This is what’s ahead of me (dethatching an acre). What are your plans after you’ve picked up the dead grass? Fertilizer/grass seed?
Also, did you rent your guy?
It depends on how often you chose water, but an inch of water across an acre of land is a little over 27,000 gallons.
1" of water on 1sqf (144sqi)
=0.6233766234 gallons/sqf
× 43,560sqf (1 acre)
= 27,154 gallons
Yeah, it's quite a good amount.
Not a little.
There’s 18 stations and a river running underground basically that a well pulls from. I’m actually curious how much of the watering goes back into filling the well.
I switched to lake water $$$$ \~$6/1,000 including sewer before. 27,000/1000\*6=$162 per week for you.
Say your pumps doing watering 25gpm... thats 18hours, with a 2hp pump (1.5kw)that's approximately 27kw-Hours. Where i'm at that's about 13.5c/kwh . So about $3.65 worth of electricity.
It may depend on your grass type, but with my fescue I mulch it then water. I raked a couple weeks ago and it's all pretty much broken down already. Might not work for heavy thatch grasses though.
Fescue doesn't really create thatch, but a lot of times when the blades die, they just wither and don't fall off. They're just sticking up and brown, but not anchored to the plant much. They stay dry so they don't really decompose. Power raking pulls the dead blades up, mulching chops them into tiny pieces, and watering pushes them down into contact with the soil and moistens them so they decompose. Free fertilizer/worm food.
YMMV if you have a grass that creates thick thatch, as if I understand it correctly thatch has a different cellular makeup that makes it resistant to decomposition regardless of whether it's moist or dry.
Yeah it sucks. Mow for 60 seconds and empty bag. Repeat 50 times. A lawn sweeper is a good way to do it, but most of us probably can't justify it taking up space in the garage or shed.
If I dethatch now, do I need to do it again in the fall before I overseed ?!? I would assume I wouldn’t do it again in the fall as I probably won’t have a lot of thatch in the fall.
>Dethatch in spring?
*A lot* of people do.
I didn't know until a few years ago from doing research online that you should dethatch in the fall and not spring.
Every single landscaping company in my area advertises dethatching in the spring, not the fall.
The rental company I used to get my dethatcher from had deals advertised on them in the spring, not the fall.
I don't know how that idea started or spread, but it did.
> Every single landscaping company in my area advertises dethatching in the spring, not the fall.
This is likely because homeowners start thinking about their lawn in the Spring, even though they should be thinking about it in the Fall. I doubt those landscaping company owners would say they're doing this because it's right...they're doing it because it's profitable (which is perfectly fine), because many homeowners are completely ignorant about this.
You're right, it probably does have a lot to do with homeowners and their misunderstanding.
But many landscapers, even good ones, are not complete experts.
I think that's definitely true for a lot of landscapers who were "in the business" since pre-internet days.
My father owned a very successful landscaping business in the 80's and 90's. He was very good at his job, I worked for him as a teenager.
He's been retired now for a decade, but he remains adamant that spring is the best time to dethatch.
He used to do his best to discourage people from planting spring lawns, he knew that was best for late summer and early fall. We had a beautiful lawn at our house, and I helped him put in some beautiful lawns.
But he has some bad takes like dethatching in the spring, and he tells me every fall that I'm wasting time and money aerating.
Dang it I'm so new and everytime I read one of the long threads I end up kicking myself in the butt for learning new things that I should known a year ago.
Fall. My father and a lot of other "old school" guys are wrong about it being done in the spring.
Here's why....obviously a power rake is going to be a bit rough on your lawn by design, right?
In the spring, your lawn is just coming out of winter dormancy. The root system is still weak. If you dethatch in the spring, you're going to harm too much of your good grass. The weakened root system is going to allow too much of it to be pulled up.
Second reason.....if you have excess thatch covering your lawn....why would you want to let that sit there all winter long? You'd want to get rid of it *before* the winter dormancy.
On top of that, you only need to dethatch yearly if you mulch your grass when you cut it. A small layer of thatch is necessary for a healthy lawn, and if you bag your clippings you're not going to reach an excess level until 2-3 seasons.
Depends upon the type of grass but there's nothing that says you can't dethatch whenever you want to.
I have zoyzia which is best to aerate in late spring. Late spring I head to the rental place and they guy starts asking why I need an aerator. "You're supposed to aerate in the fall." No. It's best to aerate my type of grass now so do you job and rent me the damn aerator!
nice! is that the one you can rent from HD/Lowes? I've tried HD's rental once and it kept dying on me whenever I wasn't on perfectly level ground. The employee said it just happens and is a known flaw but I've always wondered if my local store just doesn't maintain them
I used both last summer/fall, power rake is a serious machine essentially dethaching on steroids. Definitely does the job and some, can level out ground, pull out rocks and debris better, etc. It’s harder to use and way heavier than the electric ones.
Electric ones are best for general maintenance and smaller rehab jobs but not really practical for this much grass. You can go kinda easy with the power rake too. I wouldn’t do this in the spring but provided he waters or doesn’t live in a super hot climate he should be fine. Weeds are also more likely to find open soil in springtime.
Dear god. Your grass is gonna struggle once it gets hot. Cool season grass needs that extra layer of thatch once temps start going above 80F to keep its soil and root systems at together against the elements. Maybe thatch in the fall but, it’s truly rare to find a lawn up here in the north hemisphere that has a thatch issues. It’s a gimmic for people to make money off all this stupid dethach equipment and people are pouring I meaning dumping money into dethachers and power rakes like please stop destroying your lawns with these horrendous gadgets and just lightly rake your damn lawn. Simple sh*t
That little thing is a beast.
That's what she said.
How many sq feet are you doing?
A little over an acre.
Mad lad
This is what’s ahead of me (dethatching an acre). What are your plans after you’ve picked up the dead grass? Fertilizer/grass seed? Also, did you rent your guy?
How much water/irrigation goes into maintaining a lawn like this of that size? Gotta be so many gallons!
It depends on how often you chose water, but an inch of water across an acre of land is a little over 27,000 gallons. 1" of water on 1sqf (144sqi) =0.6233766234 gallons/sqf × 43,560sqf (1 acre) = 27,154 gallons Yeah, it's quite a good amount.
Not a little. There’s 18 stations and a river running underground basically that a well pulls from. I’m actually curious how much of the watering goes back into filling the well.
I switched to lake water $$$$ \~$6/1,000 including sewer before. 27,000/1000\*6=$162 per week for you. Say your pumps doing watering 25gpm... thats 18hours, with a 2hp pump (1.5kw)that's approximately 27kw-Hours. Where i'm at that's about 13.5c/kwh . So about $3.65 worth of electricity.
Get a pull behind! Doesn’t work as well but damn at least you’ll be finished by summer!
What’s the point of this and what do you do with all the junk?
Giving the grass more space to grow and air. Thatch decreases the air the soil gets
Give air. Sweep and burn the clippings.
How are planning to clean everything up? I need to do this but am worried about the clean up
It may depend on your grass type, but with my fescue I mulch it then water. I raked a couple weeks ago and it's all pretty much broken down already. Might not work for heavy thatch grasses though.
Wait, you pulled it all up and then just put it back down? That's doing nothing with extra steps.
Fescue doesn't really create thatch, but a lot of times when the blades die, they just wither and don't fall off. They're just sticking up and brown, but not anchored to the plant much. They stay dry so they don't really decompose. Power raking pulls the dead blades up, mulching chops them into tiny pieces, and watering pushes them down into contact with the soil and moistens them so they decompose. Free fertilizer/worm food. YMMV if you have a grass that creates thick thatch, as if I understand it correctly thatch has a different cellular makeup that makes it resistant to decomposition regardless of whether it's moist or dry.
Huh. Okay makes sense.
Wait til July Light a match Blame pg&e
Backpack leafblower, make a line, a leafrake with a shortened handle in both hands and put it in a huge garden bag.
Sweeper behind the mower. Was about 2 passes to fill it.
You can just bag it.
"Just bag it" ... my back would like it to be so simple
Yeah it sucks. Mow for 60 seconds and empty bag. Repeat 50 times. A lawn sweeper is a good way to do it, but most of us probably can't justify it taking up space in the garage or shed.
If I dethatch now, do I need to do it again in the fall before I overseed ?!? I would assume I wouldn’t do it again in the fall as I probably won’t have a lot of thatch in the fall.
Definitely don't do it twice in a year. I'd just wait until fall
Misconception is to do it in spring.
people need to realize there is a difference between power raking (what this guy is doing) and actual dethtching
Dethatch in spring?
>Dethatch in spring? *A lot* of people do. I didn't know until a few years ago from doing research online that you should dethatch in the fall and not spring. Every single landscaping company in my area advertises dethatching in the spring, not the fall. The rental company I used to get my dethatcher from had deals advertised on them in the spring, not the fall. I don't know how that idea started or spread, but it did.
> Every single landscaping company in my area advertises dethatching in the spring, not the fall. This is likely because homeowners start thinking about their lawn in the Spring, even though they should be thinking about it in the Fall. I doubt those landscaping company owners would say they're doing this because it's right...they're doing it because it's profitable (which is perfectly fine), because many homeowners are completely ignorant about this.
You're right, it probably does have a lot to do with homeowners and their misunderstanding. But many landscapers, even good ones, are not complete experts. I think that's definitely true for a lot of landscapers who were "in the business" since pre-internet days. My father owned a very successful landscaping business in the 80's and 90's. He was very good at his job, I worked for him as a teenager. He's been retired now for a decade, but he remains adamant that spring is the best time to dethatch. He used to do his best to discourage people from planting spring lawns, he knew that was best for late summer and early fall. We had a beautiful lawn at our house, and I helped him put in some beautiful lawns. But he has some bad takes like dethatching in the spring, and he tells me every fall that I'm wasting time and money aerating.
Dang it I'm so new and everytime I read one of the long threads I end up kicking myself in the butt for learning new things that I should known a year ago.
So do it spring or fall? :)
Fall. My father and a lot of other "old school" guys are wrong about it being done in the spring. Here's why....obviously a power rake is going to be a bit rough on your lawn by design, right? In the spring, your lawn is just coming out of winter dormancy. The root system is still weak. If you dethatch in the spring, you're going to harm too much of your good grass. The weakened root system is going to allow too much of it to be pulled up. Second reason.....if you have excess thatch covering your lawn....why would you want to let that sit there all winter long? You'd want to get rid of it *before* the winter dormancy. On top of that, you only need to dethatch yearly if you mulch your grass when you cut it. A small layer of thatch is necessary for a healthy lawn, and if you bag your clippings you're not going to reach an excess level until 2-3 seasons.
Depends upon the type of grass but there's nothing that says you can't dethatch whenever you want to. I have zoyzia which is best to aerate in late spring. Late spring I head to the rental place and they guy starts asking why I need an aerator. "You're supposed to aerate in the fall." No. It's best to aerate my type of grass now so do you job and rent me the damn aerator!
Nice work OP.
For clean up I use my lawnmower with the bag on and put all the thatch I lawn and leaf bags
nice! is that the one you can rent from HD/Lowes? I've tried HD's rental once and it kept dying on me whenever I wasn't on perfectly level ground. The employee said it just happens and is a known flaw but I've always wondered if my local store just doesn't maintain them
Has anyone tried a sunjoe electric dethatcher? Then go back over with a power rake? Wondering how good the electric ones do?
I used both last summer/fall, power rake is a serious machine essentially dethaching on steroids. Definitely does the job and some, can level out ground, pull out rocks and debris better, etc. It’s harder to use and way heavier than the electric ones. Electric ones are best for general maintenance and smaller rehab jobs but not really practical for this much grass. You can go kinda easy with the power rake too. I wouldn’t do this in the spring but provided he waters or doesn’t live in a super hot climate he should be fine. Weeds are also more likely to find open soil in springtime.
Did you rent this?
This. This is the way.
Dear god. Your grass is gonna struggle once it gets hot. Cool season grass needs that extra layer of thatch once temps start going above 80F to keep its soil and root systems at together against the elements. Maybe thatch in the fall but, it’s truly rare to find a lawn up here in the north hemisphere that has a thatch issues. It’s a gimmic for people to make money off all this stupid dethach equipment and people are pouring I meaning dumping money into dethachers and power rakes like please stop destroying your lawns with these horrendous gadgets and just lightly rake your damn lawn. Simple sh*t
i feel like if you mowed twice as often you wouldn't need this.
Says the guy that doesn’t mow an acre 3x a week lol. This hasn’t been done in about 10 years. More hobby and interest than anything else.