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The previous owner of our home did a lot of gardening and the front bed is
fairly nice, but I let it go for about 8 years. I'm cleaning it up and there is
some free space where I'd like to plant Blueberries. The soil PH is 6.0 so I'll
have to treat it. I dug the hole about 20" across and 18" deep, then it rained
and in the deepest part the water was about 6", the rain stopped by night
and by morning it had only dropped to about 5". Rained again, and I decided
to fill the hole from the hose after it stopped raining with about 12" of water
and again it drains about 1"- 2" per 24 hour period. This seems to me to be
very slow; how fast should it drain to be considered good drainage?
Edit: This site suggests that 1" to 6" per hour of drainage is good: http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/factsheets/misc/soilbasics...
There was about 6" of nice dark top soil and then it seemed like sand, nothing
like hard clay. Looking here, the color is medium brown like what he is holding
in his hand but more sandy rather than smooth:
Edit: Had the wrong link here, this is correct: http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/improving-clay-...
I can form the wet material into a ball, and make a ribbon, but the ribbon breaks
right where I'm holding it when I do not support it. I'm new to this and am guessing
that this is loam, perhaps more on the clay side?
Blueberries need good drainage so at this point my plan is to dig a bit deeper,
and not use any of the material that came out but rather a good quality soil and
peat or whatever else is suggested for Blueberries. I'll add sulfer and pine materials
to lower the PH, perhaps Perlite, and Vermiculite for drainage but I'm just guessing
here. I can't do a raised bed, and I don't compost so I have to use materials that I can
purchase.
Looking for suggestions/ideas as to the best solution and I appreciate any help.
This message was edited Jul 30, 2012 9:54 PM
This message was edited Jul 31, 2012 8:12 AM
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