I have mentioned the "clay pot effect" a few times on my blog. This is when you dig into clay soil an create a slick edge with the shovel that impaires the roots from growing. Once the slick edge hardens, the roots are unable to penetrate it. This will force the roots to turn back into themselves and the plant becomes rootbound. Either the roots eventually penetrate the hard edge in two to three years or the plant dies. It also hinders drainage around the plant and it can drown after heavy rains.
Today we went out to the orchard to dig holes for trees coming in this winter. We used a Bobcat with an 18 inch auger bit to drill out the holes. You easily get a large hole about 2-3 feet deep but it creates a very hard slick edge in the clay. To fix this problem, I use a fork to penetrate the slick surface and pop the soil out. You can use this same method when planting with a shovel in the backyard. Dig it out with a shovel first and then use a fork to pop the edges.
Wife in the Bobcat. She handles it like a pro.
Here is the hole with very slick hard edges. Digging with a shovel can create this same problem to a less extent. The shade is making it hard to really see how bad it really is.
Buy a really good fork for this job. None of the cheapo forks will last long if you have a lot of holes to pop.
The end result is a hole with rough edges that allow roots to more easily penetrate into the outside soil. I only worked the top 18 inches of the hole and the bottom. Most of the roots will grow laterally in the top 14 inches of clay and slowly work down since the aeration of clay is so poor. In addition, there will also be a larger taproot that goes straight down on many of my fruit trees. It provides water to the tree in times of drought.
Your soil looks exactly the same as ours! I always make the holes "rough" on the sides, too; and thanks to our four horses we have huge amounts of manure which we compost with the help of thousands of Tennesse wigglers. We always mix some of this sandy compost with the clay soil in the holes and it´s perfect! But right now the soil is stone frozen, we had such a hard winter so far, so our small apple trees are waiting in the shed to be planted next spring ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your planting project - which trees are you planting?
Bye Kirsten
We will be getting 4 kinds of Asian Persimmon, 3 kinds of Asian Pear, lots of figs, the new Angel Red Pomegranates, Burgundy Plums, 3n1 Apple trees, Feijoa and Sugar Cane Jujube.
ReplyDeleteOops!
ReplyDeleteWe will also be planting Che fruit trees.
I have Indiana clay and ph 7.3, so I worked in some mulch when putting the clay back on top of the Norris Che melon tree. How is your Che doing and what is your zone or GDD?
DeleteI have a high ph soil as well. I started planting on berms as this eliminates most of the issues with clay. The Che trees are about 9x8 now. They fruit every year but drop the fruit during the summer. I do not have a male. The female is supposed to hold fruit without a male as they get older but I am probably going to buy one and graft a single branch. I am zone 8b.
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