Nick St. Sauveur, district manager of Cortese Tree Experts, a Davey company, in Knoxville, TN, discusses the practice of air spading and how it can help improve soil quality and health.

In this episode we cover:

• What is air spading? (:41)
• Can a tree of any size be air spaded? (1:12)
• Air spading and volcano mulching (2:40)
• What does an air spade look like? (3:14)
• How much soil comes out of air spading a big tree affected by soil compaction? (4:02)
• Where do you look at a tree for compaction stress? (5:03)
• Tool that tests soil compaction (6:22)
• What does a property look like two years after air spading? (6:56)
• Is it harder or easier to air spade maple trees? (7:46)
• How can you improve soil quality? (8:20)
• What can you use to improve compacted soil? (9:25)
• How long have Nick and Cortese used biochar? (10:36)
• Are biochar and compost mixed or added separately? (11:35)
• General tree health and fertilization (12:00)
• Can homeowners do soil tests? (13:39)
• Deep root fertilizing injections (14:59)
• What's the most fun Nick has in his job? (15:54)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about compacted soil and soil quality, read our blogs, How to Tell if Soil is Compacted Around Trees and What to Do and Why Soil Care Is Important For Your Trees.

To learn more about biochar, watch our How to Improve Soil Health with Biochar YouTube video.

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Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com.

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