You may have been admiring your neighbor’s beautiful green lawn and been told that the secret is liquid aeration. While there are many benefits to liquid aeration, especially when compared with core aeration, it helps to first understand what aeration is, why it’s important, and what liquid aeration does exactly to help your lawn.
What is Lawn Aeration?
Lawn aeration is the process of breaking up thatch, which is a layer of organic material that builds up around the base of your grass—it consists of living and decaying plant matter, including stems and roots. When this layer becomes too thick, it can prevent fresh air, water, and nutrients from reaching the root zone of your grass. By breaking up the thatch, aeration helps healthier and faster.
Additionally, aeration helps to loosen the soil, which can easily become compacted throughout the year. By loosening up the soil, the roots are more easily able to grow and expand.
What Causes Soil Compaction?
Soil compaction occurs when soil particles become pressed together. Regular foot traffic is one of the main causes of compaction in yards, though factors such as climate and soil type can also contribute to the compression. In the case of the College Station area, the extreme summer temperatures and presence of clay in the soil make Texan yards especially prone to soil compaction.
What Are The Benefits Of Aeration?
Among those listed above, the benefits of aeration include:
- Increased access to fresh air, water, and nutrients.
- Improved water absorption and thereby reduced runoff.
- More advanced and resilient root systems.
- Encourages the growth of different beneficial microorganisms.
- Reduced soil compaction.
- Easier fertilizer uptake.
- And more!
Liquid Aeration vs Core Aeration
When it comes to aerating your lawn, you have a choice in which method you use—either core or liquid aeration.
- Core aeration (also known as mechanical aeration) uses a machine called a lawn aerator to perforate the ground with small holes, pulling up plugs or “cores” of thatch and soil.
- Liquid aeration uses a liquid application that soaks into the soil and essentially breaking the bonds of nutrients and other matter, such as natural metals, nitrogen, phosphorus, and more. By breaking up the bonds in the soil, the process creates pore space between the soil particles themselves, making space for more air, water, and nutrients and reducing compaction.
Why choose Liquid Aeration over Core Aeration?
While core aeration is the most common, there are many benefits to choosing liquid aeration instead. Some of these benefits include that liquid aeration:
- Is easier and faster to apply.
- Penetrates the ground more thoroughly and loosens the soil deeper.
- Assists in creating deeper and more dense roots, which can increase your lawn’s drought tolerance.
- Has less of a direct impact on the soil and doesn’t leave plugs all over your lawn.
- Covers a much larger surface area, including surfaces the lawn aerator can not access.
- Becomes more effective with each application.
FAQs about Liquid Aeration
I’ve always done regular core aeration and never had a problem. Why change?
Mechanical aeration temporarily damages your lawn, whereas organic liquid aeration does no damage at all. This means it can be done at any time during the season rather than just those spring and fall time frames that are the old standard for the lawn care industry. While core aeration pulls plugs every few inches across the lawn, liquid aeration covers the entire surface area of the turf. More coverage directly correlates to more consistent results and greater benefits overall.
The main reasons that liquid aeration is a better long term approach than core aeration are:
- It allows more irrigation/rain into the soil profile, which helps with compaction.
- The organic material helps to improve the overall soil health.
- The humic allows us to quickly shock the soil PH.
How often should you aerate your lawn?
We recommend that you aerate your lawn during spring, and in severe cases, again in the fall.
- Spring aeration helps to break up thatch that has formed over the winter months.
- Fall aeration helps to loosen up the soil and counteract the compaction that comes from new root growth for perennial grasses.
While these are the traditional times to perform core aeration, liquid aeration can be performed throughout the year. Speak with a lawn care professional to develop the best treatment plan for your lawn.
What Brand of Liquid Aeration does Aggieland Green Recommend?
Thatch build-up and soil compaction are a reality for the Brazos Valley and surrounding area, and it is a major impediment to the growth of health and lush grass. Lawn aeration is the best solution to this problem.
Contact Aggieland Green to ask us about our professional aeration services.