Dethatcher question

[ffd411]

Anyone know where I can find a dethatcher to fit Toro 48" walkbehind or even if one is made. I've looked at toro website no help there and done several searches for it. Hope you guys can help out. Thanks

[k911lowe]

most of the time de thatchers are not necessary unless you use a real mower.if you use a commercial grade mower and catch the cuttings you shouldn't have any thatch.

[DJ Contracting]

most of the time de thatchers are not necessary unless you use a real mower.if you use a commercial grade mower and catch the cuttings you shouldn't have any thatch.


That works in AZ. but he lives in the NE and thats a totally different grass up there, you still leave some clipping up here. I have seen some people convert a pull behind dethatcher to mount on the front of their mowers either w/b or ztrs. I sure somebody here has done this maybe the'll chime in good luck.

[SchultzLawnCare]

try jrco company.

[Raven386]

JRCO's dethatcher works pretty well, and they make a bunch of other attachments...

[Laner]

I had a JRCO, which did a very nice job, however it just didn't last very long for the money, but that was about 7 years ago. I had the JRCO on the front of my Toro 520Lxi. When I switched to John Deere tractors I decided to do a little engineering and build one for the front of the tractor that uses a hydraulic cylinder to raise/lower the dethatcher. Just leave the hydraulic cylinder in the float-mode and it works well.
The JRCO would work nicely on the front of your walk behind.

[ffd411]

Thanks for the replies.

[txgrassguy]

I see this all of the time - a front mounted spring tine rake is a rake - not a "dethatcher".
You are confusing a top layer of undecomposed organic matter with a similar type of matter that is actually in the soil.
So what you want is a spring tine rake - Jrco has them, they are relatively inexpensive and should work well on a walk behind mower.
Should you wish to actually penetrate the soil surface and remove what is correctly identified as thatch, you would need a flail or fixed blade verticutter or rake that has the drive mechanism to penetrate the soil, lift the thatch and hopefully not damage the host turfgrass. However, this type of operation is a great precursor to re-seeding and several companies make machines specifically for this type of work.

[LandscaperPro]

Anyone know where I can find a dethatcher to fit Toro 48" walkbehind or even if one is made. I've looked at toro website no help there and done several searches for it. Hope you guys can help out. Thanks

If it is a fixed deck, I have it in stock. If it is a floating deck, I can order it from JRCO straight to you.

Here you go:

http://www.landscaperpro.com/ProductImages/th-472LS.jpg (http://www.landscaperpro.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=978)

[Marcos]

most of the time de thatchers are not necessary unless you use a real mower.if you use a commercial grade mower and catch the cuttings you shouldn't have any thatch.

txgrassguy is absolutely right.

"Cuttings" thrown onto a lawn is not considered "thatch", unless the situation is an outright abusive one where the turf is being butchered at 50% or more of it's overall height...after waiting too long in between mowings, usually.

True 'thatch' is actually comprised of the un-decomposed stems of the grass plants; which is more specifically the rhizomes and/or stolons on the ' aggressive spreaders' such as bluegrass, zoysia, and bermuda.

That's why tall fescues and ryegrasses simply don't develop thatch at any time, anywhere.
They don't have rhizomes OR stolons, to speak of.

k911lowe....catching clippings in this day and age is just plain passe.