Laura Farms puts a powerful 7-shank ripper to work, breaking up compacted soil and getting the field ready for the next step.

A shovel should slide into healthy soil with satisfying ease. When the blade bounces back like it just struck concrete, the ground sends a very clear message: the soil needs help. Compacted soil stops ...

The ground tells the truth. When soil turns dense and stubborn, plants don’t just struggle quietly—they stall, weaken, and give up before they ever get the chance to thrive. That hard-packed surface ...

Minimize driving over the soil as a compacted soil remedy to support healthy soil structure by allowing the soil to breathe, drink, and move nutrients around. Healthy soils are much more than dirt! In ...

Many aspects of gardening are easy to control—like how much water your plants get and how often you fertilize—while other factors are harder to maintain. Unless you're using raised beds and filling ...

Soil compaction is considered a consistent problem in modern agriculture. When soils are compacted, we know, plants don’t grow as well. Exactly why that happens, though, has generally just been ...

The volatile plant hormone ethylene allows plant roots to sense and avoid compacted soils, researchers report. Rendering roots insensitive to ethylene allowed them to penetrate compacted soils more ...

Soil compaction might not seem like the most exciting topic, but the proper completion of this step is essential. If soil compaction is not performed adequately, settlement of the soil could occur and ...

This year in South Dakota many areas have received high amounts of rainfall during the summer. This has led to portions of fields being wet particularly in the northeastern part of the state. Soils ...

From mild winters to heavier equipment, farmers face several uncontrollable factors, adding layers to the soil compaction problem. “Our winters have been milder, and snowfall has been lighter in ...

While many contractors may think soil compaction has little impact on the end result of a job, the opposite could not be more true; if proper soil compaction is not achieved initially, it can lead to ...

For years, conventional wisdom has held that roots don’t grow as deep in hard soil because it’s just too difficult for them to physically push through it. But our new research has unearthed another ...