Rain

[Rocketron]

An interesting point I saw elsewhere.
For those that cover their growing area in late autumn with compost/manure, has the excessive rain washed all the nutrients away or into the soil in situ?

[Veggielot]

I have heard that rain can wash nutrients out of the soil. No idea if it is true although it does sound plausable. I mainly use green manure and cardboard both of which hopefully protect the soil. However even if it does effect the nutients I wouldn't expect it to wash them all out.

[Bigmallly]

I don't think it will make much difference as feed will be applied throughout the season.

[solway cropper]

It might be a problem on very light sandy soils but shouldn't make much difference to most plots. We get plenty of rain in Cumbria and still manage to grow good crops.

[Thelma Sanders]

The nutrients do indeed wash/leach down to the subsoil layer. Some plants are better able to reach them than others, when they are that deep.
I think that most soils will need feeding once the weather lets us start growing
Comfrey is a good natural fertiliser simply because it can reach its roots down to the deep nutrients.

Minerals Are Essential to Soil Health

[snohare]

I have specifically delayed putting manure on my soil because with the amount of rain we've been having, I guessed leaching of nutrients into the subsoil would be much greater. It doesn't matter so much in warmer temperatures when the bacteria and other organisms in the soil are more active at grabbing onto and retaining nutrients, but when it's cold and saturated and they are dormant, particularly in low-humus soils, there is bound to be much greater loss of leachate.
I'll bet my comfrey does massively well next year though !

[Two_Sheds]

has the excessive rain washed all the nutrients away ?

The nutrients are in your topsoil. We put mulches on the topsoil to protect it from washing away ~ once your topsoil's gone, it's gone.


A contributary factor to rivers bursting their banks is all the topsoil (silt) flowing off the fields into rivers, silting them up.

You can see it happens on your allotment site, if like us you started with a tarmac road that is now covered in about 6" of soil (and weeds)

[Feral007]

I noticed some more of our driveway on the road as I returned home this evening. Nice to see some rain, sad to see the topsoil leaving. Mind you, there is a sheet of detritus from further up the mountain now on our paddocks, so not all bad