Loading…
5
Wrote off soil compaction as no big deal until I saw what it did to a 40 year oak in Bakersfield
I always figured a little foot traffic and a parked truck near a root zone was no big thing, trees are tough. Then I checked out a live oak on a job in Bakersfield where the homeowner had been parking his boat trailer on the same spot for 3 seasons, and the canopy had thinned out to almost nothing on that side. Did a quick perk test with a soil probe and water just sat there, no drainage at all. Anybody got a cheap way to test compaction without renting a penetrometer every time?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
paige_craig15d ago
Wouldn't a perk test just tell you the water is slow, not why though? The thing with compaction is it can be surface crust from foot traffic or a real hardpan deeper down, and those need different fixes. You can get a rough idea with a piece of rebar or a long screwdriver, push it in when the soil is damp and see where it stops. If it sinks easy the first few inches then hits a wall, that's your compacted layer and you'll know how deep to aerate.
4