Quote:
Originally Posted by Want Them All
You're correct, I mistyped. I meant once a week. I just watered all my plants 2 days ago, then placed some compost/mulch on top. I'll wait a week and keep checking soil moisture level. I have a gauge with 2 prongs (frome Home Depot) that I use. I inserted the prongs as deep down as I can, usually can get to 7"-9", if it's on the dry side I water. My soil is rocky clay. I've noticed that since I've moved into this house 3 years ago, many of the soils around my plants have gotten softer. Probably due to watering, mulching, and soils breaking up naturally. At first, it was real difficult digging the planting holes.
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This is the benefit of mulching. Complex carbon acids are leached out with watering and percolate downward. They interact with the clay and slowly cause it to disassociate. The process can be speed up by applying humic and/or fulvic acid before mulching. These are simply concentrate forms of carbon acid complexes.
The common retail moisture meters can give you false readings in clay or partially clay soils. Basically, the clay will cause a reading of "wet" until the clay is completely dry. Otherwise, the meters work well in commercial potting soils.