Soil compaction in an orchard of Southern Quebec

Recent plans to increase the numbers of fruit trees per acre in apple orchards have necessitated the acquisition of more information on orchard soil compaction caused by repeated passes of heavy machinery operating under various soil moisture conditions.An orchard was studied where traffic had occured regularly for forty years, and in which deep ruts in many locations have caused traction problems during machinery operation. A gamma ray density probe was used to measure the degree of soil compaction in these areas, and the results show the presence of highly compact ground near certain of the vehicle tracks. Laboratory tests were also performed to classify the soil types present in the orchard.