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What is Verticutting and why is it so important? Verticutting is a crucial part of maintaining your turf if you have any Zoysia, Bermuda, Paspalum or any other sports turf. The purpose of Verticutting simply put is to open up you turf to get more access to the roots and soil along with controlling the thatch layer. Your turf grows together horizontally as we mow during the year. As the turf grows together it will get very, very thick. So thick, that think of it like a carpet. If you were to fertilize or add water to your carpet it is very hard for that water or fertilizer to get through. Even if it does get through it will get through very slowly. We want water and fertilizer to enter the soil and root system quickly and not sit on top of the turf or in the thatch layer. This sometimes will cause the grass to burn up. We do not want that. So we need to open the turf up as much as possible while we can in the growing season. This is the reason to verticut.

The Process. The first step is to use a what we call a dethatcher or verticutter. This machine has small blades that cuts heavily into the turf. This process will start removing lots of excess thatch built up and opening up the turf. Second step is we start scalping the turf very short, most of the time to almost half the normal height. This step will give the turf time to let the new growth grow in nicely and will let us add a layer of sand on top. By this time the turf is going to look very beat up and brown. This is completely normal and expected. Something you will always hear us say is “the more you beat up the turf during growing season the better it will look”. The third step is to Aerate the turf. What this does is it pokes small holes into the turf to allow nutrients and water into the soil and gets down to the root system. This step is very beneficial to the turf and should be done multiple times per year even if you are not doing a full verticut. The 4th step is to sand. One of the purposes of sanding is to create a level surface for your yard and to control thatch. Sometimes we will go heavy in certain areas with sand if the area is holding to much water and the sand will help absorb some of that water and can sometimes fix the grade. Final step requires a pre emergent liquid spray for any weed growth, fungus or diseases that may pop up due to your turf being stressed.

All these steps should be takin at least one time per year. Recommended is 2-3 times per year. If you need us to take care of your verticutting you can call, text, or email us anytime and we will be happy to help. 561-542-9689 / Info@haiglandscape.com