Plants may become stunted or die due to inadequate drainage and low oxygen levels caused by compacted soil. If you see this in your garden, you may be curious about ways to soften hard soil. Can you soften soil using gypsum? What is the ideal device for breaking up tough soil? The solutions are here. Learn how to soften hard soil by reading on.
Help! My garden soil is rock-hard!
While a soil test will not tell you if your soil is compacted, it may tell you whether it is mostly made of clay, sand, silt, loam, etc. Compacted, poorly draining soils are often caused by soils that are mostly made of clay or loam.
Insufficient water, rocky soil, or heavy foot, machine, or vehicle activity may all cause soil to become hard. Compaction makes soil hard and challenging to work, and it may be caused by over-tilling, working soil while it is wet, and blending sand into clay soil to lighten it.
Any of these causes of compacted soil might prevent it from absorbing nutrients and water. If so, hard soil must be loosened and amended for plants to develop well.
About Hard Soil
The causes of hardened soil are described above. However, the situation is more complicated. Organic materials with silt, clay, and sand particles make up about half of good soil. Pore space, which allows air and water to circulate mineral particles, makes up the remaining half of the soil. Beneficial microorganisms may convert plant waste into organic materials in pores.
Plant roots cannot get oxygen and water when pore space is constrained due to compaction. It either pools or flows off often.
How to Loosen Hard Soil
The soil is likely too hard to dig using a typical garden shovel. If so, you can use a mechanical rototiller or a wide fork to pry the compacted earth apart. Add organic material, like straw or chopped leaves, while you work the soil. This may be reincorporated into the soil in the spring or autumn.
A cover crop, such as buckwheat, annual ryegrass, winter wheat, hairy vetch, or oilseed radishes, may also be sown towards the end of the growing season to help soften hard soil. In the spring, before planting, mow & turn the cover crop. The cover crop’s permeable roots will help to loosen the soil, and tilling them in will contribute beneficial organic nutrients.
If the situation is dire, you may have to use a jackhammer with a spade attachment or perhaps hire an excavator, particularly for large portions of dirt that have been hardened.
Can Gypsum Be Used to Soften Soil?
Several garden stores or lawn care companies suggest using gypsum (calcium sulphate) to soften compacted soil in the event of hardened turf soil. According to legend, gypsum will strengthen compacted clay soil’s structure. The problem is that it does not function.
The soil of a home garden is frequently coated and compacted with organic and inorganic chemical additions. Layered soil will not function with gypsum. Gypsum should be used in this situation just to raise the calcium content of the soil, not to loosen it. Despite this, applying gypsum may openly raise soil calcium, which may subsequently release aluminum or prevent plants from absorbing nutrients like phosphorus.
Gypsum should only be applied in locations with clay soils with high salt concentrations, such as the dry west of the United States and coastal areas.
In the spring, summer, or early autumn, aerify (core) the grass in place of gypsum to lessen soil compaction, particularly on expansive stretches of turf-like sports fields.