil that you have in your yard. Potting soil is okay but it's not great because it's intended to have fertilizers added to it too regularly, it doesn't really offer up much nutrients if it's used outdoors. The Miracle Grow WILL turn into soil and the woody bits in there are organic so it's okay. Having soil that is too fine and smooth doesn't allow for proper air and water circulation around the roots which may become compacted. So I'd suggest you mix some amendments all together, all of which should be available at a gardening supplies outlet, equal parts of each added to:
- your natural soil broken up and loosened into smaller pieces by chopping and pounding it vigorously with a rake or shovel or working it through a 1/4 inch screen - then add the following amendments, and mix it all together. Pretend you're mixing together the ingredients of a perfect cake recipe:
- the Miracle Grow
- SAND - very important to allow for proper drainage and to smooth out lumpy, sticky soil (beets can grow better with lots of sand, so can a lot of other root veggies)
- a mix of dry grass clippings or other dry leafy organic material
- vermiculite which is a form of gold colored mica (not perlite which is crushed volcanic glass which is puffed up with air)
- mushroom manure or broken up rotted horse manure or other well rotted compost which will have a goodly amount of organic material in it.
- peat moss soil (the kind used for starting seedlings in pots indoors)
- last but not least a coffee can full of live earthworms sprinkled evenly onto the bed and immediatly lightly covered over with half an inch of soil before birds notice and steal them. The earthworms will feed on the grass clippings and leafy organics you give them, they'll create more air circulation and drainage, break up chunks of sticky soil and provide you with great worm castings (worm poop) that is very nutritious for the plants.
Then water the mixed soil to a depth of two or three inches and the earthworms will do the rest of the mixing and stirring below the surface for you.
All of these combined will give you nutrients, water retention, air circulation, good drainage and when the earthworms have finished mixing and fine tuning it, it will be light, fluffy soil that you could practically throw yourself onto, sink into and go to sleep.
Ok, the soil where I live is horrible.It's dense and almost sticky. I cannot grow my favorite vegetable, beets
I've never had this problem anywhere else. With this dense soil the beets apparently can't expand and grow. I get beets that look more like pieces of thread.
Last week I bought topsoil for the first time ever. Miracle Grow. Well, turns out this soil is more like a bark mulch. It would have to be ground in the blender to become soil. So my question is, what can I buy? I don't have enough compost or I would try that. I was wondering about indoor potting soil. What do you think? I want some fine, smooth soil.
Yup, Root crops need some good loose soil for sure.
The quickest way..
Remove the Top 6 inches of soil you currently have, use it somewhere else (not in a pot!)
Add fresh screened Top Soil/Compost mix and fill up the area. You can have yards delivered.
Done
The longer way, which I did:
Every Spring and Fall before and after planting, add Lime, compost, peat moss, humic acid, worm castings, and till it in. Even buy bags of Miracle Grow soil and add it but that gets expensive. Although Costco had a large 50 quart bag for $8.
You'll obviously not add so much at once so that's why this method takes years to build up better soil. And even then after heavy rains or winter you'll get rocks to creep up and compaction when dry. Method #1 is the best and I'm still thinking about doing that.
Also, In the late fall bury old plants, grass clippings, and leaves in the garden bed.
Remove the Top 6 inches of soil you currently have, use it somewhere else (not in a pot!)
Add fresh screened Top Soil/Compost mix and fill up the area. You can have yards delivered.
Done
That's what we have done... remove all the clay and rocks, and replace with screened soil/compost.
The rocks continue to come back, but the soil gets better every year with annual amendments.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I don't know if available where you are, but I have found the best soil amendments for vegetables to be by Gardner & Bloome. I used to get it for my Mon's place at the Co-Op in Sequim, WA, but for home at the Grange in Issaquah. Last weekend we saw it at the True Value Hardware in Enumclaw, WA.
Many thanks for the suggestions. I have always had sandy soil so I tried to buy sand at Home Depot but there is none! I don't think I can successfully raise beets in this bark mulch type soil that I bought. The beets need fine, soft soil, not bark and other debris that gets in the way.
Rocks have been removed so that's not the problem. Things like beets and carrots (another fav.) can't be grown here in this soil. I already mixed in some vermiculite and some of my compost. I'm using a container so I can control the soil. Where on earth do you buy SAND? All I saw at Home Depot was huge bags of sandbox sand for kiddies' sandboxes.
Also, how long does it take for all that bark in the Miracle Grow soil to become actual soil? It really bothers me that I thought I was buying regular soil but it turned out to be more like bark mulch. Beets need sandy soil with some lime thrown in. Maybe I should try another place like the one in the last post?
Do you have an ag extension in your area that could do a soil analysis...and then recommend the proper amendments?
It was a big help for us and what to do with our awful clay soil. Some of the recommendations we got were counterintuitive but really really helped (this was for fruit trees, so YMMV for garden veggies).
Having a good, independent garden store is a good resource too, better than the big box stores. The one we shop at has over 20 options for soil and soil amendments and the employees there are very knowledgeable.
..... Where on earth do you buy SAND? All I saw at Home Depot was huge bags of sandbox sand for kiddies' sandboxes.....
That's the type of sand you need. How big is a huge bag?
If it's not available at a garden supply store then go get it from local sand and gravel companies who actually dig it out of the ground and process it. Look up local businesses online and then phone them to ask about the type of fine, screened sand that you want. Likewise look up contractors that produce the types of topsoils and composts you want and phone them. Be prepared to tell them the dimensions of how much you need.
When I lived in Ohio I had clay soil, which is one of the worst soil types to contend with. When I tilled up my garden, I used several bags of peat moss and sand to promote drainage. I also tilled in bales of hay that were decomposing. It helped, but it took several years of working in plant stalks and compost to get the soil to a productive level. If I had to do that again I’d have a couple of truckloads of good topsoil spread over my garden and till that in.
My soil was horrible, still is in most places except where amended - I live on what was once a tobacco plantation and tobacco strips soil of everything, but I digress. As noted above, testing, amendments and the extension agent. Where I live there are a few companies which sell compost and top soil. Think of soil as a living organism and it will take time to build it where it needs to be. My county gives away free mulch, that's also an option - to let it decompose as the soil builds up. If you have trees, mulching the leaves and letting them overwinter on the garden. A good green manure for the winter is something to ask the extension agent about. A green manure planted in the fall will have the soil getting better even in the winter: https://extension.umn.edu/how-manage...nd%20buckwheat. https://www.vbmg.org/blog---cover-crops
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