Dethatching in the rain?

[Critical Care]

Aerating in the rain is one thing, but what about dethatching? Has anyone done it? It seems as if it would tear up the turf and cause a big mess.

Needless to say, I'm getting tired of putting off my aeration and dethatching jobs because of snow or rain. The temptation is to just to do it and hope for the best. Probably not the wise choice, eh?

[BCSteel]

I have power raked in the rain many times. It sucks bad. You have to rake everything and its a heavy, sloppy, muddy job. It still turns out ok but I really hate doing it in the rain.

[procut]

I wouldn't, seems like it would cause a big mess.

[stumper1620]

I wouldn't, seems like it would cause a big mess.
drought condition kinda suck too. I just got my jrco rake today and tried it out in my yard, wow what a dust storm! I couldn't even see where i was going when the wind was blowing right. a little damp would be nice.

[justgeorge]

I did one the other day, using JRCO tine rake dethatcher and bagger on my walkbehind. It didn't do very good, plus with the extra weight of the dethatcher and bagger on the mower it wanted to slip too much so I quit. It wasn't raining either, just damp from rain a few hours before.

[ECS]

Stumper, better get one of those paper masks to wear when it gets like that. Works great. Also wear a pair of goggles, even a pair of ski goggles, your eyes, throat and mouth will thank you for it.

[Critical Care]

Well, I postponed this work for another week. Guess its better all around since I came down with a cold anyway. Needless to say, I certainly wouldn’t be singing in the rain.

In the past, when conditions were dry, I would have my clients water their lawns the day before and not the day of my arrival. This seemed to keep the dust down and so far I’ve been lucky and haven’t come across any real wet lawns. Rain would change that in a hurry of course, and I’m sure there is probably a fine line between what is too damp and what is just right.

[nocutting]

When I was working for somebody else it was a "Day Off",woopie!!!!!!!!, If you have a bluebird power rake at least can ajust the debth [ not too deep on wet days], but the after effects are messy, dirty/ muddy, the results are fine.If I was stuck in a rainy period, I try to do my smallest lawns & save the big ones for dry days.[ thats for sure]....far less heavy / sloppy mess to clean up.At least with the smaller properties you can still maintain a level of profitibility. payup :)