Marl soil

morphy87

Would anyone be able to tell me anything about marl soil? What does it look like, what’s its characteristics, is marl soil prune to rushes? Would it be wet and if you reseeded it and fertilised it correctly would it grow a good crop of grass yearly?

patsy_mccabe

Don't know if this is Marl, but I have heard different people working in the area refer to it as Marl.

It's land we have just beside the river Shannon. It's a dark blue mud. It's high in carbon and smells like rotting vegetation. The topsoil in the area is like normal topsoil. We try to keep the topsoil on top when levelling in hollow etc.

Soil_Type_Blue_Mud.jpg

Top_Soil.jpg

CreadanLady

Often yellow or grey beneath the surface.

Very sticky, heavy mud. It would stick to your boots like glue. When wet it would have a greasy texture. When dry it would be crumbly and would turn to dust.

You could take a lump of it and roll it up in your hand into a ball as if it was pottery clay.

Very poorly draining soil. Very poor fertility, unless aggressively limed, drained and fertilised, and add organic matter

morphy87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122444569#Comment_122444569

No the piece of ground that I saw hasn’t that grey running through it but it would have little hard lumps like your second picture,

morphy87

So I presume if a field had marl rushes would be present in the field?

I also presume that you wouldn’t cut silage off a field with marl top soil?

limo_100

Have seem some white subsoil aswel seems very sticky also seems to be very prevalent in old bog fields

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122444569#Comment_122444569

Just Blue mud… means there is almost no soaking through that ground and you will need to put in drainage to improvel it..

Grey mud is fine for building on if it goes deep and the right foundation is used. White Marl on the other hand is just soft goo! it's like a sealant with no structural strength. I recall my father talking to someone about who had built a shed and they went through the blue mud and an old timer told them they had gone too far.

If you go through the grey/blue mud, and meet rock that's fine.. if you meet white marl.. then that's a different ball game.

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122447781#Comment_122447781

The drainage is fine on the blue mud. You just have to keep the perimeter open drains deep enough. We cut silage and hay on this land. It's fine fertile land. It is slow to grow grass in the spring, but it actually holds up better in wet weather than our upland. That blue mud goes rock hard in the summer. If you kicked a lump of it, it's like kicking a stone.

As for a foundation, I know of neighbours that built on it and awful problems with septic tanks. When a lorry drives on the road nearby, the pictures on the wall shake. The old people wouln't build on it.

morphy87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122447781#Comment_122447781

Would this ground be good to grow grass in the summer? I reseeded a field last year and it’s very slow to come back but I got a savage cut of silage

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122448295#Comment_122448295

Different kind of blue mud so. It's like concrete here when it dries out. Can't sink through it with a tractor.. I never fear the silage lads getting stuck… on the black earth ground that's a different matter.

In a dry year, the mud holds moisture, so it's great in a dry year,., except that's a rare thing! The farmers on limestone would be praying for rain, while the heavy ground that this is on needs a drought!

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122448613#Comment_122448613

yes. but will need help. The issue for me is that it can take until April or even May to be trafficable in a year like this year. I can't get slurry out early or the ground will cut up and compact.

morphy87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122448634#Comment_122448634

no this ground you can travel it easy enough unless it’s very wet, here’s a crop I got off it the end of May

Castlekeeper

Get a spade and dig a hole, or an even easier way is to scrape the side of a dyke.

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122444569#Comment_122444569

'Where immobile wheel rims crack'

Astral Weeks. RTE played it at the start of the Sunday Game last Sunday night as the camera showed the crowd streaming in for the match. Magical!

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122458521#Comment_122458521

Yep, that's where I heard it. You have to reminded now and then, just how brilliant Van The Man is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGRYOW-Plw

GrasstoMilk

we ploughed ground that has what we call “marl” beneath it here yesterday. Can be very wet in the spring if it’s been a very wet winter but have had springs where we’ve been able to spread slurry on it no problem

It’s probably 15 years since we ploughed that last and it’s a fair better looking soil now than the last time. Last time it was very grey, cold and had lots of pure solid lumps of clay

After years of dung and slurry and lime it’s definitely improved. Grey colour is gone off it, it’s breaking up easier and just noticeably nicer soil

Hoping the ploughing will be a help to it to bring some air into the soil and let it loosen up in itself a bit more again

morphy87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122458840#Comment_122458840

Would this ground grow the same amount of grass as your better ground since you seem to look after it so well?

Also if you were working the field the opposite way that it was ploughed would it be rough to travel?

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122458588#Comment_122458588

I had always thought 'between the viaducts of your dream' was 'between the viaducts and the ore train' whatever that might mean!!. Any idea what 'where immobile wheel rims crack' might reference?

Back in 1968 I would say Marl Soil was the last thing on Van's mind. And ever since!

Thanks for the video; I had tried to raise it without success.