Aerator - Drum Spike or Plug

[SOS]

My wife thinks I need an Aerator. This is the first time she has suggested the I buy an attachment so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. I have 13 acres of which 4 or 5 are grass areas. The soil is sand/clay mix with about an inch of dirt if I'm lucky but no rocks. The house is about 8 months old so we have about 70% grass coverage. I will probably use it twice a year for the next 20 years.

I've been looking on the web and see plug and spike aerators but have know idea of the pros and cons.

My price range is about $500.

 

[Harvster]

Get a core aerator. The spike type do almost nothing. The cores pop out and get distributed on top of the thatch and help break it down. You will never find a turf care professional (golf course, stadium grounds keeper) ever, ever,ever using a spike aerator.

 

[thatguy]

I agree with the core aerator.. I am using a friends 48" lightweight hitch mounted aerator in clay and it works really good under the right conditions (wet, but not too wet).. with about 160 lbs on it I was getting up to 3" plugs from our yard

You will have a hard time finding a heavy duty model under $500 (they are more like the +$1k range), but Agri-fab has a 48" 3pt hitch mounted core for about $300 from Sears and Lowes (special order - but my lowes doesnt list it)... if you go to sears.com, lawn & garden, then do a search for aerators it will show up..

Good luck

Brian

 

[LoneCowboy]

wait
do you have 13 acres (5 acres) of turf?
or 13/5 acres of grass (like a pasture)

different tools
a core aerator works GREAT on a turf lawn
it doesn't do boo for grass/pasture

You need something like this AerWay Home Page

and yeah, they really do work.

 

[SCDolphin]

Spikes can actually compact the soil, so core or nothing.

 

[ToadHill]

Core. But don't use it in very wet soil. Once it plugs up , it's a bi*** to clean.

 

[SOS]

Thanks. I have 5 acres of grass. I'll look for the core.

 

[thcri]

Go Core. Spike will only compact your soil.


murph

 

[Bandybear]

The Smartfarmer.com Farm Equipment, Leinbach Machinery, Tractor equipment, and Lawnmower equipment - The Smart Farmer, LLC. has a four foot pull behind drum type core aerator listed for $500 on ebay. There is one posted as an auction item, but they have others listed as buy it now ( you must look in their other items section) you can fill it with water and it is supposed to take uot plugs to 4" long.