Nutrient Leaching

[crazy1]

Well I know many of us have had a much more wet season than normal.
Now with all this water coming down upon us, this will be leaching the nutrients out of the soil a bit faster than normal. How are some of you planning to compensate for this? Or have you even though about it?

As usual we're building compost for this, but I think we'll be a bit short on the amount needed to feed the soil after this deluge of water.

[Deleted]

Very Very !
In my case, My soil was pretty much sand with no nutrient value.
I did add grass,leaves, wood ash,and some fish emulsion at the end to soak it all down.
Im hoping that when I till it in the nutrients that are left in the leaves and grass will help.
As a rule after my first tilling I give the garden a good soaking of fish emulsion and let it "rest" for a day or 2.
Then I add compost cross till it.
And plant!

Great topic Crazy1!!

[Pharmer Phil]

Gee Bro, tis a good topic...Guess pretty much what alot of us practice, would be the best a person could do.

Another solid reason to be ORGANIC!

Sandy soil wins out over heavy soils....much easier to condition sandy soil, than it is too dry out yer plants wet feet!

Leaves, compost, green maures, pretty much what most of us practice.
Our Organic matter, will do all the nutrient retention we need.
There are over 90 nutrients we want to be in our soil for healthy plants
we have many depleteing factors:

depletion via cropping in the past
rain / irrigation
soil composition

Healthy plant growth can actually accelerate soil depletion, for instance.... when plants are given nitrogen, they grow faster, taking up even more of the other nutrients that are in the soil!

Decomposition of organic matter forms humus, a stable colloidal material that provides a variety of nutrients to plants. Colloids bind nutrients tightly until they are utilized by plants.
the more organic matter and humus in the soil, the less leaching of water and nutrients there is. In a good organic enviroment, most nutrients can be taken up by plants and become new biomass.

However, this "binding" also represents the need for proper Ph.
Make the best use, of what nutrients you have available, B4 they leach down thru your soil!

Nutrients leach out of soils with a pH below 5.0 much more rapidly than from soils with levels between 5.0 and 7.5.
Nutrients are most available to plants in the pH range 5.5 to 6.5.
The structure of the soil, especially of clay, is affected by pH.
If your Clay soil Ph level is 5.5 to 7.0) it becomes granular and easily worked
if the soil pH is either extremely acid or extremely alkaline, clays tend to become sticky and hard to cultivate.
PH is not an indication of fertility, but it does affect the availability of nutrients.

The long and short of it, Pile on da Organic Goodies

[crazy1]

OK, but what I'm saying is we can't gather and save the tea comming from the piles or the compost on the ground. X and I are in the same situation right now...............SAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now won't the nutrients leach out of our compost in a well drained soil?
Whats there to hold it in?

[Pharmer Phil]

crazy1 said:

OK, but what I'm saying is we can't gather and save the tea comming from the piles or the compost on the ground. X and I are in the same situation right now...............SAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now won't the nutrients leach out of our compost in a well drained soil?
Whats there to hold it in?

Of course the nutrients will leach out, but it will leach out of any soil.
You know how ecsessive rains effect heavy soil, much better to have a balance of soil that has good movement of water, than soil that drains poorly.

Organic matter will hold it in, compost will improve the quality of almost any soil, for this reason it is most often considered a soil conditioner. it improves the structure and texture of the soil enabling it to better retain nutrients, moisture, and air for your plants root system.
Your soils structure refers to how particles sand, silt, and clay combine with decayed organic particles compost and humus
Soil with good structure has a crumbly texture, drains well, retains some moisture, and is easy to turn over.

soil amended with compost shows that it is made up of many round, irregular aggregates. Aggregates are groups of particles loosely bound together by worm waste and compost bacteria giving it this crumbly appearance. If you lightly crush one of these aggregates, it breaks down into smaller aggregates. Crumbly soil allows air to penetrate and holds moisture well but allows excess water to drain away. Tender young roots also have an easier time penetrating into the soil.
A well-structured soil with lots of small aggregates stays loose and is easy to cultivate. Compost helps improve all soil types, especially sandy and heavy clay soils.

A garden with sandy soil has very little water and nutrient retention. Sandy soil feels loose and has coarse particles that won’t hold their shape when squeezed in your hand. Water and nutrients pass through quickly since there is nothing to hold them there.

In loose, sandy soil compost helps to bind these particles together and increase the soil’s ability to retain moisture and nutrients. In other words, there is now something to hold onto. Plant roots penetrate easily, finding moisture where there was none before

On the other side of the spectrum, Clay soils are heavy and dense. The soil particles are small and tightly bound together. When wet, clay is sticky and easily holds together when squeezed in your hand.

When compost is mixed with clay soils, it binds to the clay particles forming larger particles that now have larger air spaces between them. These spaces allow better surface water drainage and air penetration

I have gardened in both types of soil, and both types, with proper ammendments, will produce wonderful gardens, but IMO sandy soil, properly ammended, is superior to clay.

[strongtower9]

I have georgia RED clay.. I am always adding something, it is too sticky or very hard otherwise. Pro and cons to both I guess.

[jack]

Gidday

Very well said Phil. As long as you can build up plenty of humus you won't have much of a problem.

Do your bit by building up the carbon cycle in your soil and then that extra carbon you have in your garden not only holds the nutrients in the soil but gets the carbon outa the air as well.

But you don't need to dig your compost down deep, as the soil life, like worms and micro biology will do that a hellava lot better than you. The grass clipping and any other green material are better on the or just under surface. They take nitrogen outa the soil to decompose then replace it later with heaps more, but if they are only on the surface they are only in contact with a very thin layer so very little nitrogen is taken out the soil.

The other very good reason to keep the surface of the soil covered with vegetable matter is that is will protect the soil from the falling rain so the rain drops won't disolve the soil particles and your leaching will be very much reduced.

[Deleted]

All my ammendments are on "top" of the soil right now.
They dont get tilled in until spring.So I guess Im somewhat protecting my soil.
But in Crazys case he is starting new gardens, so what can be done to prevent nutrient loss from this deluge of rain we're getting?

[jack]

Gidday

Cover the soil with organic matter. That is the most important thing to do.

[strongtower9]

Is it too big to cover with sheets of plastic? I mean so maybe the rain would run off? Or are you talking about a field? Can you cover the piles of compost with plastic? Or somekind of tarp? Maybe it would minimize leaching the whole pile....

[Deleted]

Ya a cover on yer compost is a good idea.Keeps rain out heat in,compost has to have some moisture,but were talkin 6+inches in a 3 week period.
As far as the garden plots well.......Crazy would hafta answer that.

[crazy1]

Well I guess we could cover it but like X said, the amount of rain has been outrageous. Our garden area is on the slight slop taking water away from the house. I think it would just go right under it. But that is a good idea.

[jack]

Gidday

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, cover the soil with organic matter. You say it is on a slope, then that makes it even more important. Not only will the rain stirr the soil and disolve the nutrients when it lands, but running off the slope will excellerate the rate that things get moved off. If you see any movement of silt, then you will get the idea as the amount of loss will be thousand time more than you see, cos you caint see what is disolved and silt is just what's too heavey to move too far.

[strongtower9]

Thats true Jack, but a quick fix would be to put down plastic. Even tho some water would get under it, it would shed lots of the water further away. specially if you lapped it like a roof.

[douglas]

I would just use plain ol straw to stop all that, werked wonders around my home when it was built and we had sandy soil around our place

[crazy1]

thanks Bro, I use straw anyway, but now that I've got a chipper/shredder I know it'll decompose much quicker.

[Compost Pharmer]

What kind of chipper / shredder you get? Mine is a Troy Bilt, that I bought in 1988.

[crazy1]

That's what I got, a Troy Built. Just a good company there, I also have a 1977 Rear Tine Tiller.

[Compost Pharmer]

My Troy Bilt Chipper Shredder in December 1988.