How to repair compacted soil

[Egon]

That is laughable!

Yeper's; and so is a lot of the other advice given on this thread.r

Now for them that may be a little confused about Lime and over consume the product of a Lime tree mixed with ethyl Alcohol a reference to the mineral "Lime"!


[video]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(material)[/video]

[video]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_lime[/video]

 

[CalG]

Clover roots run deep! So do the roots of comfery. Radash can add a lot of organic material in one season. There are many useful long grasses that run 20 feet deep or more!
Deep frost can break up the deepest compaction, but the coast of RI may not see enough cold. Can you keep the snow off the area?

 

[MidTn Mark]

Daikon Radish is a great choice. 1/4 acre isn't very big. Hand seed it and cover it with hay. If you have close access to any wooded area peel the top leaves back and get some of the loose soil. Put that down before any hay or anything else.
Let the radish grow and die in place. it will break up the soil and then as it decays it will add organic matter.

Once that is done cover it with wood chips 4-6" deep and let nature take care of it.

 

[Creamer]

If it is too hard to seed get a plug aerator and let the seeds fall in the holes. Radishes, turnips, grasses, clover, alfalfa, etc. are great for long term conditioning of soil. The other option is to jsut seed it with grass, radishes, turnips etc. and cover with hay or straw and let nature do its work. Over winter will make a big difference but a few years and you will be surprised. Roots and the organisms they bring will do wonders.

BTW - the freeze thaw cycle helps to crack up hard ground as well but since you are coastal you might not get much of that.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

That is laughable!

Not nearly as laughable as the as the idea of adding sand to hard dirt to make it usable.

Have you ever seen what a thick layer of wood chips will do to hard soil? Add some green to balance out the nitrogen needs and you have... uh, yeah, that's exactly what healthy soil is made of.


His ground is in that shape because the organic matter was removed. That's what it needs to restore it, not sand.

restoring land after hogs at DuckDuckGo

 

[LouNY]

It needs a subsoiler run thru 12-15 inches deep and a cover crop planted, as suggested radishes are a very good deep tillage crop, the correct variety, not the common garden one's.

 

[kthompson]

LouNY hit it on the head. Subsoiler is designed totally to break up compacted soil, period. To do it right you need to find at what depth is the "hard pan" and run the subsoiler an inch or two lower to "crack" the hard pan the hogs made. It will allow the water to drain through and the roots to grown done so a crop can grow. It needs to be dry for this but you may have to do what you can with it wet and muddy and as it dries come back and run subsoiler again and again to get it open. You can use a shovel to dig down to find the depth of the hard pan or if you have a good sharp metal rod may be able to push it into the ground to find the hard pan. I have heard it cracking like rocks from water just setting on it. Believe it or not some sandy soil can be bad for this.

 

[Creamer]

Yeah! Everybody has a subsoiler laying around in case they may have to use it once.

 

[K5lwq]

We had a similar problem once in a small area. The first thing we did was drill through the hard pan in a few spots and back fill with gravel to allow water to drain off. Our hardpan was pretty deep so we had a friend with a drilling rig help us out. Yours might not be as deep so a post hole digger might just do the trick. Then you can subsoil and plant vegetation as described above. You can find single shank subsoilers fairly inexpensive even if you buy new.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Daikon Radish is a great choice. 1/4 acre isn't very big. Hand seed it and cover it with hay. If you have close access to any wooded area peel the top leaves back and get some of the loose soil. Put that down before any hay or anything else.
Let the radish grow and die in place. it will break up the soil and then as it decays it will add organic matter.

Once that is done cover it with wood chips 4-6" deep and let nature take care of it.

I'm going to try the Daikon radish, I just ordered some seeds. It's recommended to seed in early fall and I'm a little late but it's been so hot lately I think it might work. Other than adding whatever mulch I can find I think I'll leave it alone over the winter, there are still muddy spots and I think driving on it when it's wet will make it worse. Hopefully we'll get some freezing and thawing that will help break it up.