field note 003: VERTICUT VS AERATion
Short answer: if you are overseeding, verticut. Aeration is for compacted soil. For growing grass seed, it is not close.
The biggest confusion we hear every year is customers assuming aeration and overseeding go hand in hand. They do not. Plenty of companies advertise the pair, and here is why: one pass with an aerator, broadcast the seed, no cleanup. It is quick. Quick is not the same as effective.
WHEN AERATION IS THE RIGHT CALL
Aeration has its place. If your soil is compacted, pulling plugs loosens it up, and that helps the lawn stay healthy and prevent disease. As a lawn health service, it is a good one. As a way to grow seed, it is almost pointless.
WHY SEED FAILS ON AN AERATED LAWN
Seed has to be in contact with soil to germinate. Seed thrown down on matted grass sits on top of the grass and thatch and never sprouts. At best, you are hoping some of it falls into the aeration holes. Most of it never finds dirt.
THE VERTICUT PROCESS
We verticut the yard in one direction. The machine cuts grooves into the ground, like rows in a crop field, and pulls up all the dead thatch.
We blow the entire yard clean with a backpack blower. Getting that thatch out is what thins the yard down so seed can reach the soil instead of sitting on top of dead grass.
We verticut again in the opposite direction. Now that the soil is loosened from the first pass, the second pass cuts real grooves. The additional thatch that comes up is raked into piles and removed carefully, so those grooves stay open.
Seed goes down into the grooves. That is true seed to soil contact.
It is a four step process with a lot of cleanup compared to aeration, and the germination rate is night and day.
Then the watering is your job: three times a day, at 9 AM, noon, and 3 PM. Eight to ten minutes is enough. You are not soaking the seed, you are keeping it damp at all times. If seed dries out before it germinates, that seed is lost.
After hundreds of yards verticut and seeded this way, we will put our process up against anyone's.
Platz Landscapes, Blue Springs, Missouri.
