Dealing with Clay Soil in a Tropical Garden

We love to receive feedback on our products and to hear how they are helping your plants to grow! We are always happy to answer your questions and discuss any soil or gardening issues you might have. Recently, we got a nice message from someone asking about how to solve clay soil in tropical plant gardens.

“My mother has been using all 4 of your products and her yard is much greener and healthier.  My yard is all palm and tropical plants.  I only use tropical fertilizer in my yard but I am thinking of starting to use the first 3 products you offer because I have very bad clay soil.  I live in San Clemente California.  Even though we added a lot of good soil when all the planting was done 11 years ago, it is still bad clay soil.  Please advise me on the use of your products for a tropical garden.”   Tropical plants like lively, healthy soil just like all other plants, so my recommendation is very similar to most garden types. The synthetic fertilizers on the market for tropical plants will not improve soil; in fact they will make it harder and less permeable. Over time, they add salt to the soil without helping to build the microbes that break apart clay soil. The two key ingredients to solving clay soil are: 1) Organic matter and 2) Microbes. John and Bob’s products have lots of both!   If you want to limit application of our products in your garden to three, I recommend OPTIMIZE, MAXIMIZE and NOURISH-Biosol. These are all dry and they can be mixed together and applied all at once. Apply every 6 months and your plants will improve along with the soil. You won't need to apply any other fertilizers or amendments and everything about your soil will gradually undergo a fundamental change. Your improved and lively soil will nourish and protect your tropical plants better than anything else around.  However, in order to boost the rate at which your clay soil breaks apart, I highly recommend adding PENETRATE Biotiller to the soil as well. It is a liquid mixture of beneficial bacteria and other ingredients that work fairly quickly (within one season) to break apart clay soil and work to loosen clumps and increase aeration and water flow. You can learn more about PENETRATE here. Thank you for your interest!   John   If you have a question, comment or feedback for John and Bob, you can write to us on Facebook or contact us here.