If you are researching lawn aerators, you’ll quickly notice that you can aerate your lawn at varying depths depending on which model you select. For example, 3 to 6 inches is the average depth range between the different homeowner models. But it’s not always clear why you would want to use one aerator over another. So, how deep to aerate, does it make a difference, and can you go too far? Let’s take a look and find out.
How Deep Should You Aerate Your Lawn? (The Short Answer)
The depth of lawn aeration is normally between 3-6 inches, depending on how compacted your soil is, plus how long you want the effects to last. Aerating beyond these depths may cause excessive drainage and nutrient-depleted soil issues. Fortunately, residential lawn aerators predominantly stay within the recommendation for lawn aeration and will not cut too deep.
3 Factors that May Affect How Deep You Should Aerate
There are three main things to consider when choosing how deep to aerate a lawn. These are how often you want to aerate, what machine you want to use, and how you want your lawn to look afterward. Here is a closer look at each of the factors.
How Often Do You Want to Aerate?
You’ll achieve different depths depending on which type of aerating machine you use. For example, aerating with a shallow spike tine aerator will have far less effect than a deep core tine aerator. Therefore you will need to aerate more regularly if you use a shallow spike tine aerator.
What Aerating Tool Do You Want to Use?
Aerators are available in non-powered, powered, self-propelled, and attachment versions. You will find that small aerators cut shallow, and larger machines cut deeper. It really comes down to the fact that the bigger the machine, the more power is needed. So, if you don’t have a lawn tractor to pull a deep aerator or you are not comfortable using a self-propelled aerator, you’ll need to use a shallow version tool. The downside is smaller aerators will be less effective, and the benefits won’t last very long.
How Do You Want Your Lawn to Look Afterward?
An aerator with spike tines leaves very few noticeable effects once aeration is complete, whereas a core or spoon aerator leaves a path of pretty noticeable holes. So, if you don’t want to look at holes all over your lawn, then a spike aerator would be a better choice. But, spike aerators are not as effective as core or spoon aerators. So, be prepared for the benefits of aeration to wear off quickly.
Why It’s Super Important to Not Aerate Too Deep (Potential Consequences)
If you happen to go well beyond the recommendations for grass aeration, then you could run into a few problems—mainly excessive drainage. If water can wash through the soil too quickly, the lawn may not receive the water it needs. Plus, as the water washes through the soil, it also carries with it the soil nutrients. So keeping the aeration in the roots zone is what you want to achieve to avoid any problems.
How Deep is Too Deep When Aerating?
When selecting an aerator and figuring out how deep you should aerate your lawn, rest assured that you won’t go too deep. Why is this? Well, residential aerators don’t go anywhere near a dangerous depth. So you have nothing to worry about. If anything, the real concern is whether you are aerating deep enough. For example, a Commercial Toro ProCore Aerator will core aerate down to 12 inches. These are the big red machines you’ll see maintaining golf courses all around the country.
So, if you ask a professional green keeper, how deep to aerate a lawn? The response will probably be the deeper, the better. This is definitely the approach I take.
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