I am in San Antonio, Texas. My grass is just starting to wake up after a very short winter.
I’ve noticed a good amount of thatch on the right side of my drive way!
I’m having some trouble finding a company that does Dethatching and aeration both. From my understanding they go very well hand in hand.
I recently got ahold of a company that is doing a combination of LIQUID AERATION (which I have never heard of before) and a compost top dressing for 460$ (no dethatching)
Should I just cough out the extra money for plug aeration and dethatching? Or should I roll the dice with this liquid aeration?
by Nervous-Glass4677
4 Comments
Dethatching is a recent trend in lawn care that’s become more common thanks to youtube creators and other non-academic sources. As such, there’s a widespread misunderstanding/misinformation about the topic. This automatic comment has been created in the hopes of correcting some of those falsehoods.
Thatch is the layer of stems and roots, both living and dead, that makes up the top layer of soil. Grass clippings are not thatch and do not contribute to thatch. The thickness of thatch can only be assessed by digging into the soil.
Some thatch is good. While some academic sources say that under 1 inch of thatch is beneficial, most settle for half an inch. Thatch is beneficial for many reasons (weed prevention, traffic tolerance, insulation against high temps and moisture loss, etc) and should not be removed. Over half an inch of thatch may not warrant removal, but the underlying causes should be addressed. An inch or more of thatch SHOULD be addressed. Dethatching as a regular maintenance task, and not to address an actual thatch problem, is NOT beneficial… Again, some thatch is good.
Thatch problems are not typical. Excessive thatch is a symptom of other issues, such as: over-fertilization, overwatering, regular use of fungicides, excessive use of certain insecticides, high/low pH, and the presence of certain grasses (particularly weedy grasses).
Dethatching with a flexible tine dethatcher (like a sunjoe) causes considerable short-term and long-term injury to lawns, and is known to encourage the spread of some grassy weeds like bentgrass, poa annua, poa trivialis, bermuda, nimblewill etc. In some RARE cases, that level of destruction may be warranted… But it must be done with great care and attention.
A far less damaging alternative to dealing with excessive thatch is core aeration. Core aeration doesn’t remove a significant amount of thatch, and therefore doesn’t remove a significant amount of healthy grass. BUT it can greatly speed up the natural decomposition of thatch.
Verticutters and scarifiers are also less damaging than flexible tine dethatchers.
For the purposes of overseeding, some less destructive alternatives would be slit seeding, scarifying, manual raking, or a tool like a Garden Weasel. Be sure to check out the seeding guide [here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/pUsKCxyvwQ)
Additionally, be sure to check the list of causes above to be sure you aren’t guilty of those.
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OP liquid aeration terminology is hit or miss, it does not relieve compaction in the soil, only core and spike aeration can temporarily help with compaction issues, what liquid aeration does is it helps break down thatch levels that can cause nutrient lockout and helps nutrients reach the soil and roots temporarily, you have to see what liquid aeration product they’re using because not all of them actually break down thatch, look for products that use humic acid and bacteria, overtime they eat away at the thatch layers and provides nutrients to your grass. Now I do highly recommend top dressing after CORE aeration to provide fresh nutrients and to burry some of that thatch layer (when it’s covered it increases microbial activity and breaks it down faster). You do not have to dethatch if you regularly spray humic acid on your lawn since it’ll break down the layers naturally over time. Your grass is still dormant so obviously you won’t be doing any projects to your grass anytime soon until later in the spring. The quote for fresh soil doesn’t sound half bad though, that pricing alone would’ve covered my delivery fee of 3 yards to my property, not including cost of soil itself or labor, but I’d definitely ask how much they’re planning on introducing to your soil, most top dressing is a quarter to half a inch of added soil.
Hard to tell from pics, but just a thought – could you cut your grass down a 1–2 notches, get clippings off the lawn (ie bag or compost it), and get rid of a lot of the dead stuff that way. Way easier than dethatching I’d think.
Scalp the grass with the bag on your mower, no need to dethatch. Wait until the grass is completely greened up before any aeration. The “liquid aeration” is just a type of soil surfactant and doesn’t relieve compaction.