Clay soil - Make mini well boreholes with drill extensions?

i have some drill bit extensions and i want to drill small deep holes in the clay under where the plants will be, like 1 meter deep. i think that there is water all year round deeper than 50 cm, and 1 meter deep there will be lots of water under the plant to keep them unsupervised all summer, perhaps i can even make use a string to wick water to the soil above. most of all, it will be fun! it's like digging into bluetack down there. its clay.

only challenge is rocks in the clay, if it's too rocky, then it will be tough to get 1 meter deep. i will let you know.

the equipment is 20 dollars on ebay, then you have to angle grind/saw little wide notch marks where the screws go to stop the drill bit ever possibly getting stuck underground. dont get a magnetic extensions

i have forest clay which is full of old roots and it just needs a couple of pints of compost for the plant to get big enough to find lots of root channels, and with a well under the plant it would be great.

This is a dumb idea.... are you in Mexico desert or Az..? even in these places its gonna rain and your plants will float off, never to be seen again, still not as dumb as planting in tree canopies ....lol

vostok said:

This is a dumb idea.... are you in Mexico desert or Az..? even in these places its gonna rain and your plants will float off, never to be seen again, still not as dumb as planting in tree canopies ....lol

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Ya i live in oxford, alabama, you checked out the size of the drill, it's like half an inch, so i drill some holes 1 meter deep and 1/2 an inch wide, it will help with taproots in clay. for 20 dollar it's worth a try! i studied pedology too i should know! you can get some weed in canopies. have a flowerpot in a tree is fine.

i'm the one with the dreads from 12th street i have 14 foot plants in my house lol.

I "think" it's a real screwy idea. How many of these holes do you have to drill? You don't have electricity? I have clay on my property. You want to be prepared if the drill gets stuck. Wet clay sticks "like" hell to everything. If things were that desperate I "think" I'd round up some buddies and rent a post hole digger.

tuone said:

i have some drill bit extensions and i want to drill small deep holes in the clay under where the plants will be, like 1 meter deep. i think that there is water all year round deeper than 50 cm, and 1 meter deep there will be lots of water under the plant to keep them unsupervised all summer, perhaps i can even make use a string to wick water to the s.oil above. most of all, it will be fun! it's like digging into bluetack down there. its clay.

only challenge is rocks in the clay, if it's too rocky, then it will be tough to get 1 meter deep. i will let you know.

the equipment is 20 dollars on ebay, then you have to angle grind/saw little wide notch marks where the screws go to stop the drill bit ever possibly getting stuck underground. dont get a magnetic extensions

i have forest clay which is full of old roots and it just needs a couple of pints of compost for the plant to get big enough to find lots of root channels, and with a well under the plant it would be great.

Click to expand...

I live in an area with clay soil on my property, so this comes from experience, not speculation. For your contraption to even possibly work you have to get past the clay and into the water table. Unless you are digging a well and stopping 1 1/2 feet shy of hitting a shallow well you are not going to wick water up from anywhere. I don't know of to many places that have a clay base and 5-7 feet there is an underground aqua-fur, but I could be wrong. If you plan on storing the water in these wholes after rain, as mentioned it's clay, your plants will float away if you don't do some type of drainage to get the water out of the whole because the roots will root if they sit in a puddle for the days it takes to absorb. With this being said, you can grow great weed in clay soil if amended properly with proper drainage. Good Luck.

nylon rope will wick water, check out wick systems

you may be able to use a pickaxe and dig out a nice size hole for the plant, then drill down to the water table, frey the end of the nylon thats being dropped through, and then on the opposite side, unwind the nylon and string it through the hydroponic medium. I'd try coco coir. As for feed , you could start off with foliar feed, and slowly work your way to top feeding once the plant is budding too heavy

crazy ideas like this are fun but don't usually work IMO. This is why it's good to discuss it and possibly get extra ideas that will make it work; good luck!

also read up on used coffee grounds amending clay soil

Jimmer is correct. Clay soil gave me the blues. However, in long term, I would actually choose clay base over sand base. Clay is filled with a multitude of trace elements not found in regular great soil. You have 2 choices, or do both.... 1st option, for each plant, pull back clay top soil and make a 4 ft. wide circular with 4" tall berm/dam. Fill with water, let set 24 hours. (to soften soil). Use a piece of rebar or fiberglass rod, 3/8th thick, & poke holes, lots of holes. Mix Thrive, whole ground cornmeal, molasses, fish emotion,lq. seaweed, greensand and alfalfa in water and pour into area. This is to start the growth of billions of micobes that will break down the clay so the feeder roots can digest the nutes. On top, fill with good compost & rabbit manure, 50/50 ratio. Add 12 or more red wiggler worms, add same mixture as above, one handfull of epson salt, also. Plant babies when soil is 70 +°. Add same temp water, shake well to infuse oyxgen, and water plant. spray molassex and seaweed from day 15. Next year, the clay will be awesome. hope this helped. 10 gals of compost/manure per plant.

The bottom line is Mj don't like wet feet, sitting in a water proof hole for the next 6 months or so ...in all weathers is asking to much of todays pampered strains, yes use your idea to put up shelter or screen plants is great, but unless you got good drainage, leave the plants in their kiddy pool or pots

Get yourself a battery powered drill and an awesome auger.

it's managed woodlands on clay, they chop giant squares in it that get grow back with 2 meters high scrublands of lush green brambles and trees and in summer it goes arid if there isnt 6 inches of mulch to cover it. Even in giant rainstorms it's never marshland. it's like jungle, it grows heavy there. There are 2 different types of clay, raw clay that you can use for making plates and established forest clay which has been broken down by tannins and tree acids and is abit crumbly, drains well, has some roots and moles and worms in it, plants grow fast in it... it's what i have, the very tough clay is at 2 feet of depth, and that takes a long time to drain. So i go in the scrubs and make small round clearings, and i need to plants to make a root system of about 1-2 litre of compost, and then they are big and strong enough to get roots through into the clay, in the root spaces left by the chopped trees etc. planting next to an old chopped treestump in clay is great for example.

i can't go in with an pick-axe and stuff and it's got stones it it so it makes a bang bang noise, and i m on motorbike so i cant take pitchfork with me, So i'm thinking that with a mini auger made from a wood drill, i can drill downwards in steps, and in 20 minutes i can make a hole a meter deep... even if it's not an actual hole, if i can drill 50 cm and then wind out the drill bit, it means that there is a deep space for the plant to get it's roots in and find any holes available. the other plants grow huge and lucious in that soil, it's abit tough for weed to get it's roots in. It's so arid in the summer that there is masses of rain, it will all have been absorbed by the top layer of forest clay in a day, it can hold 10-20cm of rainfall before being marshy. i'm all for finding ways of using the clay soil that is low maintenance and low preperation time. cos digging a trench with tons of compost in it is more for the clay that you can make plates from, i've got managed copse clay at southern lattitudes. i am a bike and cross country motorbike guerilla, i can't park at the places and have 50 gallons of compost and mulch, i have to manage with 10 gallons, say 2 pints per plant.

I do super automatics, they get 100-200 grams in 120 days, 4-5 feet tall. so i start of 20 of them in one clearing, in small post bags filled with compost, safe from animals:
http://www.fcwholesale.com/images/grey_post_bag.jpg
they can get a stalk about 1/2 inch in there, and then they are strong and can handle the clay... and the idea wait for each plant to be safe from birds and snails in the post bags and put them in forest clay with fertiliser, and to drill holes underneath each one and cover it with mulch as much as possible...