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Moisture with deep compost mulch?

rjewing
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 02:54:51 GMT

I've tried direct seeding into a ~2" deep mulch, however I'm noticing that it seems dry out fairly quickly and the soil around & underneath the compost is getting pretty wet if I'm watering often enough for my carrots to germinate. We have a fairly clayey soil that holds water well. What are people doing in order to keep the compost moist enough for germination, but not drowning the other crops nearby?

farmerjesse
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 10:52:38 GMT

This has been an issue for us as well. We’re going to start adding peat moss to the compost beds we intend to sow into to balance the physics (this is a Crickmore approach). I have also found that using less compost helps in these instances. So where I may usually add a thick layer of compost to a bed, I’m simply sowing the bed then applying a thin layer over that as a mulch. Composts can all be so different, and different times of year call for different strategies. Hope that helps!

rjewing
Wed, 04 Sep 2019 12:03:35 GMT

Thanks! After listening to the latest episode they were using the tilther to solve this challenge. Some techniques to play around with :)

Dan Lowe
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 17:34:59 GMT

I've also had better germination when covering my mulch with peat moss