Soil compaction may be robbing you blind, stealing as much as 10 percent to 20 percent of crop yields and killing or stunting valuable landscape plants.
Soil compaction occurs below the surface, so it's hard to spot.
The tester's rod should move down through the soil with steady, even pressure. Hard, compacted soils resist penetration with the rod, often abruptly at a fairly uniform depth across a field or landscape area. For trees and shrubs, comparing root growth inside and outside the root balls is a quick way to tell if compaction is a problem. Soil pores may be reduced in size or eliminated altogether, usually as a result of pressure applied to the soil surface by equipment, foot traffic, hard rain on bare soil. Wet soil is especially vulnerable to compaction.