[cutntrim]

Do you guys find that you do much dethatching? In my area very little of it is done, however, everyone is ga-ga over aeration. I can count on one hand the number of dethatch jobs I've done since starting out in 1992. I have no problem with that, since aeration is much less labor-intensive than dethatching, and is more beneficial to the lawn in any regard.

[BCSteel]

Its actually the exact opposite out here in BC. Until this year I could count the number of aerations that I have done in the past 8 years on one hand but I would power rake all props every year. This year I sold every one on the benifits of aerating instead of pr'ing and now I have 6 weeks where instead of having to do pr'ing at all my sites I can now focus on other things. 3 days of aerating vs 6 weeks of pr'ing? Sounds good to me.

[GLAN]

We power rake as part of the spring cleanup.....it is common here. If it weren't I would still do it. I like getting all the sticks and other debris out of the lawn.

Aeration we do with the fall seeding as part of our program....This spring I am offering it as an add on service and will continue to push it till I have just about all doing it twice a year before I just make the spring SOP as it is for us in the fall.

Here Cornell recommends that primary aeration is done in fall, secondary is spring.

[cutntrim]

Likewise for aeration here...fall first, spring second. One of the reasons I've been recommending fall over spring has been to avoid punching holes through the pre-M Dimension crabgrass barrier put down in the spring. Seems the experts are now saying that aerating afterwards has a near-negligible effect on the germination rate anyway...so, looks like spring'll be just as good as fall for aerating 'round here.

[Mark Oomkes]

We've been doing spring and fall aeration for at least 10 years now. Fall aeration for over 20. Don't know the last time we did a de-thatch. I'm not that ambitious.

We have an Olathe (Toro) sweeper that 'power rakes' the turf, cleaning up winter debris, etc. We use this unless the grass starts growing and\or spring rains wash most of the junk out of the lawns.