Power Rake / Dethatch A Lawn. Should I Power Rake / Dethatch MY LAWN? 

Ned Galic thanks Ned!!!

Awesome thank you!

wow! that is an awesome story and I love how passionate you are about it!!!

Del Budde thanks Del! Works great and lowers overall maintenance

How low should you go?

Thank you!

THanks Mark!!!

Milan Jurich thanks Milan!!!

Thanks man. It does look amazing

Nice buddy

Drew Witt thanks Drew

😂😂

awesome

Lol. Thanks

Thank you George for being part of it all!!!

Lawncology 👊

Give it a rake and see how much comes out. If you can make a softball sized thatch ball in the area squared of your rake head, you'll likelt need a machine.

@@Lawncology I have a thatch rake. Should I use that to check or a rake that has looser teeth?

Thank you!

Yes! Thank you!

Yes it is, thats something ive used for many many years behind the scenes

2-2.5” when it’s starting to go dormant

Yes, mow low and remove clippings on your final couple days on the lawn

now if you are still in a cool area.

You could definitely hit bare spots with rye as long as you keep the seed watered and covered, it will jump right out.

Great plan

@@Lawncology Thanks! With my cool season fescue/fine fescue back yard, I'm learning about the differences in approaches with the different grass types. From what I understand zoysia is more susceptible to thatch buildup, so it takes just a little more effort to stay on top of it.

I used on for the first time the other day

@@Lawncology I’ve only done it once so far but for the price, when I need it it’s worth it. The backyard is like a golf course now with Zoysia. The front is almost there

Verticutting is a better option. Power rake will rip your grass out of the ground and form a big spool

Start in about 5 weeks. Should be warm enough

Allen LCN is not going to like this video..He likes his grass super tall 😂

we currently don't sell overseas, I'd like to expand based on what I'm hearing about product availability. I could help with advice if you come across products that you are curious about. Let me know what you're seeing and I will do my best to steer you in the right direction

Hey, thanks for your answer. I found something i think it might be similar to d-tatch. Here's a link: www.plagron.com/en/products/pure-zym# Have a great weekend in the lawn

Aaron Hunt lol. It’s a bulb planter!

@@Lawncology mind blown! Thanks John!

Honestly the biggest benefit by doing that is clearing out dead grass and getting it out of dormancy faster

Your Pre should be down in the soil at that point and shouldnt be an issue when you power rake

Lawncology thanks again

Typically is just dead blades from the previous years growth as part of shedding. I always mulch my clipping and don’t build up thatch.

@@LawncologyThank you so much

Travis T. 😂😂

great question. typically a low mow is great at that time, not a scalp per se, but lower than normal. it will make your spring scalp one hell of a lot easier

@@Lawncology Thanks for the feedback JP! Love the content and education here!

Depends on how bad it is. average mowing debris will breakdown, excessive will require more mechanical intervention

70+ air temp is just fine

Extra additives that boost microbial activity including yeasts

Thank you!!

Marshall Houx I have no idea what a “soil stabilizer” is. I would be curious as to what that means.

I thought it sounded like a load of b.s. and not the good kind 🤔😁 looks like a price hike up to me I will have to get him to ask what he used thanks again for all you do I have told him to check out your channel

Bermuda or zoysia? I wouldn’t scalp either at that point. I’d wait until spring

St Augustine. I didn't mean scalp per se but taken considerably lower than the 4" Allyn recommends it be cut at while growing

that would likely rip. the scarifiers could work because the tines flex, but i would be careful... I personally like the dormant bermuda burn

I can personally testify that it does work and yes it does rip stolons if they are not sufficiently rooted down. After seeing another couple of youtubers use a power rake on their bermuda lawn I decided to give it a try. I used the dethatch cylinder with the tines first on 5+ on February 15 this year to remove a significant portion of the dead dormant material and apply preemergent. Three weeks later I came back with the dethatch set at 5- to clear to surface of the soil and remove even more material. That's when I noticed the most stolon removal. My purpose was to gain direct access to the soil surface to apply soil amendments like humic and kelp and biochar in the late winter/early spring without the lawn litter absorbing it like I have observed before. I also wanted to clear shallow rooted stolons and reveal the soil surface so that new stolon nodes could tack down to a clean soil surface and drive deep roots in the spring and summer. As a result my lawn has looked pretty ugly for a month after several thin spots were revealed but I know they will fill in when the temps come up to the 80s consistently and the grass really begins to grow aggressively and my preemergent wears off. What I did notice is that areas where the grass was rooted well, the sunjoe did not pull those up and they are still thick and are now green. I'm mowing it at 1" to 1.5" and already I can see new stolons beginning to creep into the thin areas and I'm enthusiastically waiting to see them tack down roots and thicken those areas. Then in the summer heat of July and August I'll be using Dethatch to break down grass clippings from mowing. Normally I would not recommend mechanically dethatching in February ever, in fact I will likely never do it again. I would wait until mid-April like now to do it after the initial green up and heading into vigorous growth with higher temperatures to clear out the old dormant dead material from the winter amongst the green. The main thing is that it won't leave the lawn looking so ugly for so long and exposed soil for a long period of time is a bad thing. However, I knew I had some already thin areas that were just covered with thinly rooted stolons and I needed access to the soil surface in the early spring to prep, so that's why I did it. I still go back and forth if it was necessary or not but it is working out just fine. Anyway, I hope my story helps answer some questions about using the sunjoe on bermuda.

@@JoNathanB1976 Glad someone else is in the same boat as me. I detached on Feb 29th and used a flail blade machine. Rented machine from Sunbelt and I asked if I could sharpen the blades, which they were fine with. The next day I had a complete brain fart and woke up excited to get in the yard and never sharpened the blades. My front yard is Bermuda & Zoysia mix (actually blends pretty well, not sure of the actual varieties). I did that area first and the grass is well established and did just as you described...most of it stayed intact, while a few area most of the grass was ripped up. Back yard took more of a beating and that's when I realized my mistake with the blades...but I was pretty close to done with the first pass and most of the grass looked ok. I finished up and scalped down to 3/8". Fast forward to today and I still have some pretty thin areas...we also had record rain in March and I have some poor drainage in those areas that were already more bare...so that did further damage. I had my yard looking the best ever last year and still wish I could go back and just forgo the dethatch honestly...or do what you mentioned and wait until later in the spring. The backyard is all Bermuda and I'm still crossing my fingers that it'll fill in and I'll have my nice yard back soon.

This topic can get its own video in relation to warm season turf. Now, there’s is a significant amount of this vid that can be applied to Zoysia, not Bermuda or St Augustine. I’m happy to answer those questions but visually I can’t show them because I’m not able to travel right now 😢

@@Lawncology Then there's the whole controversy of verti-cutting a St. Augustine lawn. Whew.

StrikitRich yes

Have you treated that with an iron product?

@@Lawncology no, I'm an organic gardener and haven't looked into whether the iron is kosher or not. Thanks

Sean Brink oooohh... fun topic. I cut mine to half inch last year. I would say 1.5 is a safe zone for most

@@Lawncology Thanks John. I don't have a reel mower, nor is my lawn really level enough for one. But I can do 1.5 on my rotary. I will give that a try next winter!

I actually had a joke in there and took it out because i thought people wouldn't get it!

yes but not excessive. 2.5-3 inches

that little machine is impressive. I was talking to Jared (Ginja) about his and hes planning on running the broom attachment on his new Allet mower this year since he cleaned it so well with the Sun Joe

Morning

Good Morning Maureen!

Lawncology Good afternoon, John! 😆

😂😂😂 no.

Lawncology 😏made ya think about it though

Lawncology You have the same theme song as Lawn Porn* ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PS8ZAzsHCAI.html

I suppose it would depend on the grass type, blue grass can send up to 1300 daughter plants a year via rhizomes. That's with just letting it do its thing

lol. like you need anymore goodies :) :)

@@Lawncology That's Very 💯 true 👍

I did both, but chat first. Ugh.

I make it so difficult. I love that everyone is having fun with it!

Did the chat count

@@lou8891 Didn't see the live chat working today

Yes

Tell your wife I apologize for that. Looks like I missed that balance.

Thanks for watching, there are zero weeds in this lawn but there are compacted areas from the reel mower where deeper edging and overhang affected the turf. It will all be filled in as we get into the actual growing season.

Sorry, *Tiny* Yeti... hadn’t had my coffee yet. Have some pity on my poor, uncaffeinated soul.

@8:30