[pairofacres]

Our village is built over sand and gravel in the Fens and the soil on my plot seems a bit of a mixture of this, setting rock solid as it dries out. When I first visited the site at the end of last year, it worried me that water retention in the soil might be a problem.

Now I've taken on a plot, which is roughly 30 x 15m and slopes by a metre or two at one end. The plot had been ploughed before I got it and it already seems to be very dry. I know we've not had a lot of rain, but presumably this will only get to be more of an issue as the year progresses.

As the plot was clean when I took it on, I've not got anything to compost as yet and haven't got much cash left to spend on bringing a lot of compost in.

Can anyone suggest any way to quickly improve the soil's water retention until I've had time to  start composting on a decent scale? I'm planning on bringing in green waste from home, plus cardboard from work to add to my heap, but as a quick solution, is is possible to buy something like the water retaining granules they sell for houseplants in bulk quantities, or is this futile?

The plot also has a very hard pan about 12 inches below the surface. I'd like to break this up, but presumably this will just make the dry soil issue even worse?? 

[Jamie Butterworth]

You can buy a water reataining gel, I use this in hanging baskests, dont no if it would work on a large scale.

[DavidT]

You can buy a water reataining gel, I use this in hanging baskests, dont no if it would work on a large scale.

I think it would be more expensive than buying compost. Pay a visit to your nearest stables or farm and see if they will let you have some well rotted manure. Nowadays, srables certainly, are glad to see the back of it.

[pairofacres]

In the words of our allotment secretary, there are stables and farms all round the village who'll be happy to give you manure, but you won't find anything rotted - we've taken it all 

[DavidT]

Well take all the non rotted and sell it to the plotholders next year.lol

[pairofacres]

Is a year really long enough to leave it before applying in quantity to the plot? I got the impression from the old boys on the site that a heap really needed leaving for much longer?

[BostonInbred]

dig in a load of vermiculite    ?

[DavidT]

You can get a load of fresh manure, and as long as you keep turning it. You can put it on the plot in the autumn. It needs to be turned once a week though.

[viettaclark]

Have you tried putting a plea on freecycle in your area? Got any friends with chickens or rabbits? At least you could get a compost heap started and poo activates and quickens the process.....grass cuttings, shredded paper, cardboard, kitchen waste.....should be ready for next year.....
If you're growing beans you can put all that stuff straight into trenches to retain moisture....beans don't mind losing the nitrogen used up in the rotting process.
Your soil also sounds perfect for carrots and parsnips!!

[Aunt Sally]

dig in a load of vermiculite    ?

    At £10 - £11 for 100 litres it would cost a fortune

[DavidT]

dig in a load of vermiculite    ?

    At £10 - £11 for 100 litres it would cost a fortune

Also it doesn`t retain moisture, it`s just used to " open up " the soil/compost.

[Aunt Sally]

Exactly so DavidT

[Mark-S]

you have 2 choices

1 - the ancient art of marling (adding clay dig from the sub-soil)
2 - getting hold of some FYM - rotted or otherwise.

Anything that can raise the Organic matter content and thus the humus content will aid moisture retentive properties of your soil.

oh by the way marling didnt actually work overly well.

[Ivor Backache]

Consider newspaper. I have prepared a runner bean trench and initally it was lined with an inch of newspaper. Silmilary with my onion bed.
Plan your plot and concentrate on where you are going to grow. You could start with potato trenches  and line with newspaper and some compost.
I haven't thrown a newspaper away for 8 months. They are used in trenches, compost heaps and bottom of pots to retain moisture.

[Salmo]

If there is a pan it is likely that roots will only go down that far and crops will give up in even a minor drought. Roots will penetrate deeper and find water lower down if the pan is broken up. It is likely that the pan has been formed by tractor wheels and by ploughing at the same depth for generations.It would probably be good to dig a test hole about 2/3 foot deep just to see what soil you do have and to see what is below the pan.

If you are not going to dig the plot again after ploughing then on your light soil you should be able to push a strong fork through the pan and lever it a bit to break it without bringing anything to the surface. In future years break up the bottom of the trench as you dig and incorporate organic matter into the bottom.

It will be worth your while testing to see if you need lime. As well as testing the top six inches I would dig a hole and test below the pan area.