Instructions on Using a Dethatcher on Your Lawn
- You can stop thatch from generating by taking care of your lawn on a regular basis, and also by not over fertilizing--particularly with high-nitrogen fertilizers. The best time to dethatch depends on your type of grass, and whether or not your lawn is vigorously growing. Mixes of warm and cool grasses (mixed season lawns) are most often dethached in the fall and sometimes in the spring. Lawns which contain cool season grass are also generally dethatched around this same time of year. The beginning summer months are the time to dethatch warm season grass lawns. Keep in mind that thatch is a great place for insects and disease organisms. Since the thatch layer is residue from plants in various stages of decay, it's a suitable environment for growths like mold to thrive.
- Mow your lawn to its lowest height. The kind of grass you have will also determine its best length. Use a power dethatcher, which is a vertical cutter, to dethatch your lawn. Use a power dethatcher with enough horsepower to adequately complete the job. Don't use power dethatchers around sprinkler heads or over buried cables. Contact your local utility company and inquire about any underground cables that run beneath your property. Also take care to mark sprinkler heads.
- Use a cavex rake to carefully pick up any twigs, branches or leaves before you begin. This will allow you to get the most out of your dethatcher. For large lawns, run a power dethatcher over the lawn in a pattern that covers the area only once. Make several passes to get rid of all thatch that exists on your lawn. To prevent grass from being brought up with the thatch, use 90-degree angles. Don't shove the blade into the soil. You'll uproot large areas of grass with the thatch. Water your lawn before you begin the dethatch process. Wet thatch is much simpler to remove than dry thatch; your lawn will also recover much faster.