Aeration: Holes in Your Lawn, Not in Your Pocket
Aeration is one of the most important cultural practices we can do for cool season grasses in our area. Most of our soils are severely clay based and are very compact allowing little room for grass roots to expand andthere is littlearea for oxygen, water, andnutrients to reach the root system. Yearly aeration creates a much healthier plant.
Generally, fall aeration is considered best for cool-season turf, because grass plants are developing more roots in preparation for winter. Opening up the root zone with aeration provides an enhanced growth zone for new roots. Plus, you can combine aeration with an early fall application of slow-release fertilizer to get grass in shape for winter and charged-up for new growth next spring. Turf management schedules may be a little more flexible in the fall, too. The key factor is to allow plenty of time for turf to "heal" after a fall aeration treatment. Lawns need about three weeks to recover from coreaeration, so don't schedule aeration much later thanThanksgiving in our area. It is best if the turf is actively growing when aeration is performed.
Another advantage to fall aerationis that you can combine it with over seeding and fall fertilization to get customer lawns in better shape for winter and a refreshed turf condition next spring. Fall, between September 1 and September 30, when night time temperatures drop below 70 degrees, is the best time to seed a lawn.
After seeding, keep the seed and soil moist until the seed emerges. This is normally 7-14 days for Fescue and 21+ days for Bluegrass. It's important to get as many punched holes as possible when aerating. If you have ¾-inch tines on 2 × 2 spacing, you are covering only 11 percent of the turf area per pass. With many aeration machines, you need to make two passes over the lawn to truly benefit the turf and do an effective job.
Scott's has several aerators that pull enough cores in one pass to do an effective job. That is the same benefit in half the time. AskScott which one is best foryou. If necessary, youcan break up the cores and drag them back into the turf to help break down thatch.
Be sure the tines are not overly worn. After a while, the edges get smoother and the tines actually wear down so you don't get the coring depth desired. Always check aerating results to ensure you are getting deep enough penetration.
If you have large areas of turf that were damaged by the extreme heat, disease or insects, you may want to consider slit-seeding these areas after core aeration. Slit-seed in two directions and the new plants will fill in within one season. Don't seed too heavy; this can cause disease problems next year.
Scott's Power Equipment sells a full line of core aeration, slit seeding, over seeding and dethatching equipment, plus all the fertilizer, herbicides andgrass seed you need for yourlawn.Come in and see all the new products offered by Lawn Solutions® and PLUGR®.
