Tried air spading a red maple on a clay site and nearly killed the thing

I was out in Bethesda last week trying to loosen up a compacted root ball on a 20 year old red maple using an air spade. I thought I was being careful but I ended up blasting too close to the trunk and exposed like 6 inches of the root flare way too fast. Realized I should have tested a smaller area first to see how the clay would react. Anyone else run into trouble using air spades on heavy soils?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sage26d ago

Clay is brutal with an air spade - it just turns to a dense paste and doesn't slough off like loam would. You really gotta let it dry out a bit first or work in really shallow passes.

parker_bailey26d ago

Man that's rough, I feel your pain. Clay just turns into this sticky nightmare no matter what you do, like trying to dig through wet concrete. Taking it slow and letting it dry first is about the only way to not want to throw the air spade across the yard.