I want to get an inexpensive dethatching machine for my smallish and relatively formal 3500 ft^2 lawn.
Depending on which book or website you read, dethatching machines can be as simple as a single-pass rake or as severe as a flail-knife rototiller. And what some references include under “dethatching machines” others call “power rakes”.
I want to get the effect I can already get with intense raking, which pulls up all this brown fibrous stuff and leaves me looking at dirt and grass plants that still look fairly undamaged. But intense raking is too much effort on this area.
I thought the reel mower like device in the first reference below looked about right, but wonder if anyone has experience with it. The Mantis attachment (second reference) looks attractive too, but I don’t know if I want the expensive Mantis power base to begin with. The simple rake-like things don’t look like they’d accomplish much, and the flail-knife thing looks too severe (I don’t see why I want to tear that much up!).
What do the Dopers know about this? BTW I live in Maryland and my lawn is Bluegrass and Tall Fescue, plus Ryegrass that I am hoping will gradually disappear if I only seed the first two.
I picked up a used dethatcher when a local rental yard went out of business. The rotary bar has several rows of heavy gauge wire fingers which pick up all of the thatch and matted leaves that the lawn mower didn’t get (I bag). Because I live in the woods, the leaves are the biggest problem. Depending on the type of mower you own, a dethatching blade may be available with spring fingers to dislodge the stuff once you’ve mowed. If you’re only going to do it once a year, renting one for a day is only $20-then you don’t need to store and maintain it.
I did 4000[/] today by hand with a manual thatcher - it’s not very strenuous & it’s even easier than raking leaves.
According to that site:
>used dethatcher… The rotary bar has several rows of heavy gauge wire fingers which pick up all of the thatch and matted leaves that the lawn mower didn’t get
Yeah, that’s what I think I should have, something powered with heavy gage wire fingers lifting stuff - no flailing knives, no pulling up the soil. Oh, and I bag too.
>I did 4000[/] today by hand with a manual thatcher - it’s not very strenuous & it’s even easier than raking leaves.
Damn. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but when I do it, it looks like the photo on that site. On my last try I did about 100 square feet (not 1000, just 100) and was exhausted, and sore for a couple days after. I’d say it was 20 times harder - more physical effort - than raking leaves. Plus, I have some moss, and the rake pulls that up with a half inch of dirt (I think I should be liming for moss, or maybe something else chemical in my books).
Now I have a bad back and don’t think I can even contemplate the thatch rake. I am concluding I want something with rotating heavy gage wire fingers that lift byt don’t cut or dig. I don’t know how to figure out before buying whether the human powered reel type would work well enough. And it’s surprising to me how few devices like this I find when I search the web for them - every lawn book talks about regular dethatching, but there’s only a couple distant companies that deal in what I want…
Go to your yellow pages and look under rental equipment. There are 4 stores within a 20 minute ride from my house that rent them. Try renting the manual one for a day to see if it does the job for you. If you want to buy, ask the rental stores. Many times they like to get rid of pieces of equipment before they’re worn out, and don’t forget eBay.
My SO has been wanting to dethatch the yard for a while, so we rented one a couple of weeks ago.
I would definately recommend renting over buying. I can’t imagine putting my yard through this more then every couple of years (MAYBE once a year). The dethatcher covered maybe 30-36 inches with each pass, and removed a lot of the live grass in addition to the stuff down on the ground. We now have a striped yard. Stipes of long grass between the rows of grass that were pulled out.
Once in a while, it’s not a big deal. We spread a little grass seed, and it will be fine shortly.
You shouldn’t have thatch. Search the web for proper lawn care and you can avoid it thru good fertilization, cutting and watering practices.
Additionally, dethatching should occur in the fall, not the spring as you’ll open the ground to weeds.
Before dethatching, try renting a core aerator. Generally, there is a movement towards aeration exclusively over dethatching. Aerate in the fall and over seed.
Stop thatch:
Cut regularly…1/3 of grass at most
Water DEEP…and not everyday. Twice per week max.
Fertilize lightly or in the fall only. Try avoid using water soluable fertilizers. Look for organic products that encourage microbiotic activity (thatch eaters)
Get a mulching blade and leave the clippings. They return fertiulizer to soil and return organic matter, which = more micorbiotic activity = less thatch.
You fee you MUST detatch? Do it in the fall and then look to prevent thatch in the future.
Thatch is not harmful. It will decompose and become the top layer of next year’s topsoil. It slows down evaporation of the soil’s water.
Thatch was once thought to be dead grass. Most of it isn’t. Shallow watering encourages surface roots, and most thatch turns out to be roots. That’s from the agronomists at Purdue U., and they no longer encourage dethatching.