STOP AERATING YOUR LAWN. How to and when you need to aerate. The TRUTH from an EXPERT

Do I need to aerate my lawn every year? Is it good to aerate the lawn in the spring? Do I need to Aerate in the fall? When is the best time of year to aerate? Is Lawn core aeration good? In this video we unearth the answers to these questions. By definition, aeration is a naturally occurring event in biology. In terms of Lawncare, it often means mechanical intervention.

The benefits of aeration are as follows: increased airflow to the root zone, increased potential for root mass, a decrease in compaction of the soil.

The most common form of compaction of the soil is going to be through heavy traffic. This may be caused by heavy foot traffic, heavy machinery, or various other practices that would be considered outside the realm of residential lawn wear and tear.

Generally speaking, heavy clay soils will have the most potential to become compacted overtime but compaction isn't exclusive to clay . Having a good fertility program and making sure that your grass is healthy and well tended, with a focus on a strong root system will do more than any mechanical aerator can. If you are taking the time year over a year to run an aerator across your lawn, you need to evaluate how you are treating your lawn the rest of the time and what you could be doing differently to prevent future compaction issues.

heavily compacted soil will lead to greater costs over time. The need for increased fertilizer and water will begin to add up as root growth is hindered. stunted, thin turf can be a sign of compaction if all other practices are being followed.

too much mechanical aeration can be as detrimental or even more damaging than none at all.

Stay to the end of the video for spring feeding tips. You may not want to fertilize heavy in the early spring….

[stepheneckert]

I’ve aerated once when I first moved in and never plan on doing it again. Such a miserable experience.

[audigex]

My lawn is clay and if I don't aerate I rapidly get bare patches where the clay compacts underfoot, even in low traffic areas. I agree that it doesn't make sense for everyone, but if you have clay it's a massively important part of ongoing maintenance. Although I'd add that it's important to replace the removed cores with organic material, sand, silt etc to try to improve the clay over time

[TheLawnShark]

Stressing the lawn is probably the single most important thing you can do in my opinion. Overwatering is one of the biggest things I see in my area and it shows in the weak plants. Thanks for all the great advice.

[joekoz]

Great advice, aeration of home lawns is a waste of time and money. I ran high end golf courses for 35 years and we needed to aerate compact traffic areas like tees/greens. Good to see some honesty from a lawn care guy.

[drewcamp]

I ended up aerating my lawn last season and it was a terrible decision. Listening to a few lawn gurus, I didn't pick up my cores because "they'll break down and return that precious soil back to the lawn." Now my lawn is ridiculously bumpy; my mower jumps all over the place constantly when running it. Will likely end up having to do a full leveling job if I ever want to fix it now.

[Frank-igjs]

FINALLY! Someone who knows the truth about aeration! More macro and micro nutrients, CORRECT irrigation and PROPER mowing is all you need. Feed the soil and the turf will take care of itself ( technically speaking). Thank you for this video!

[fadetoblack]

I bought a pull behind aerator from Home Depot for about $250. A one time cost and minimal effort each year. I hook it up to the John Deere and drive around with a beer in one hand. Does it help? No idea, but it doesn't hurt...

[roberts]

I've got clay soil and have been having problems with my lawn. I've concluded I really need to be dedicated to core aeration followed by a compost dressing in September (maybe some overseeding here and there) and a good liquid aeration in the spring.

[ErikSands]

You’re really helping me connect more dots with these videos. While it probably seems obvious that letting roots drive their way down helps a lot here, I don’t know if it’d be so obvious had you not mentioned it. Thanks once again for reiterating yet another reason why we don’t want that nitrogen hit too soon.

Seeing that pumpkin getting crushed somehow brought old memories of Gallagher whacking melons with the sledge-o-matic.

[tycox]

The lawn maintenance crew at the agrochemical company I worked at never aerated the turf. They only aerated around trees. The turf was never walked on. Instead, they applied a growth regulator that stunted the growth of the blades, but concentrated the growth process in the roots.

[timborski]

Did it once last year, I'll prolly do it every other year or 2. I use Air-8 and other liquids along with my fert program. I did notice the yard felt better once I did a core aeration when I walked on it.

[chroniclesofnanner]

Dethatched and aerated in the fall then fertilized right after, holy smokes did the yard look so much better after. I also put a light coat of sand and peat moss on top.

[AJ-kunm]

Old lawn with heavy compaction and clay soil in the U.K. Approx 400 square meters. Planing on hollow tine aeration in the spring. Wish me luck.

[FarideLadak]

Love the advice of letting the roots develop and let it do the work on its own. So I’ve restrained from putting anything down so far. We’ve been getting a great deal of rain and had more heavier snowfalls this past winter. Let’s see how that may help the lawn.

[LipTalk-sp]

Pretty accurate. I still aerate every year, but I use it for seeding... people who do it just to do it, it's pointless. You hit some key notes... mowing properly is the absolute most important thing about lawncare... keeps weeds down, promotes good Grass growth and also feeds your lawn what it needs for the most part

[greggkathy]

I like the idea of delaying fertilizing in the spring. Here in Central Indiana, I put down a November and December feeding in my lawn looks better than it has in 17 years and I still have yet to put anything on it this spring.

[UrbanDadLife]

Haven't aerated my lawn for 6 years and I can push a piece.of rebar 8 inches into the soil easily everywhere....until this changes I'll stick with the air 8....nice video JP

[staggist]

I simply cover the soil with good compost and worms travel to and from the surface aerating the lawn has never failed

[paulscott]

I really like Greene County products. I use them all. Some of the most satisfying parts of lawn care are top dressing using a roller spreader. Doing this for a few years a couple times a year. After this I’ve been able to use a dethatcher at low setting to get oxygen down into the roots. I’ve found after doing a dethatch, the fertilizer and biostimulants work better. Also, my watering seems to be more effective. In the beginning, I would plug aerate and follow up by top dressing using black kow mixed with peat. Other than right before a dethatch my tttf is kept around 3.5 inches to 4.5 inches during heat. We’re all just caretakers of the land. Someday, someone will inherit my stand of turf and I hope they’re able to appreciate having soil so rich!

[andrewphillips]

Great video. I just did my soil test about a month ago and the soil probe went in easy maybe 50% of the time and I did irrigate a few days before doing the test. I have for last 3 years been mowing 2 to 3 days a week, watering and feeding per Alan’s schedule using some of your products like Air-8, RGS, Humic12 and GreenePop to name a few 😄. I also add a fair amount of Carbon as well. But my soil is the black hard clay when dry LOL. My grass has looked great given the state of the clay but when inspecting the plug from the probe I still don’t see long enough root growth.
My soil has gotten much better but I suspect deep down I need to give it one try at core aeration THIS year before I level/top dress. I like the advice you give John and this year definitely will let the grass natively green up as much as possible before adding any Nitrogen to aid in root growth and only apply non-fert products until true go time 😛. Thanks for the informative video.