Clay Soil Amendments

[Dartolution]

11 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Keep us apprised if the Sabal remains alive after two years!

@Phoenikakias why 2 years?

 

For anyone interested:

I ended up digging down about 3 feet, thats as far as I could go. 

I then added a 6 inch layer of crushed granite, a 6 inch layer of perlite, and continued to drill holes in the sides and bottom of an already big hole using a garden auger drill attachment. 

I shoved as much organic matter and perlite into the holes as I could using a mixture of mulch, ground pine fines, coffee grounds, and potting mix. 

The rest of the hole was filled with a mixture of fox farm ocean forest, ground pine fines,  Jungle growth soil, gypsum, coffee grounds, compost, sand, pumice, gravel etc... and mixed in the hole with the garden auger. 

I plan to continue to drill 16-18inch holes around the sabal with the garden auger, shoving organic matter into them as time goes by. 

 

So far the blackburniana seems to be doing well. Its since pushed out 2 leaves, and working on its third leaf now. 

I have it planted about 4 inches ABOVE the hole, mounded, with Cyprus mulch and sand on top. 

 

Only time will tell. 

[Tyrone]

I remember reading a book called Palms of the World back when I was just getting started into palms. The motto for planting was a 5$ hole for a 1$ plant. Whenever I plant a palm I follow that motto and think that at planting is the best time to get that nutrition down deep. Plant enough palms and in time you’d have dug and enriched your entire yard.

[Dartolution]

@Tyrone Last year I basically did. 

When I purchased the property, the original owners had a very "town-n-country" landscaping vibe going on with way too many box hedges, rose bushes, and all those nasty pesky type plants LOL. 

I LITERALLY removed every plant from my entire front and back yard by hand over the course of several months, and flattened the backyard out (leveled it) by hand.

Then landscaped it and brought in more soil types than I care to go into for the purposes of this thread. 

After a year I can see a huge difference in soil quality. 

Not to mention the earthworms have just about taken over at this point. 

Im not stopping them. haha 

[DoomsDave]

15 hours ago, Dartolution said:

@Tyrone Last year I basically did. 

When I purchased the property, the original owners had a very "town-n-country" landscaping vibe going on with way too many box hedges, rose bushes, and all those nasty pesky type plants LOL. 

I LITERALLY removed every plant from my entire front and back yard by hand over the course of several months, and flattened the backyard out (leveled it) by hand.

Then landscaped it and brought in more soil types than I care to go into for the purposes of this thread. 

After a year I can see a huge difference in soil quality. 

Not to mention the earthworms have just about taken over at this point. 

Im not stopping them. haha 

Sounds like you did a lot of what I suggested already.

One key thing that makes your climate different palm wise is the colder winters. Extra drainage will give most cold-hardy types an edge. The big exception appears to be the needle palm.

How about a picture of your place?