Earthworms gradually pull organic matter from mulch or compost down into the soil, improving soil quality. Image credit: Bigstock/Vitaliy Pakhnyushchyy
Healthy soil typically is more than 40 percent pore space, with large pores that promote drainage and small pores which help store water. This combination enables air and water to penetrate, promotes good drainage, and allows soil organisms to breathe and plant roots to grow. Machinery, foot traffic and pounding rain compact the soil and make life in the soil difficult. Compacted soils can flood and also be susceptible to drought, since water runs off rather than infiltrating. You can repair compacted soil by rebuilding its spongy structure.
Strategies for restoring overly compacted soils:
Top-dressing planting beds with several inches of compost will improve lightly compacted soils. Earthworms and other soil fauna will gradually pull it down into the soil, loosening it and improving water-holding capacity. A 2- or 3-inch layer of shredded leaf mulch or wood chips will provide similar benefits.
Cultivating the soil lightly, avoiding large plant roots and incorporating compost into the soil can speed the healing process.
More extreme physical aeration may be necessary to repair highly compacted soils. Caution should be taken when working under and around existing vegetation to avoid damaging root systems. Tree experts can provide guidance on the most appropriate methods which may include air-excavating tools, vertical mulching or radial trenching.
Protect the soil from recompacting. Create pathways and use garden walls, fences or mulch to keep foot traffic off the soil.
Top-dressing planting beds with several inches of compost will improve lightly compacted soils. Earthworms and other soil fauna
soil fauna
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil. Soil life, soil biota, soil fauna, or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil profile, or at the soil-litter interface.
will gradually pull it down into the soil, loosening it and improving water-holding capacity. A 2- or 3-inch layer of shredded leaf mulch or wood chips will provide similar benefits.
Once soil is compacted, is there anything that can be done to reverse the process? Many natural processes act to loosen up soil, such as freezing/thawing, particle sorting, earth worm activity, root penetration and the gradual buildup of organic matter.
Simply add organic debris to the soil surface and let your “underground herd” break it down. As it does, it will improve your soil's texture and make nutrients available to your plants. So don't be shy about applying copious amounts of organic residue to your soil.
Topsoil compaction is usually temporary and can be partially remediated by normal tillage. Natural processes such as freeze-thaw cycles, wet-dry cycles, microbial activity and plant root growth will also tend to alleviate topsoil compaction over time and rebuild soil structure.
The current high erosion rates throughout the world are of great concern because of the slow rate of topsoil renewal; it takes approximately 500 years for 2.5 cm layer of fertile topsoil to form under agricultural conditions.
Soil may be so hard that digging with a standard garden shovel is impossible. If this is the case, you can try to use a broad fork to lever the compacted soil apart or a mechanical rototiller. As you break up the soil, add in organic matter like straw or chopped leaves.
However, the simplest and most effective way to loosen compacted soil is to use Ground Breaker. Ground Breaker from Green As It Gets is a heavy duty soil penetrant that works by opening up the pores of the soil.
Here are some solutions: Practicing crop rotation allows different plants to grow in an area of soil every year. This allows the soil to replenish itself of nutrients that are lacking after the growth of one type of plant. Agroforestry involves growing crops around trees and other plants such as hedges.
Add Organic Matter. Organic matter is the single most important ingredient to improving any soil. It can make heavy clay soil drain better, easier to dig and not so hard or sticky. It can also help sandy soil hold together better and retain more moisture and nutrients.
In some cases, revitalized potting soil can be used exclusively, but blending old soil with fresh in equal parts is a safe way to ensure productive density and nutritional balance.
Adding compost to your soil is one of the best ways to combat compaction. As organic materials decompose, they attract soil organisms that naturally aerate the soil through creation of pore space.
The ability to compact a soil increases as the soil water content increases. Highway engineers, for whom compaction is a good thing when constructing roadbeds, utilize the Proctor Test to determine the water content at which the maximum soil bulk density can be obtained.
Soil compaction can be corrected by subsoiling and deep plowing but they are expensive methods. Soil compaction may not be a problem if one understands compaction, its effects, and how to pre- vent it. In order to compact a SOil, two ingredients must be present: (1) pressure and (2) a soil that will compact.
Top-dressing planting beds with several inches of compost will improve lightly compacted soils. Earthworms and other soil fauna will gradually pull it down into the soil, loosening it and improving water-holding capacity. A 2- or 3-inch layer of shredded leaf mulch or wood chips will provide similar benefits.
Digging forks or garden forks are the best digging tools for breaking up rocky or hard soil. With their long, sharp-edged tines, these gardening tools are also good for aerating soil and digging up potatoes or other root vegetables. Ground rakes or garden rakes have several short, metal tines.
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