Muck

[s.samolsky]

I have read several recipes for creating MUCK. I have one question. Most call for earth clay. When I go to purchase it no one knows what I am talking about. Can someone tell me what exactly it is and where it would normally be obtained from?

[lewisjk]

As far as I am concerned, "earth clay" = DIRT. The plain old red soil in my pasture does just fine. (I do have to pick an occasional weed or two from the mixture after I use it.)

[BillsBayou]

Here in New Orleans, we just dig down a foot and find it under everything. That's one of those damned things in bonsai where someone has something in plentiful free supply, and recommends it to everyone; but not everyone can get it.

My last clay collection came at a construction site. A backhoe had dug up a good crop of our blue-gray clay. It had dried into fractured lumps. I got about 10 gallons of gravelly clay bits already dried. That saved me the first step of drying it. Once dried, it can be pulverized into a sand/flour consistency and mixed with your other components (milled peat moss, sphagnum moss; cow manure). Just add water, mix well, and voila! Muck!

The clay has to be clay. When wet it has to be sticky and smooth. Anything else and your recipe changes.

I don't know if pottery clay works. I have to think the stuff is not inherently toxic to plants as it is intended to be used with bare hands by potters.

[s.samolsky]

Since southern Indiana is loaded with clay soil I must be in muck heaven. Thank you all for the responses.

[clrosner]

In the past I have ordered a gallon of Clay slip from an Art store, such as: www.dickblick.com
They did not carry powdered clay, but the clay slip as described below worked well!

I live on a Barrier island in Southern NJ and digging down would only get me salt water or beach sand!
Here is the formula, which has been attributed to the famous slab builder, Joe Day:

Joe Day Recipe: The recipe I use for muck is powdered clay and sphagnum moss with the moss being 80% milled sphagnum and 20% long fibered sphagnum. Dampen your moss and mix in the powdered clay until it forms a bread dough consistency.