The Best Aerator for thick, tall St. Augustine

[centraltxturf]

I'm in Texas, and treat mostly St. Augustine turf. When I was in the business in colorado, we used bluebirds and classen split-drives for Kentucky Bluegrass.

Now that I'm in Texas, it's much hotter and to make matters worse, the st. augustine is very, very thick and difficult to aerate. The grass is 3-4' tall, with thatch layers in addition. I am looking for my first aerator down here and am considering classen split drive, classen ride-on, or anything else that would work the best. I care for mostly residential lawns, averaging 8000 sf. some are much larger, up to 1-2 acres, but not sure if they'll have me aerate.

If anyone with experience aerating st. augustine can advise, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[RAlmaroad]

Originally Posted by centraltxturf

I'm in Texas, and treat mostly St. Augustine turf. When I was in the business in colorado, we used bluebirds and classen split-drives for Kentucky Bluegrass.

Now that I'm in Texas, it's much hotter and to make matters worse, the st. augustine is very, very thick and difficult to aerate. The grass is 3-4' tall, with thatch layers in addition. I am looking for my first aerator down here and am considering classen split drive, classen ride-on, or anything else that would work the best. I care for mostly residential lawns, averaging 8000 sf. some are much larger, up to 1-2 acres, but not sure if they'll have me aerate.

If anyone with experience aerating st. augustine can advise, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Are you sure that it is St. Augustine that is 3-4 feet high??? Could you possibly post a photo?

[centraltxturf]

I sure hope so. If i cant identify st. augustine I'm in the wrong business. especially since 90% of our lawns are...

my question is about aerators, not identifying turfgrass.

Thanks

[dave k]

I think he meant 3 to 4 inches tall, no way St Augistine can grow that tall unless its on steroids!

[dave k]

Have you looked at the First Products?
Their aerators really do a good job.
http://www.1stproducts.com/2007/index.php
They are called the aeravator, they can really shatter the hard ground, when we were in the drought here, the core aerators wouldn't even go in the ground in one inch, a friend bought the aeravator for his dingo and it really did good in hard clay! Plus you can use it for redoing lawns, let me know what you think, they have a video that you can watch, good luck!