These are long tools that you stand on with one foot to poke down into the ground. This way you can see what works well for you before deciding to purchase anything. I’d recommend renting an aerator first too. If the soil is not compacted, there’s not real benefit and you can actually make a compaction problem worse. Whichever style of aerator you like, make sure your lawn would actually benefit from aeration. Leaving plugs all over your grass looks terrible too.
Some people recommend leaving them on your lawn but I like to pick them up with a lawn sweeper. One downside of core aeration is that you’ll end up with lots of tiny plugs of soil on top your grass. You also get a reverse option on some models too which is useful to maneuverer around tricky spots of your yard. Some reciprocating aerators have a manoeuvrability advantage. If you’ve got bare dirt then it’s good to go over these areas several times. If you haven’t had much rain and the ground is very dry, you might want to consider watering your lawn a little first. The more moisture you have, the larger the plugs will be so ultimately more air and water can get deeper into the ground. The moisture in the ground will determine how well these machines are going to work. Riding on an aerator may be faster and less effort, but it will put less holes in the ground than a reciprocating aerator, so you’ll probably have to make multiple passes for it to be as effective. You can get walk-behind or ride-on options. This is great because you might have a dead or diseased area which you might want to repair by planting new seed. You can also adjust the hole density per square foot by slowing down the machine. As the machine moves forward, the weight of the machine drives the tines into the ground.Ī reciprocating aerator has far less tines than a drum type, which is useful because it requires less service which saves your time and money. With a drum type aerator, the tines are on a shaft which rotates. During this process, you pull out lots of tiny plugs of dirt called cores. The hollow tines are propelled and go straight up and down into the ground. One being a reciprocating aerator and the other is a drum type aerator.Ī reciprocating aerator runs on a cam shaft which turns on a pulley system. There a couple of different styles of core aerator machines. Once this plug has been removed, the soil is now open to allow for more airflow, water and nutrient absorption. Studies have shown you’re covering too small of an area for it to make any difference.Ī core aerator has tines that go into the ground. It’s not effective in reducing soil compaction because you’re not going deep enough into the ground. I wouldn’t recommend this method of aerating. Sometimes golf shoes are recommended for this too.
You then walk across your lawn so that the spikes stick into the ground. Some people like to use aerator shoes which have spikes on the bottom. This is often done by filling the drum with water. To increase spike penetration, you can add weight. Most commonly, spikes are added to the outside of a drum which is then towed around the yard by a lawn tractor. The idea is that these spikes penetrate the ground leaving small holes that allow air, water and nutrients to get down into the ground. Like it sounds, most spike aerators work by rolling spikes across your lawn.
To put it simply, spike and core aerators put holes in the ground. There two traditional types of aerators, spike and core aerators. In this article, I’ll cover the various different types of aerators you can use and explain when you might want to use them.
Spike aerator vs plug aerator manual#
There are several different tools that you can used to aerate your lawn, some are mechanical, some are manual and there are chemical options too. It works well in conjunction with seeding to provide a good environment for the seeds to come up. You may notice some brown spots where the dirt has gotten so tight and the roots can’t spread out and grow.Īerators are used to reduce soil compaction and to allow air, water and nutrients to penetrate faster and deeper into the soil. The second problem with compaction is that there is a lack of airflow to the root zone which limits the amount of oxygen down there too. When your soil gets very compact, the water runs off the top of the surface and the root system of the grass doesn’t get much water. If you make a purchase through links from this website, we may get a small share of the sale from Amazon and other similar affiliate programs. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made on our website.
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