Which is the best crop to be grown in red soil?

Answer 1

Depends on exactly where you are and the "condition" of the red soil. I'll assume you are in the south: Georgia/FL/Carolinas or VA.
Sometimes, the clay content has broken down enough that it's quite loamy and can grow most anything.
Check it this way. Pick up a handfull of dry soil. Spray it until damp using a plant sprayer. Squeeze it tightly. Open your hand.
1: Type A: If it sticks together like play-dough, it has a very high clay content and anything that requires deep roots wills struggle to survive. In this type of soil, if you don't want/choose to ammend it, you can grow onions, radishes, some of the cabbage family, peas..and some of the green (not turnip or beet, they neet to grow the bulb in the ground for the green, and too much clay, means no bulb) Just watch them carefully because the clay holds onto water. It might appear dry on the surface and you can drown them accidentally. Now....If you want to ammend this type of soil, mix in sand, peat moss, and other composted organic material. I like "Super Fine" soil conditioner along with a good mix of manure and sand (I'm in VA). If it's REALLY clay-ey....you might have to help it break down by adding peletized gypsum with the organics. Then you'll need to check it for nitrogen/acid etc... If you don't feel like doing the actual test kit, sacrifice a tomato plant. If it does well, you are o.k. but.....If the leaves are yellow, it needs nitrogen. If the leaves are o.k., but the blossoms dont ever turn into tomatos, the roots aren't getting deep enough and you need to ammend deeper. If the tomatoes all rot out from the bottom up, you need calcium and potassium (bone meal/pot ash/ground oyster shells or my favotied, composted egg shells and banana peels) for the "blossom end rot" and a healthy helping of mulch for water managment. If they are stunted (short) and produce hard, sour fruits, well......ammend it again, add gypsum, lime, and manure, as well as the "organic" composted material; cause your red clay has had all of its nutrients washed out.
2: Type B: The dampened soil falls apart and sifts through your hands. This is "Sandy" soil.....the clay has been broken down through repeated tilling/farming and not rebuilt through ammendment. It will probably be o.k. for carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips, and other root crops, but you'll need to fertilize it every 30-45 days if you don't want to ammend it. To amend:
Add composted manure, composted humus, and ground oyster shell. Personally I use composted steer manure, but.......chicken manure (when properly "cooked" has higher chemical contents for truly starved soil.
3: The dirt doesn't stick together or sift apart....it "crumbles" gently into small lumps and particles: This is
LOAM". This grows just about anything as long as the chemical composition is o.k. It just means that you don't have to add sand to break it up, gypsum to break it down, or peat moss to aerate it. You still might want to "sacrifice" a tomato if you don't want to purchase a kit. Same results as in item 1.

Part of the reason that Georgia is known for Vadalia Onions is that the red clay in GA is more loamy: which means it is soft enough to permit the onion to form, but clay-ey enough to hold the moisture of the early spring rains in the soil so that the farmer doesn't have to water. Basically....it's not the color of the soil....it's the consistancy and the content....that counts.

Answer 2

Thank you MissPriss-- very clear and very helpful-- glad I looked! The clay in Oklahoma is also "tight" and needs the amendments you stated-- I've used powdered gypsum on turned over clay in the fall and watched the gyp work those clay lumps apart thru the winter rains-- interesting. I've been told clay usually has all the plant needs-- but getting it loose from the tight bond of clay is usually a big part of the problem. And here, the "bathtub" effect is in force-- that is you dig a $100 hole for your shrub/tree/plant -- amend it because you know that's the right thing to do-- and the plant cannot break thru the clay "sides" of the hole you dug-- without help. I've learned to use fireplace ashes in the fall spread around the plant in it's root zone (usually the leaf diameter of the plant) -- in time for the winter rains to soak in-- which then provides the potash the roots need to "break thru" the clay bathtub. I planted 4 volenteer maple trees the same spring-- three grew about equally but one was truly stunted-- and after two years of the ash treatment, it finally was able to push it's roots thru. At least that was the answer I came up with-- I didn't dig it up to find out-- but it did start growing and is doing very well now.
Good luck

Answer 3

i have no idea but maybe this web site will help.

Answer 4

Pot grows pretty nicely.