Power rake or not in fall

[meets1]

Do you guys power rake any lawns in the fall? This one crew here is doing every lawn they service. We do all that work in the spring. Only thing we do is aeration - try to do it before we fertilizer but not always in the schedule.

 

[fga]

i do it in the spring and fall. fall is more involved, for us, usaully repairing summer damage. power rake , fertilzer, seed, peat moss.

in the spring, we do the same, just no seed, due to the pre emergent.

good money in doing this way.

 

[grassyfras]

Doing it this late will probbly make it look like Sh*t for winter. I think power raking is over done most the time. Also depends on the grass.

 

[jd boy]

aerate in the fall, thatch in the spring.
it will make the lawn look crappy for the winter plus you want thatch for winter protection

 

[Green-Pro]

We have been power raking, seed & starter fert this fall due to the beating a lot of lawns took from the severe drought of summer. I don't agree that it makes lawns look like crap or that it causes the lawn to winter hard. When done within a common sense time frame in the fall the raking and seeding will benefit the lawn, think about it, the best time to seed a new lawn is in the fall.

We sold a good deal of aeration this fall but the power raking, if I would check my records, probably sold just as well, perhaps better when you include the seeding and starter fert (yes some folks wanted just aeration & no more)

-Geoff

 

[ProLawns]

If the lawn has a lot of thatch or bermuda I power rake, then aerate. I use delta blades which dig up thatch and loosen the surface. This aids in germination and the lawn looks great for winter.

 

[grassyfras]

Green- Pro I agree that timing is everything but hes asking about doing it now( to me at least). I wouldn't beucase of how late it is even if it had alot of thatch.

 

[fga]

in ny, i'm usually still cutting til decmeber 15th, even if its only slight growth. late septemeber/october gives me plenty of time to get things in order for the holidays. i did one last week, and the seed is already coming up good. we have mixtures of perrenial rye and kentucky blue.

 

[Green-Pro]

Green- Pro I agree that timing is everything but hes asking about doing it now( to me at least). I wouldn't beucase of how late it is even if it had alot of thatch.

Yep, didn't catch that, also notice he is in NW Iowa (will be snowing there before long me thinks). I would say though I being in southeast Iowa or where you are located to the south, would not be afraid of doing even now. We have a new lawn to seed on Monday, I know most folks figure seeding is best from mid-August to October, just seems to me the more I'm around the more I notice, like a lot of seeding gets done late October and even early November (at least around here. JMO but seems lawns seeded in August & October always seem to tank, some of the best lawns I've seen (from an hobby/enthusiast standpoint) are the September and early November ones, again JMO and my limited experience in my profile reflects experience in doing this as a business only.

Thanks for the heads up on the original post though.

 

[meets1]

Thanks for the info. Been watching that "crew" going like crazy power raking all there lawns. Were doing fall clean ups, finishing our fertilizer apps, and doing a little seeding, and of course preparing for the winter. We have a weeks worth of aeration to do, but I also do some in the spring.

Generally, we only thatch in the spring, aeration in fall & spring, depending upon fert. apps of post or pre emg.