5 SECRET Ways To Turn Clay & Hard Soil Into a Soft & Loose Soil Mix!

Clay Soil is Simply The Total Opposite of What all Plants Like To Grow In. So In This Guide, We Will See How You Turn Your Clay Soil Into a Soft Soil Media at Home, How Would You Know If Your Soil is Clayish or Not, & Much More, So Lets Start.

How To Know if Your Soil Is Clay?

First of all You Have To Know If Your Soil Media Is Clayish Or Not, If Its Not Then No Need To do Anything. But if It Is you have To Make a Few Adjustments Otherwise Your All Plants Won’t Grow Well.

Clay Soil Is a type of Soil That Gets Compact & Hard Very Quickly. Within a Few Waterings, Your Soil Will Be Fully Tight & Hard, You can See The Soil Surface To Get an Idea. Or Just Dip Your Finger In The Soil.

If It’s taking Too Much Effort. Its Clayish. If Its Easily Inserting, Then Your Soil is All Ok. Its Not Like Your Soil Is either Clayish Or Not. It could Be Slightly Clayish Or Moderately Clayish too. So If The Soil is Hard, Its Clayish Too.

Why Clay Soil isn’t Good For Plants?

Clay Soil Is not Good For Plants at all, It Gets Compact & Tight Within a Few Weeks. After That Roots have To Force Very much To Grow, If The Soil is Soft Roots Can Easily Penetrate & Grow Further.

But Not in Clay Soil, The stunted Growth of Roots, Also Puts alot of Stress On Our Plants, They Turns Their Leaves Yellow, Sometimes Plants Die too. The Drainage Of Our Soil Also Works Very Slowly, Hence The Chance of Water Logging Also Rises, Root Rot Stem rot, Dieback Disease All Can Happen Due To This.

The Arreation System Means The Exchange of Gases Also reduces Alot, The Nutrients Uptake of the Plant also Reduces, Clay & Hard Soil Pack The Nutrients Very Tightly, causing Them Not To Move Well. So overall Clay Soil is a Total Opposite of an Ideal Soil media, & You Should Fix It Soon.

What Makes The Soil Hard & Compact Overtime?

Lets Know A little Bit About Clay Soil, Why It became So Tight. So Clay Soil Have Tiny Particles, fully Powdery Texture. & This is The Reason, When We Water They connect With Each Other, & Became Hard Once The Soil Dries Out.

Clay Soil have No Organic Matter That can Attract The Microbes & Insects, Why They are Important, because The Microbes Eat The Organic Matter & Keeps Making Holes In The Soil, These Holes plays a Big Role In Keeping The Soil Loose & Porous.

& absense of Organic Matter causes The Soil To became hard & Clayish. Constantly Drying & Watering of Soil also Makes The Soil Compact & Compact, The Powdery Particles Keeps on Connecting & Hence Making an Even Harder Soil. So make a Solution.

How To Soften The Clay & Hard Soil At Home?

So Its all About The problem, Now Lets talk About The Solution.

By Using CocoPeat:

The First & The Most Simplest Way To Turn Clay Soil Into A Soft Media, is Using Cocopeat. Its a Fibrous Non Expring Material Made From Coconut Shell. Its very Very Porous, Loose & Soft.

Its addition In The Soil Keeps The Soil Loose Too. You can Just Add a Part of Cocopeat in a part of Complete Clay Soil, Is Its Not Fully Clayish, & Just a Little Bit, Then You can Use lesser. Buy Cocopeat from Here.

By Using Sand:

Another Way To Soften Our Hard & Compact Soil Media is By Using Sand In it. Sand Is a Natural Soil Softener, as The Clay Soil’s Nature is To Get Compact, The Nature of Sand Is Never To get Compact.

Mixing These In Equal Amounts Make a Perfect Soil Media. If Your Soil is A Little Bit hard & Compact Then You can Use Lesser Sand In it, Mix It Really Well & Now Its Won’t Get Compact.

By Using Compost:

One Way To Loosen Up The Soil Is By using Some Compost. Organic & Homemade Compost Contains All Kind Of Microbes In it, & They Will Make The Soil Media Fully Porous & soft, But This Method Will Take time, & Its Perfect For a Potted Plant, Just keeps On Adding Compost in Its Upper Soil Layer.

& With Time whole Soil Media Will be Soft & Porous. Guide On Making Compost From Vegetable Peels Is Added Here. Around a handful for a 10″ Pot Once or Twice a Month is Enough.

By Using Gypsum:

Another Way to Turn The Clay Soil into a Soft Soil mix, Is By Gypsum. Its a Naturally occuring Powdery material, used Just To Soften The Soil. Only a Small amount is Required, Keep using & Your Soil Will Get Softer & Softer. You can Learn Indepth About Gypsum From Here.

By Tilling The Soil:

One simple Way To Turn Clay & Hard Soil into a Soft Mixture Is By Digging. As You Loosen up The Soil, alot Of Pocket are Created That Lets The Air Pass, Water pass & Root To Grow. But Its a Temperary Fix, You have To Keep Tilling The Soil Every Once In a While. The best Solution Is The Use of Sand, Cocopeat & Compost.

So Its All About Clay Soil, Here is a list On Different Soil Softeners & Enhancers, Feel Free To Read & if You Like To make An All In One Potting mix at Home, Here is a Guide For You.