Thoughts on core aeration

[cp1969]

Just finished core aerating about three acres. Don't know if it will do much good, but can't do much harm and only cost about $75 (rental on the Landpride core aerator).

Observations: The Landpride CA2572 that I rented looked to be fairly new. It also had the optional water tanks. When I picked it up, I noticed that most of the tines were clogged from the previous use, so I took the trouble to clear them out and grease the spindles.

Conditions for aerating were, I feel, nearly ideal. We'd gotten an inch of rain earlier in the week, and 1/4" fell Saturday morning before I got started. The ground was moist, but not wet.

I thought I would try the aerator without water ballast just to see what it would do. Empty, it would barely penetrate the ground. I ended up filling the water tanks completely full (72 gallons) and at that only got about 2-2.5" penetration.

I gave the ground the suggested two perpindicular passes. After that, I cleaned out the tines again before returning it. Judging from how hard some of the tines were to clean, it became apparent to me that most of these tines couldn't have been "core" aerating. I am fairly confident that no more than 20% of the tines were actually pulling cores; the rest were just poking holes in the ground. I also noticed that two tines were MIA--nowhere to be seen, but I am sure I will find them when I mow--and many more of the tines are in an imminent failure mode.

I had always thought Landpride made pretty good equipment, but this aerator really doesn't work that well and looks to me like it would take a lot of maintenance if one used it very much at all.

 

[cherymax]

I've been "coring" for a few years now. I try to do it, after a heavy rain, in the fall and again in the spring. I live in red clay country (GA) but my soil isn't all clay... anywho...
I use a Home Depot special 48" core aerator 8 flanges/4 three-quarter inch tines per flange. I use 4, 80lb bags of concrete as weight and get about 2.5-3 inches of penatration. It varies in some areas.. but most of the time penatration is pretty good.
I can't vouch for how much good it does... cause I don't know what it would have looked like had I not aerated. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif However, my yard does look better than my any of my neighbors.
Like you mentioned, I also go both directions... according to my lawn care book... you should aim for 12 cores per square ft.

I see you had the Land Pride 2572, 12 flanges, 8 tines per flange . It weighs 485lbs and you had 72 gallons of water 72gal * 8.33lbs =600lbs

Lets see:
Assuming that only 1 tine per flange was engaging the ground at the same time...

(600 + 485) / 12 flanges = 90lbs per flange

If 2 tines per flange were touching at a time your down to 45lbs per tine.

Now me:
4bags * 80lbs = 320lbs + 100lbs (weight of aerator, guessing)

420lbs / 8 flanges = 53lbs per flange

Wow I never worked it out before /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif If my math is close, it sounds like you had the weight about right.

anywho... I think it helps.

 

[BRIGUY]

Last year I rented a BlueBird Walk behind power core aerator. Nice Machine, but it will drag you around like a rag doll until you learn how to finesse it.

When I picked it up almost all of the tines were filled with dry soil. I thought that this might be a problem, but soon found out it wasn't. The tines were cone shaped, (exit end larger than the end that contacts soil). So the second I began using the aerator all of the tines worked properly.

Even after the first of the 2 recommended passes the entire lawn looked like it was covered with goose poop (cores pushed through the tines).

I have only used an aerator a few times but I would think that if the lawn isn't covered with cores than the machine is not penetrating or not pulling the cores out properly.

I did return the machine cleaner than I rented it.

 

[DDT]

I have a LP 2572 and it works well for me, but the soil must not be too hard. I usally get a 3" deepth, sound like your ground was alittle hard for CA.
Were in Kansas are you?

 

[cowboydoc]

The tines are supposed to fill with dirt. When you make a new pass it will push the dirt out of the tine. If you look at the tines they are cone shaped. I don't know about the one you had but I have the same one and I've never cleaned the tines out. When I go out and aerate everyone of them makes a plug.

 

[Mark4510]

Does anyone ever aerate thier pastures? I spread our shaving/manure out there along with fertilizer and I wonder if it would help if I made a couple of passes. Our pastures aren't big....probably 200'x200'

thanks,
Mark

 

[cowboydoc]

It helps alot Mark. There is a # of research articles about this. We did our own little study awhile back and you could tell a significant difference in the strips we aerated compared to the strips we didn't. Growth was signiificantly better, the grass was greener, it came back faster after rotating the cattle, and the next year the grass in the strips we had done were much thicker. For the big pastures we use a Lawson aerator.

 

[KennyV]

I have always figured if aeration was good for lawn grasses it had to be good for pastures.

Instead of a core aerator on my pasture, I have always set my disk straight across. This allows the disks to slice straight lines. I put enough weight on it so it will penetrate about 2- 3”. If you can get this done before a good rain it helps grab up any runoff water.

I think I can tell there is an improvement in the grass. I KNOW it helps thicken the bermuda. KennyV

 

[Mark4510]

/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Ok Richard that made me laugh. I could not even turn that around in my pastures /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif But I get it.

I might see what folks have for a rental around here or I might just give KennyV's suggestion a shot. Our neighbor needed to get rid of some dirt so we let him raise the leve of our pastures down by the creek. I need to level it out, break up some crumbly rock, and reseed much of it. I think the rest was looking pretty punky so I may aerate that part so the spring growth comes in strong.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[thcri]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I might see what folks have for a rental around here )</font>


No rental places around here to compact equipment. You would think with the rise in compact tractors that the rental places would start having the attachments available?

murph