# Hydrophobic soil



## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

Guys, I'm taking over a neglected cul de sac area outside my house. It's fairly big with about 2,500 sqf with a bunch of mature oaks.

I need help with the soil. It seems hydrophobic. There is irrigation in this area with good coverage. I have it set to put down an inch of water. After watering, I take a core and the top inch is a little moist and the rest could not be more dry. I tried to core aerate it last year after laying down a ton of water and the plugs were the thickness of bottle caps. Very little grows in this area, including weeds, with the exception of wild violet.

I just applied a soil surfactant last week (Aqueduct) and plan to continue applying that weekly with the goal to core aerate this area again in about 3 weeks. I'm considering applying gypsum to loosen the soil although the soil test, see below, does not call for it.

Any thoughts on how to loosen up this soil? Thanks

pH 7.1 Apply 1.5 lbs sulfur/1000 sq ft
Organic Matter 2.8% Sufficient organic matter present
Phosphorus 2.1 lbs/1000 sq ft No Adjustment Necessary
Potassium 7.6 lbs/1000 sq ft No Adjustment Necessary
Calcium 148.8 lbs/1000 sq ft No Adjustment Necessary CEC = 18.8
Magnesium 19.0 lbs/1000 sq ft No Adjustment Necessary


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The 148 and 19lb for calcium and mg are the as found results?


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

Yes, it is. I checked the soil test from my own yard and the ratio is 6:1 or 7:1 on all of them so fairly confident it's not an anomaly. The lab is local and used by the commercial guys around here. Thanks for any help!


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

What are your sodium levels reading? >5% Na in the soil composition could cause crusty soil as well. Might simply be compacted from machinery/traffic.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

adgattoni said:


> What are your sodium levels reading? >5% Na in the soil composition could cause crusty soil as well. Might simply be compacted from machinery/traffic.


I don't have any readings on salt. The area is salted in winter but not significantly and my own adjacent yard would receive the same amount and there are no issues on my side. I think you are right about the compaction. The homes were built in the '40's and '50's and the soil in this cul de sac has probably never been touched by aerators, fertilizer, etc. until I started last year. My sense is that if I can just loosen the soil a little that I could then aerate it, pull deep cores and maybe apply some gypsum and things would improve.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Is the soil hard in the fall too? Do you know how much watering it gets? Do the oaks have any other means to get water than the irrigation?


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

g-man said:


> Is the soil hard in the fall too? Do you know how much watering it gets? Do the oaks have any other means to get water than the irrigation?


Yes, it's like cement all year. The oaks may be part of the problem but I have them in my own yard and it's not like they suck up all the water and nothing can grow. Also, this summer, we've had a lot of rain and the situation has not improved. I really think it's hydrophobic soil/ local dry spot. Going to see if the Aqueduct product works. Think I'm going to throw out 100 lb's of gypsum too.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

Following. I deal with this as well. Applied a shampoo to the lawn a week ago, today still dealing with this. We had rain for days, but then dry for 24 hours and this happens. I was attempting to water with the hose and you can see how it just beads up and runs off.


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## tgreen (Oct 20, 2018)

ktgrok said:


> Following. I deal with this as well. Applied a shampoo to the lawn a week ago, today still dealing with this. We had rain for days, but then dry for 24 hours and this happens. I was attempting to water with the hose and you can see how it just beads up and runs off.


OK, I will let you know what happens. I did a lot of research on soil surfactants and Aqueduct got a lot of positive reviews. Mainly marketed toward golf courses and sports fields but labeled for residential. What I want to see is 1) does it work, 2) how long until it does and 3) is it only temporary. Even if temporary, if I can just get it saturated enough to work an aerator then I think that will be a win. We'll see.

Maybe I'll do a youtube vid on this one if I can get up the motivation.


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## seiyafan (Apr 3, 2019)

https://www.intermountainturf.com/cascade-plus.html


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