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Factors Affecting Compaction of Soil

Soil Health
3 min read

If you’ve yet to achieve your dream lawn, the solution to your problems may be much easier than you think. Many lawn issues can be remedied by introducing superior grass seed varieties, such as Jonathan Green Black Beauty®, and others by understanding the factors affecting the compaction of soil.

At Jonathan Green, lush green lawns are our business. We are innovators and leaders in creating the finest quality grass seed and have been working on our genetically superior grass seed since 1881. Today, we have an entire line of lawn care products that can turn any lawn into one that is healthy and green.

We are also leaders in organics and have developed an environmentally sound approach to lawn care called the New American Lawn Plan. The Plan combines our Black Beauty® grass seed mixtures with organic and traditional soil amendments, lawn fertilizers and control products that feed your lawn AND your soil.

Do You Have Hard, Compacted Soil?

Compacted soil is soil that is packed down so tightly that grass roots, air and water can’t penetrate it. Grass plants depend on their root systems for water and nutrients. When roots can no longer penetrate the soil, the grass will stop growing, and your lawn will begin to look thin and unhealthy and become more susceptible to weeds, diseases and pests.

Is your soil compacted? Take a screwdriver, and push it into the soil. It should be able to easily penetrate at least six inches deep. Another test involves removing a chunk of soil from the turf and digging into the soil beneath it with a spade. If you find the soil hard to get through, then you have hard (compacted) soil.

The color of the soil is another indicator. Darker soil is more porous.  Lighter (or grayer) soil is harder and less porous.

How to Loosen Compacted Soil

Compaction can be relieved by aerating the soil, but adding more humate-rich, gypsum-based amendments like MAG-I-CAL Plus® and Love Your Soil® to the soil will give you better long-term results.

You can rapidly raise soil pH, loosen hard soil and stimulate soil microbes with Jonathan Green Mag-I-Cal® Plus for Lawns in Acidic & Hard Soil. This natural, humate-rich, three-in-one “soil food” is also fortified with a patented, quick-releasing gypsum to help break up clay and compacted soil for better air, water, and root penetration into the soil.

For very compacted soil, apply Jonathan Green Love Your Soil®.  It contains about 20% more soil loosening power than Mag-I-Cal Plus® and will help break up compaction for deeper root growth and to improve air and water flow.

Soil compaction can starve your grass of air, nutrients and water. Visit JonathanGreen.com to learn more about the factors affecting compaction of soil or stop by your local independent garden center or hardware store for solutions to your soil compaction problem.

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