Make a shitload of your own homemade biochar. Don't believe all the hype. Any charcoal from wood works just fine. Grind it up into all different sizes from dust to quarter size nuggets. Cheapest way to inoculate it is with your own urine.
That and lots of compost, like equal amount compost to sand and 20 to 30 percent biochar.
You will end up with a high quality soil they will love.
Hi everyone, I live in an area where our soil quality is very poor, basically just a few steps up from beach sand quality. I'm not sure how to go about this best as a large part of my personal grow will be outdoors this coming season and it's basically my first time trying to do it properly outdoors.
The area I have available is about 6x16 feet that I need to recondition and I'm going to dig it out next Monday, I was thinking 3 feet deep. I've already started in one section and the soil is the same quality the whole way through, very little organic matter and very hydroscopic when dry. The section that I started in I just added in a whole bunch of potting soil about 50/50 ratio but I noticed that when it mixed with the sand it became alot more water retaining and almost clay like. The small plants I managed to get going at the end of the season where starting to get PM even though I wasn't watering them much and this is something I want to avoid going forward.
I don't need it to be a super soil but I need something I can use without causing me more problems in the long run and it's something I can keep working on to improve over time but the growing season is any a few months away and I know I should get started earlier than later on this.
Many thanks for any help, it's much appreciated.
So it's looking a bit worse than I thought it would, the crap top sandy layer is actually the good layer there aren't even any roots further down than this layer and it only goes down about 50cm till you hit the next layer, we used to have a rather large bush here before and the roots just stop as the soil turns into golden sand, looks like just pure sand with no organic material in. I'll do a ph test on it as I'm sure there must be way off with it due to the absence of any roots.
Just reread 40s post and I really appreciate the help man. I think setting down a plastic layer is going to be a must here, need to start getting a move on as we have bad weather for the next two weeks and I don't want all of that to flow back into the hole....
I landed up getting 4 cubic meters of earth brought over, had to wheel barrow it in from the driveway, was not fun but the only way to get a large amount of soil in there quickly.Holy Moses that is shitty soil you are dealing with there!!
But is it a problem that can't be fixed?.... nope on the contrary.
Anybody who previously mentioned organic matter, compost, aged wood chips etc. Is on the money. Compost compost compost then some more compost.
If you have access to water and organic matter you are going to be fine. Are there any forests in your area, oak trees, pine trees?
I landed up getting 4 cubic meters of earth brought over, had to wheel barrow it in from the driveway, was not fun but the only way to get a large amount of soil in there quickly.
man I really like that idea, I'm really impressed with the quality of the soil, had to dig up most of it again today because I'd been trampling on it while work on the structure and the soil even far down was nice and warm so I'm thinking it's got a good amount of activity going on and the worms would just make it better. I need to figure out what companion plants I need to get as they will go into the ground just underneath the ledge.Okay a thick mulch layer is going to be your friend, introduce red wrigglers and night crawlers and you will be laughing mate. The mulching material need not cost you anything only time and effort!
You can do an internet search for ' permaculture building native soils'.