Improvement of Compacted Soil with Tillage and Amendment with Residential Leaf Compost.

Severe compaction of soil with heavy construction equipment is a common problem of developed land, making it difficult to establish and sustain soil cover with turfgrass and other plantings. The objective of this field study was to determine the effects of tillage to reduce soil compaction and amending to increase the soil organic matter (SOM) on the establishment and survival of a low maintenance turfgrass cover. Four soil treatments consisting of two levels of tillage and three levels of organic matter amending were applied to a severely compacted sandy loam in a RCBD with 4 replications. Treatments included no soil improvements (control), tillage, tillage with leaf compost to increase SOM to 25 g kg^-1, and tillage with leaf compost to increase SOM to 50 g kg^-1. After soil treatments were applied, the trial site was limed and fertilized based on a soil test and seeded with a mixture of tall fescue and hard fescue on 25 September 2012. Tillage and amending with leaf compost had a limited or negative effect during the early stages of turf establishment due, in part, to the high C:N ratio of the leaf compost causing symptoms of N deficiency in the turf.  Improved turf cover with tillage and amending were apparent by May 2013. Turf cover averaged about 90% on the plots receiving tillage only and the lower rate of leaf compost by June 2013, which represented an increase in turf cover of 16% on average compared to the non-tilled control.  Tillage and amending soil with leaf compost reduced the bulk density of the sandy loam. The greatest reduction in soil bulk density was observed in plots that were tilled and amended with the greater amount of leaf compost.