Hydrophobic Soil And How To Correct It

[@VictoriaPL]

I have watched a handful of videos about hydrophobic soil - yours is the BEST because you actually showed the soil, the down insides of the pot, pouring out the dusty soil after TWO watering, etc. And then showing the difference after fixing it. Well done!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Thank you so much! ☺️ Your so kind. I don't know why people can't be thorough in there videos. That's what I try to do, every time I record.

[@hansejr]

I’ve done so much research on this subject. Oh my gosh, yours is absolutely the best explanation and solutions. Thank you.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Oh wow. Thank you. Glad you found it helpful.

[@NewsThatMatterUsa]

Wow that’s something …. Never actually realized what was happening thank you . This is very interesting.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Thank you!

[@theprofessoruzair]

your channel should have million views

[@380stroker]

Wetting agent = Surfactant = baby shampoo or dawn dishsoap. It breaks the surface tension of the water. Kinda like when you add a drop of dish soap to greasy water. We lawn guys have the same problems with our yards. Soil amendments are good. Wetting agents are good. Farmers till the ground.

[@yusufalbalooshi2723]

Thank you for excellent information

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Your welcome

[@SunandSnowGardening]

Thanks for the helpful demo! I find that peat moss and some compost can be very hydrophobic.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

It's very true. Often I get a bag of soil from the stores like this. It's real annoying lol

[@MythBeHavenFarms]

I love this video, I knew nothing about dirt and was wondering where i could be going wrong and now I understand! Im also wondering I cant understand what youre saying on one ingredient... calfaust?? Cow floss?? Its the first white rocky stuff you put in the bin the make the soil less hydrophobic. Thanks!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

@@MythBeHavenFarms thank you. Sorry, lol I was saying cal-phos. So it's soft rock phosphate. Calcium phosphate fertilizer. It should be added with compost for best results.

[@shivanisangal5521]

Beautiful content

[@PloughmansBackyard]

@@shivanisangal5521 thanks

[@tsuobachi]

Great video. I've got one thing to add: adding something with natural saponins to your water will work wonders for the first watering of hydrophobic soil by lowering surface tension of water. Aloe vera is the most easy to obtain choice (fresh in a blender, about 1 oz per gallon of water) or powdered (about 1 tsp per gallon, depending on the product). Yucca liquid extract is also a good source of saponins although a bit harder to find than aloe. Quillaja saponaria is even better and will make your water melt into even the most stubborn hydrophobic soil, although this one is harder to find locally and you'll probably have to order it online. Quillaja is the water god of gardening though, once you try it you'll want to keep a bag of it around all the time. In all cases make sure to get products designed for horticultural use.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Thank and for the tip!! I'm not familiar with those, except the aloe. I will definitely try that too. It can be a real headache to work with. Thanks ☺️

[@tsuobachi]

@@PloughmansBackyard Yeah, we're all here to share our knowledge and experience. If you're only going to get one saponin product, I highly recommend quillaja. It's expensive, but a little bit will make water absorb into anything.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Awesome! thanks so much @tsubachi

[@DJDrake13]

Thank you!!! My plants thank you even more!!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Your welcome

[@JulesGardening]

Fascinating share. Thanks for sharing with the guru group Very informative! 👍

[@JulesGardening]

fantastic video, shared to my community page

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Thanks Jules! Glad you enjoyed it 🥰

[@bryansloesshillshomestead4523]

I haven't used a lot of potting soil. But I have seen soil dry like that.

[@RemsFamily]

same

[@HildeAzul]

This is very helpful! Thank you so very much (total Newb here!)

[@tarythealbrecht8513]

Thank you for this video! My son and I made compost last summer with leaves and grass clippings. My husband contributed the fresh cut grass to my leaf pile, and the 10yo and I faithfully turned it every day or two for a couple months, then let it mostly sit in the fall with occasional turnings. By winter it was beautiful soft dirt! BUT here's my problem now. In the winter I put the compost soil in plastic tubs in the garage to wait until I could use it in the garden in the spring, and now it is definitely hydrophobic (I learned after some research about why it was behaving the way it was). There are tons of little white things on the top of by plastic tubs - I assume dead worms? Should I have not tried to store the compost over the winter? Did I kill it and has it just turned into plain dirt at this point with no good nutrients? Help, I went wrong somewhere!!!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

That's a good question. Honestly I can't say I've ever stored compost in a tub or bin over winter. Is it possible that the white could be fungi? Sometimes compost and even regular soil will get fungi (looks white, kinda like cobwebbing or worms) and it just means the compost or soil is really healthy. Keeping the compost in a spot where it get free flow is air is important. It can be kept outside but if it's going to rain a lot or during winter you can place a tarp or something over it to keep it intact but it should have air flow. Keeping the compost a bit moist or some humidity is important too to keep it from turning hydrophobic. I'm sorry you going through this. Gardening seems to be something we continue to learn continuously, unfortunately. But don't give up. You made COMPOST! That is awesome in itself. Now just learning by trial and error how to store it. Winter makes it difficult. I know. I don't like to buy soil either but I've never have fresh soil on hand because it does go hydroponic by early spring when I need it. We just last week got rid of our snow here 🫤

[@toomanydonuts]

Thankyou nice I like watching.

[@VoonChile]

Great information and demonstration. We'll done!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Thank you so much friend 🥰

[@theprofessoruzair]

Thankyou so much for this information!! Many prayers for you

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Thank you and God bless!

[@rumpstatefiasco]

Great video! I wonder if I could cut open one of those gelled cellulose (non-toxic) eco-gel ice packs ( the ones that they include when perishable chilled products are being shipped) and work that gel into the soil? I once received bare root trees that had a similar-looking gel all over their roots.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Honestly I don't know. I've never heard of anyone doing that. Sorry I'm not more help with that.

[@amypayne3856]

This was so helpful. I have raised beds with vegetables growing in them. I just recently noticed they’re drying out regardless of how much I water and today sacrificed an area in each bed and dug down. I realized the soil is hydrophobic. How would I go about fixing/amending the soil in beds that have plants in them?! The plants were thriving until a couple of days ago. Can I fix this without my entire crop going to waste?!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Glad it was helpful! As for the plants, I honestly don't know. Usually I notice before getting my plants in the soil but maybe try getting a wetting agent from your local hardware store? It would be the least intrusive. If that doesn't work perhaps are you able to transplant them until you can amend the soil? Unfortunately, the plants will die if you don't do something so either way I would try your best to amend if the wetting agent doesn't work. Working with hydrophobic soil is no easy job and I feel for you I really do, it sucks! So sorry. Let me know how it turns out.

[@saulhernandez5525]

thank u!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

@@saulhernandez5525 your welcome

[@bass-13r]

Thank you so much

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Your welcome

[@vincentduran7856]

Very helpful

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Thank you!

[@edcglassworks5771]

Thank you so much for this video 🙏

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Your welcome

[@adeemzafar]

Does this apply to indoor potting mixes as well?

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Yes you can use it for indoor also.

[@stephenlucas6038]

OMG love this. So, I live in Portland, OR, and have just realized all of the soil on our property is hydrophobic. I just planted our entire front yard (a berm of sorts) with lots of small Hebes, conifers, mountain flowers, succulents, and generally drought-tolerant specimens. How would I go about fixing that much soil? Feel like a massive job. Thanks!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Hi, sorry to hear. What I would start off doing is adding as much organic matter to your soil as you can. Like leaves/leaf mold, wood chips or mulch, compost, and add everything yet just to build up a softer/wetter consistency. If you were on able to farm I'd recommend some sort of livestock. A large area can quickly become very fertile if either chickens, cattle, or pigs were brought in.

[@jamsauce8012]

Such a helpful video! I’m in Denver, CO, with two raised beds (4x8x1 and 4x8x2) of hydrophobic soil. Any suggestions what and how much to start with as far as amendments? Would it be more practical to dispose of some of the existing soil and replace with something better? Will all our snow this year be of any benefit? Thanks again!

[@PloughmansBackyard]

@@jamsauce8012 I am so sorry I didn't see this until now. How did you make out? I would definitely remove some and replace with good soil. Really I couldn't tell you how much amendments to add, it will really be trial and error on your end just keep adding until you have a good consistency and receives water well. The snow would not help that at all. Sometimes this happens when too much time has gone by with no water or too much heat, which can kill/fry the micro-organisms.

[@Sapereaudex]

Those all need different conditions to survive anyway.. as I’m sure you’ve realized in the last year. There’s a reason you don’t see succulents (sun and drought loving plants) with plants that need tons of water and shade. The only succulents that will survive in-ground, in your zone, are sedum and stonecrop varieties that overwinter. The amount of rain you get is almost guaranteed to cause them to rot regardless. There’s tons of information about the care required for the plants you’re interested in, and KZbin is not the place to find it.

[@stephenlucas6038]

@@Sapereaudex Actually, I have many varieties of succulents that overwinter just fine (we had a week of 16° F ice storms), and they also do really well on the sunlit fringes of a garden that needs a bit more water than they do. My garden is a fairly dense planting of dwarf and semi-dwarf conifers, japanese maples, heathers, a dwarf ginkgo, native mazanitas, hebes, and many succulents, and all of it is doing very well. The addition of organic matter, the plants becoming established, and likely a bunch of newly-formed mycorrhizae have all helped. KZbin is a great resource, that' a pretty blanket statement!

[@ineshianewton7740]

Hello what kind of wetting agent can I use to the dry soil?

[@PloughmansBackyard]

A liquid wetting agent would be best, make sure to add some amendments for nutrients as well. Maybe some Vermiculite and fish emulsion . It might take some time to bring it back depending how bad your soil is.

[@ineshianewton7740]

@PloughmansBackyard ok thank you

[@kashyap2565]

Hi need a suggestion..... An year back we have repotted our plants in a pot(good and big enough) with good soil but the gardener was reckless and took lot of days to repot and not correctly watering and repotting making soil degrade a little so the plants took a while to recover and the flowering has gone down... To combat this we have added lots of compost and used other methods too but not much difference.... The soil contracts when it gets dry and the soil contracts in such a way that soil forms a bowl contracting from the pot edge to the centre of the plant leaving lots of space which when watered, the water drains out in a flash..... Please suggest what to do to recover from this and improve plant health and flowering.. thank you!

[@ceceliabeck8967]

So this is happening in my raised garden bed. How can I fix this

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Oh man, that's rough. It's so hard to deal with. I would use similar methods as I did in this video by adding compost, worm castings, peat moss, vermiculite, Epsom salts and other amendments, but on a larger scale. Also, adding things like wood chips, dead leaves mixing it all up and adding some worms to your garden can help over time. It may take a while, hydrophobic soil can be so hard to work with. Best of luck.

[@theprofessoruzair]

Support from Pakistan

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Awesome, Welcome!

[@TheBibleNerd334]

I got a bag of garden mix to use for my grow bag garden and started my seeds in a tray with it. They sprouted just fine but the soil won’t hold any water and they all died today. The soil is mostly wood chips but I noticed a little sandy grit on the bottom of the tray. Would mixing in coco coir or vermiculite help with water retention? I’m worried it’s going to kill my mint plant which is the last one I have left.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

It wouldn't hurt, but in my experience hydrophobic soil is soo hard to bring back to life, and when it does, it does so over time. I would try adding the coco coir and vermiculite and some compost if you have any. Getting a wetting agent will help too.

[@TheBibleNerd334]

@@PloughmansBackyard Thanks. I realized I actually grabbed the wrong dirt by accident, so I’m going to switch it out and start from scratch.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Ok, best of luck. I hope it works out for you.

[@TheBibleNerd334]

@@PloughmansBackyard So far it is. Five days and a hunch of my plants have sprouted already

[@aXoGobbler]

Does this apply for house plants?

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Oh absolutely!

[@Sapereaudex]

Or you can bottom water the pot and allow it to sit and soak up water. It takes almost no effort to do that and will cure potted plants that are hydrophobic within hours and at no cost.

[@theloosemoose8200]

Toss in a cap full of Yuka extract and then water, problem solved

[@monarreztony]

I usually just add it to my compost pile.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

Good idea!

[@ellietirk939]

So hPpy I found this! Did you say cow floss?

[@PloughmansBackyard]

😂 It probably sounded like cow floss but I assure you it isn't. lol I use Cal Phos, aka Calcium Phosphate. I use it as a fertilizer in my garden. G

[@aldoi95hot]

I’ve killed so many plants because of this and I never knew this was an issue. I thought I was watering my plants

[@PloughmansBackyard]

I know, it's deceiving because the water just flows right through.

[@johanolwage213]

Hmmm, than you, but I have whole 900m square property of hydrophobic sand. Will need a cheap method to treat such a large area.

[@PloughmansBackyard]

I've never really had to work with sand. That's tough. I hope you are able to find a solution. Normally what I would do for large areas of soil/dirt that is like that is add lots of organic matter such as leaves, wood chips or mulch and just keep adding yearly.

[@D71219ONE]

Sand is difficult. If you plan to grow in it, grow things that do well in sand. If you want to grow things that don’t do well in sand, build some raised beds that you can add soil to. In my experience, adding things to sand usually is just a waste, as the rain washes it down further and further while the sand remains.

[@marianlawrie8614]

Your whispering ...😊

[@Holypikemanz]

I learned "I'm wrong" so wrong. And we are "giving life back" (zombie?) to the soil