Importance of bhal??

[Usama]

Can anybody highlight the importance of bhal for a garden. As i am starting a new one. The old soil mostly clay compacts water. Gets rock hard when dry.

[M Farooq]

Can anybody highlight the importance of bhal for a garden. As i am starting a new one. The old soil mostly clay compacts water. Gets rock hard when dry.

I think an equivalent term for bhal (or bhaalu matti in Karachi) is silt. The very purpose of adding silt sand is to prevent what too much of clay in soil does. Silt increases the water permeability and keeps the soil somewhat porous. However, bhal alone doesn't support much life without manure because of its high porosity it never retains the food nutrients.

If you are seeing cracking of clay after drying up- it may be an indication of too much sodium/(salt) in water supply-the so called sodic soil.

[Muhammad Arif Khan]

The subject has already bean discussed in the past look for it in older posts.