What Is Liquid Aeration?
No, that's not a picture of dog doo doo on the lawn. It's plugs or cores of dirt and thatch that were removed by a core aeration machine. If you dislike those little aeration pellets littering your yard for several weeks after a treatment, you're gonna love our new liquid aeration! Liquid aeration is an organic treatment that is used by the Heritage lawn coaches to increase water penetration and decrease thatch on your lawn that involves no aeration machine or plugs of dirt being pulled out.
Why Aerate at All?
First, you need to know why you should aerate your lawn. Throughout the year, a layer of thatch covers our lawns. Thatch is undecomposed stems and roots that accumulate near the soil surface. This layer is created to protect the crowns of the grass plant to keep them from being crushed. But, when the thatch layer becomes too thick, it becomes hydrophobic (won’t let water penetrate) and the perfect breeding ground for insects and lawn diseases. An annual aeration breaks up the thatch layer to keep this from happening.
Liquid Aeration Is Eco-Friendly
Liquid aeration is a brand new service that is currently only provided in Kansas City by Heritage Lawns. We were introduced to this combination of products from a friend and colleague who owns an organic lawn company and we were excited about the potential. Our team spent all of this past fall testing and working it into our Eco-Pride Program.TIP: Liquid aeration is the perfect alternative for those who aren't seeding.
How Does Liquid Aeration Work?
This treatment is 100% organic. It is a combination of two organic products that come together to perfectly aerate your lawn. The first product is a wetting agent made from a South American plant extract that helps the water penetrate our hard clay soils.The second product is a microbial-package used to eat the thatch layer. This package has been used for many years in Japan to eat the rice stubble in the rice paddies, that way they don’t have to burn them each year causing unnecessary air pollution. Guess what? It works well on grass thatch too.
When to Use Liquid Aeration
Just like with core aeration, the best time to aerate with liquid is in the spring and fall. Your soil’s temperature needs to be between 50 and 90 degrees F. This gives us a small window of time between September 1st and October 15th to aerate the Kansas City lawns.
Why Choose Liquid Aeration over Core Aeration?
Why should you choose liquid aeration over core aeration? It comes down to convenience. Kansas City homeowners’ are loving the fact that with liquid aeration they don’t have to mark their sprinkler heads, pet fences, and valve boxes or worry about the dirt cores covering their lawn. With traditional core aeration, a large machine is pushed over the lawn to poke holes in the thatch layer, and this causes small tubes of soil to be brought to the surface. This is not a big deal and the cores eventually break down and filter back into the thatch layer. But until they break down, it can be a nuisance to walk on and kids and pets can track them inside. Liquid aeration is just that - liquid. With liquid aeration, our lawn coaches simply walk the lawn and spray it on just like any other treatment.NOTE: This treatment does NOT help with seeding.You will still need to prepare the soil either by core aeration, raking, or verticutting to achieve good seed-to-soil contact for the seed to take. So, if you are looking into seeding this year, speak to your lawn coach to find out if core aerating and/or verticutting with seeding is right for your lawn.
