{"id":45666,"date":"2020-08-06T11:45:57","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T10:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenblue.com\/?p=45666"},"modified":"2020-08-06T11:45:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T10:45:57","slug":"the-case-of-structural-soil-sand-vs-soil-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenblue.com\/na\/the-case-of-structural-soil-sand-vs-soil-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case of Structural Soil & Sand vs Soil Cells"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever grown a tree in rocks? Trees need appropriate amounts of nutrient-rich, moist, well-aerated, and uncompacted soil in order to mature in the urban environment. In addition to the nutrients that trees absorb from the soil through their root system.<\/p>\n

A method that has often been utilized to deal with compaction issues harming urban trees is structural soil. Structural soil is made up of 80% crushed stone and 18-20% soil, compacted to 95% proctor density (hardly uncompacted). The compacted rock creates the structural support with small void spaces for soil, leaving the tree roots to attempt the impossible of making use of the soil-filled voids.<\/p>\n

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AirSpading of the StrataCell Soil Cell System<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is the misconception among many that structural soil\/sand and soil cells have comparable capabilities and benefits for urban trees, which results to the products being specified as equals. However, this not factual. Structural soil\/sand is a heavily compacted media with little to no nutrient-rich soil. Trees may grow well in it at first, but once the soil in the matrix is exhausted and along with a very fragmented and weak root system, the trees begin to decline.<\/p>\n

GreenBlue Urban was invited to participate in a study at Bartlett Tree Labs in North Carolina to study the tree growth effectiveness of several load-bearing soil options. Tulip poplar trees were planted in two trenches, two feet deep and five feet wide, to replicate a city sidewalk. Six different subsurface soil treatments were installed, with each plot containing approximately 42 cubic feet of (1m\u00b3) of soil.<\/p>\n

The test pits were made up of the following,<\/p>\n