I have a dilemna of which I hope some of you will be willing and able to help
me with. I am farm managing an urban youth farm in San Francisco, a job I've
just begun 3 weeks ago. I've been given the charge of growing a third of an
acre of potatoes and they're on their way. The soil conditions are
abysmal...the field has not been cover cropped in several years, and it has
been kept well-weeded all winter...bare soil...heavy rain...very clayey soil.
And it has also been worked up while saturated, although it's been by hand
(fork, shovel, pick ax, etc). I realize this is not an ideal place or
conditons in which to grow potatoes but that's not negotiable.
As the soil dries down you may imagine the situation...dried cement-like clods
on the surface and wet mucky clay beneath. The good news is that there's a lot
of macroorganisms at work and there's been some compost applied over the years
but the soil and fertility management has been relatively lacking. I've been
working with the teens to loosen the edges of the beds, hesitant to work the
soil too much but needing to let a little air below the surface. I am not
going to get the tilth I want for potatoes this year and maybe not for several
but I'm looking for suggestions as to other ways to deal with my potato
situation now.
My plan is to apply compost heavily, add some gypsum for loosening clayey
soils and lightly fork it in to the top 4" of our beds, make a shallow
planting trench of 4", dribble a bit of soil sulfur for scab (big problem
here), cover with compost, lay drip tape and mulch heavily with straw. Will
this work? Do you have any other suggestions?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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