Firmness and compaction
A correspondent wrote with a question about firmness and compaction, about managing the balance between them, and whether there is a difference when analyzing a rootzone.
I remembered this PACE Insights about compaction, and I want to recommend it here:
Here are a few excerpts:
Simply put, heavily compacted soils spell trouble for plants. When soil particles are compacted, or packed tightly together, there are few spaces (pores) left in between the soil particles, which means that there is limited room for root growth. In addition, air movement, water movement, water drainage and venting of toxic gasses such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is also restricted.
On the other hand, some level of compaction must be maintained in order to provide an even, consistent and firm surface for the game of golf itself, as well as for foot and vehicle traffic Thus, there is a basic conflict between the needs of the game for a firm surface, and the needs of the plant for a looser, less compacted soil. Identifying the small window where the needs of the game and the needs of the plant overlap is therefore a very important process that influences not only the selection of root zone mixes and soil amendments, but also management practices such as aerification and top dressing.
This is just one example of the resources you can find at PACE Turf. See more with a search for compaction (40 items at the time of writing) or firmness (81 items at the time of writing).
I don’t have an exact answer about the balance between firmness and compaction. I want to make sure compaction is managed so that I can have 100% grass cover and a surface that can be managed to produce the desired level of playability. When compaction reaches a level that makes it difficult for me to achieve that goal, then I’m going to consider compaction to be a problem.