In my recent searches I have come across a couple of videos that might be of great resource to customers considering root pruning or deep ripping to combat soil compaction in their fields.

The best ways to prevent soil compaction are management and timing techniques – staying out of wet fields, using wide/high surface area tires or tracks, practicing alternate row farming if possible, etc.

However, in field ripping/pruning offers the ability to put a tool in your arsenal that can allow for aeration of the root area and give plants the ability to grow through hardpan.

I did a blog post on soil compaction in the past discussing the benefits of managing compaction, you can read further on that here – https://www.munckhof.com/soil-compaction/

The below video is from a winery in New Zealand and does a great job of explaining the philosophy behind ripping and the use of a penetrometer to test compaction levels:

The next video is from the Cornell University extension and gives an overview of different tools used for working soil in compacted fields:

I hope you find the information useful, When we developed our root pruner/ripper attachment we had to put a lot of research and development into designing a machine that would be able to work for many different planting types and applications in order to create as versatile a machine as possible. You can find out more about that piece of equipment at https://www.munckhof.com/product/root-pruner-ripper/