# Hard freeze coming up, when to aerate?



## creeper (Mar 11, 2011)

I'd just wait until spring


----------



## user1007 (Sep 23, 2009)

creeper said:


> I'd just wait until spring


Canadians, our lazy half French neighbors to the North, would wait for anything but you serve no purpose aerating ground this late. Jan is right. Wait until after the spring thaw.


----------



## creeper (Mar 11, 2011)

Merci


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

sdsester said:


> Canadians, our lazy half French neighbors to the North, would wait for anything but you serve no purpose aerating ground this late. Jan is right. Wait until after the spring thaw.


I usually aerate in fall so that the fertilzer gets down as deep as possible before winter.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

dinosaur -

Have you though that the fertilizer can wash down as much a 6" into the core holes, which is beyond most (or all) of the root growth. After that is just goes deeper and never gets a chance to do much. Maybe a surface application will get more fertilizer to the active roots.

Dick


----------



## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

concretemasonry said:


> dinosaur -
> 
> Have you though that the fertilizer can wash down as much a 6" into the core holes, which is beyond most (or all) of the root growth. After that is just goes deeper and never gets a chance to do much. Maybe a surface application will get more fertilizer to the active roots.
> 
> Dick


 
helps the trees:wink:


----------



## Plump (Feb 10, 2011)

Aeration helps with gas infiltration and exchange more than anything and is a good thing to do nearly anytime of the year (hot summer weeks notwithstanding). It's a perfectly acceptable time to do it as well as spring, late spring, late summer, early fall, mid-fall. Aeration is an incredibly healthy thing to do for your lawn...especially if you're going to do some top dressing and/or over-seeding.

Golf courses aerate right now as well. Ask their greenskeeper what he/she thinks.

Finally, 6" is quite a deep penetration that you will likely not get nor need from your aerator.


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

Plump said:


> Aeration helps with gas infiltration and exchange more than anything and is a good thing to do nearly anytime of the year (hot summer weeks notwithstanding). It's a perfectly acceptable time to do it as well as spring, late spring, late summer, early fall, mid-fall. Aeration is an incredibly healthy thing to do for your lawn...especially if you're going to do some top dressing and/or over-seeding.
> 
> Golf courses aerate right now as well. Ask their greenskeeper what he/she thinks.
> 
> Finally, 6" is quite a deep penetration that you will likely not get nor need from your aerator.


So even after a hard frost like the one we will have tonight it's still ok to aerate this early in fall? When should I put the Scott's Winterguard down? I normally cut my lawn, aerate and then apply fertilizer around this time of the year, but this hard frost worries me.


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

dinosaur1 said:


> So even after a hard frost like the one we will have tonight it's still ok to aerate this early in fall? When should I put the Scott's Winterguard down? I normally cut my lawn, aerate and then apply fertilizer around this time of the year, but this hard frost worries me.


Our forecast calls for close to 70 degrees by the 15th. Until then...high 50's.


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

sdsester said:


> Canadians, our lazy half French neighbors to the North, would wait for anything but you serve no purpose aerating ground this late. Jan is right. Wait until after the spring thaw.


Spring aeration exposes a lot of bare soil to warm season weed seeds like crabgrass


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

hard freeze tonight. Looks like I won't be able to aerate or even apply the fall fertilzer.


----------



## jomama45 (Nov 13, 2008)

As dry as it is, and subsequently how hard the soil is, I don't think you'll have any luck attempting to aerate now. We probably need a good soaking, like 2-4" of rain, before the ground will soften enough.........


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

jomama45 said:


> As dry as it is, and subsequently how hard the soil is, I don't think you'll have any luck attempting to aerate now. We probably need a good soaking, like 2-4" of rain, before the ground will soften enough.........


What about fertilizing?


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

jomama45 said:


> As dry as it is, and subsequently how hard the soil is, I don't think you'll have any luck attempting to aerate now. We probably need a good soaking, like 2-4" of rain, before the ground will soften enough.........


I normally aerate around mid October. The freeze came way too early this year. I just hope that I won't be paying for it in Spring.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

You are over-thinking the situation.

We have had a few "hard freezes" - air below 28F (the fictional number for a hard freeze for plants) at night, but apparently no freezing to make the grass go dormant except for a month without rain.

In our townhouse group (12 - 2 story rectangular buildings with each of the 4 residents having a corner, the lawn service does the lawn maintenance, cutting, trimming, fertilizing and other items. Today, they had a fleet of trucks, trailers and equipment to cut the grass, mulch leaves, vacuum leaves and mulch them. They followed with core aeration and running over the lawn with the wire rotary attachments to break up the cores. They followed by posting notes to water since the owners of the property are responsible for watering grass and shrubs. Unfortunately, some individuals rented core aerators on their own to do their areas, but they also got the same fertilizer as everyone else did.

This was the second aeration this year and there was a request to water for a day in advance of the recent process.

That may provide you with some guidelines from a similar climate.

Dick


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

concretemasonry said:


> You are over-thinking the situation.
> 
> We have had a few "hard freezes" - air below 28F (the fictional number for a hard freeze for plants) at night, but apparently no freezing to make the grass go dormant except for a month without rain.
> 
> ...


Here is our forecast. So you think it would be ok aerate tomorrow and fertilize? We're supposed to get some rain tomorrow night and heavy rain on Saturday.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

Not a bad forecast and your Saturday rain will go south of you (amateur weatherman). That is why I am going to LaCrosse tomorrow when it is nice and they may even miss much of the Saturday "rain". - The clearing north winds are coming to you.

I love the "waukee" names in WI as the forecast location turned on a light to me. Every once in a while you find one to add to Milwaukee, Pewaukee, Zilwaukee, etc. list.

I just provided a local observation from a similar latitude 300 miles west that is not affected by Lake Michigan. It is good you are not near the big, strong, deep and cold Lake Superior that creates a micro climate.

Dick


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

concretemasonry said:


> Not a bad forecast and your Saturday rain will go south of you (amateur weatherman). That is why I am going to LaCrosse tomorrow when it is nice and they may even miss much of the Saturday "rain". - The clearing north winds are coming to you.
> 
> I love the "waukee" names in WI as the forecast location turned on a light to me. Every once in a while you find one to add to Milwaukee, Pewaukee, Zilwaukee, etc. list.
> 
> ...


They keep saying heavy rain on Saturday. I will just go ahead and do it all tomorrow.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

Just do it!!

Better to be a little off on the timing to be absolutely "perfect", but at least it will be done and left up to Mother Nature.

Dick


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

concretemasonry said:


> Just do it!!
> 
> Better to be a little off on the timing to be absolutely "perfect", but at least it will be done and left up to Mother Nature.
> 
> Dick


Low tonight of 30, lets see how frozen the ground will be in the a.m.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

You are splitting hairs.

Just because the air temperature is 25F or 30F over night, that will not cause the ground to freeze because the mass and thermal inertial. If you are worried, just run the sprinklers over night like they do at 25F in FL to prevent damage to fragile fruit and not soil that is very stable and still at least 45F now based on your past weather. - You are just seeing a very temporary passing system that has no real affect on anything in the soil. Just look at your record highs and decide if it is too early to plant grass seed.

They are still laying sod here and watering it with city water daily and will do so for quite a while.

Dick


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

concretemasonry said:


> You are splitting hairs.
> 
> Just because the air temperature is 25F or 30F over night, that will not cause the ground to freeze because the mass and thermal inertial. If you are worried, just run the sprinklers over night like they do at 25F in FL to prevent damage to fragile fruit and not soil that is very stable and still at least 45F now based on your past weather. - You are just seeing a very temporary passing system that has no real affect on anything in the soil. Just look at your record highs and decide if it is too early to plant grass seed.
> 
> ...


We had some nice rains today. Since my grass hasn't really grown and is still a nice,short length should I mow the lawn or just rake the leaves out of the way first? Afterwards I will aerate and then fertilize.


----------



## creeper (Mar 11, 2011)

OH for crying out loud...Just chop up the leaves with the mower ( the worms will eat them up and the worm casings are far better fertilizer than anything you're going to buy anyway) 

and throw the stuff down. You are done. Go in the house and watch tv to get your mind off this problem.


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

creeper said:


> OH for crying out loud...Just chop up the leaves with the mower ( the worms will eat them up and the worm casings are far better fertilizer than anything you're going to buy anyway)
> 
> and throw the stuff down. You are done. Go in the house and watch tv to get your mind off this problem.


Research pays off.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

Research is good for doctors in laboratories, but not good when you have known for some time it will freeze and are now concerned with being to late with Mother Nature coming.

It has been about 2 weeks since you began worrying about something you were going to do anyway. Do it and get a head start on the micro-analysis of the next critical project.

dick


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

concretemasonry said:


> Research is good for doctors in laboratories, but not good when you have known for some time it will freeze and are now concerned with being to late with Mother Nature coming.
> 
> It has been about 2 weeks since you began worrying about something you were going to do anyway. Do it and get a head start on the micro-analysis of the next critical project.
> 
> dick


2 weeks ago the ground was still dry. The summer has destroyed options of aeration for many people not just me.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

Tell that excuse to the landscapers and professional lawn services, since we have been a drought for 2 months, but they are still core aerating now. They just aerated yesterday and we have had a drought, thin top soil and hard clay/silt under that. They do not let a drought stop them, especially when a little water is good preparation for the soil and the grass.

A little water when you started posting and worrying would have been the right thing to do to improve and prepare the area of great concern. Since you knew that then, and you usually aerate in the middle of October and we are now there, you have just put off, but the likelihood of freezing increases every day. If you water for 2 days, it will be easy to aerate in a day or two after.

Dick


----------



## creeper (Mar 11, 2011)

Don't forget about Indian summer. Usually in November.

Like an old chief once told me. "It takes the freeze from the ground"

Meaning it comes once the ground freezes once


----------



## dinosaur1 (Nov 22, 2009)

concretemasonry said:


> Tell that excuse to the landscapers and professional lawn services, since we have been a drought for 2 months, but they are still core aerating now. They just aerated yesterday and we have had a drought, thin top soil and hard clay/silt under that. They do not let a drought stop them, especially when a little water is good preparation for the soil and the grass.
> 
> A little water when you started posting and worrying would have been the right thing to do to improve and prepare the area of great concern. Since you knew that then, and you usually aerate in the middle of October and we are now there, you have just put off, but the likelihood of freezing increases every day. If you water for 2 days, it will be easy to aerate in a day or two after.
> 
> Dick


Thanks again


----------

