[nafex] Preparing clay soil for raspberries

Responding to the note from Jay Cutts about raspberries in heavy clay soil: I was told a long time ago that adding sand to the clay soil was akin to making concrete or bricks, probably not the way to go. I will go through my process for creating soil in my area of Colorado, which might give you some ideas. Soil was pretty heavy clay. What I needed is lots of organic matter. I rototilled the row to be planted, in my case about 3 ft by 30 ft, planning for two rows of plants. Once that rototilling was done, dug out the loose tilled stuff and set it to the side of the row. Then I rototilled the bottom of the trench. To this, I added lots of peat moss (maybe 4 to 8 cu ft for the row), 1/2 yard or more of prepared compost mix, and some soil sulfur and triple superphosphate according to package directions. Rototilled all of that to mix in at the bottom of the trench. Restored the earlier loose stuff back to the row and rototilled again to mix the top layer into the prepared layer. I think of it as planting in a 3 ft by 30 ft clay flower pot.  

Pete Tallman
Longmont, CO  zone 5 or so
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