It is economically more prudent in the medium term to persist and try and get the soil opened up to help get the top 6” become wet and initiate the process.

Using the Terralift Airforce machine is the ideal machine for deep aeration, effective, economic and uses organic products to achieve the best results. This machine takes no nonsense and uses a JCB breaker gun (as used to break up road surfaces) to hammer the hollow probe one metre into the soil.

When the ground is too hard, alternative equipment has a tendency for the spike(s) to bounce and so not reach the required depth. Once the Terralift’s probe has reached one-metre, a controlled blast of compressed air is released from the bottom of the probe, fracturing and fissuring the soil as it makes its way to the surface.

Importantly on the tail end of this air blast, dried milled seaweed is injected which sticks to the walls of the fractures, swelling and contracting, helping to keep the fractures open longer.

The air blast can be used from 8 bar to 20 bar, depending on soil conditions with a small movement of the top surface which can be seen by the operator. This shows that the soil has been fractured from one-metre depth to the surface.

The process is carried out using two-metre centre spacings on a staggered grid pattern. The probe holes should be backfilled with an aggregate to aid in long term aeration and drainage.