# Do I Need A Second Pass With Dethatcher?



## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

My overseed plans keep getting pushed due to weather and I was hoping to cut low, dethatch, level a few dips, seed, roll, and spray tenacity today but the ground is still pretty wet. We got 2.5" of rain two nights ago and a tiny bit last night but it's completely overcast today so things aren't really drying out. Will I still be okay to cut low and dethatch if the ground is still wet(damp)?

Updating topic title to align with updated question in newest post rather than making a new thread.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

The problem you are going to have is bagging everything with your mower. The debris is going to be much heavier You'll have to empty the bag a lot. If the weather is better tomorrow or Sunday, one or two days isn't going to make a huge difference at this point. It's late either way.

Out of curiosity, what was your weather like in mid-August?


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

Harts said:


> The problem you are going to have is bagging everything with your mower. The debris is going to be much heavier You'll have to empty the bag a lot. If the weather is better tomorrow or Sunday, one or two days isn't going to make a huge difference at this point. It's late either way.
> 
> Out of curiosity, what was your weather like in mid-August?


The grass is mostly dry now, although I'm sure the clippings will still be damp and heavy. I'm more concerned about the soil being too soft for the scarifier attachment, I don't want to tear up my entire lawn. As far as timing, I know I'm late but being close to the shore in Jersey, our temps stay pretty mild later into the fall. I waited because I had some other things going on(non-lawn related) and because I was getting a large tree stump removed from the middle of my yard, which finally got taken out on 9/2.


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Fair enough. Sometimes life gets in the way. The reason I asked is because I've seen far too many guys in the Northeast wait until mid-september because they are more worried about having an ideal soil temp. But this is what happens when you wait. The weather rarely cooperates.

Like I said earlier, if the weather is going to be better on the weekend, wait until then. Let the soil dry a little. Seeding today vs. Sunday isn't going to make or break your success.


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## samzone7a (Jul 14, 2020)

I believe rain / storm wise the next 2 weeks are perfect.

i'm also in NJ and seeded last week. however, the rain yesterday was CRAZY and now i am dealing with washout in certain areas. I almost wish i could put seed down again, but dont have any seed left except for patching a few spots.

i dethached (to a degree) before seeding too, the heavier thach still remains so recommend going to medium or high setting and pulling it all up is almost impossible when wet. Go with @Harts recommendation. wait till it dries out.


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## Bean4Me (May 13, 2020)

i dethatched a wet lawn. It was fine. The underside of the sunjoe got pretty muddy but the next day it just dropped out and made a mess in my garage. The worst part was clean up.


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

Ended up cutting low and using the dethatching cartridge on +5(second highest setting) for the front yard. Everything was fine but about to start the backyard with cutting low then scarifying. Probably gonna have to make 10 trips to the recycling yard because I can fit 5 bins in my SUV and they fill up super fast.


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## samzone7a (Jul 14, 2020)

Yeah, i never thought how much junk will come out, but its a LOT


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## Harts (May 14, 2018)

Good thing we have weekly curbside yard waste pick up in the Toronto area!


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## Bean4Me (May 13, 2020)

I have weekly curbside pick up too but its alot of material to store onsite for a week. And then with all the rain we've been having i've been trying to keep it in the garage so the paper bags don't get wet. its been a challenge. I still have a bunch sitting in the garage waiting for pickup.


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

Bean4Me said:


> I have weekly curbside pick up too but its alot of material to store onsite for a week. And then with all the rain we've been having i've been trying to keep it in the garage so the paper bags don't get wet. its been a challenge. I still have a bunch sitting in the garage waiting for pickup.


Yeah my town will come pick it up but the recycling center is only like a mile away so I'd rather get rid of it as I go even if it's breaks up the momentum of getting stuff done. Not gonna finish the back before they close at 5 tho so I'm gonna fill these 5 buckets(again) and call it a night.


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

I just cut low, bagged clippings and then used my sunjoe with the dethatching cartridge set to 0 and cleaned up all the thatch. My lawn was an absolute mess and I just couldn't swing doing a full reno, so I kind of let heat and/or fungus thin out a lot of it over the last month. I originally intended on using the scarifier cartridge but the tines seemed to do a good job tearing things up. Based on the below pictures, do you think I need another pass(with the scarifier this time) prior to overseeding with TTTF tomorrow?


Cut low


Thatch everywhere


All cleaned up


Closeup of one of the "good" areas


Another "good" area


One more "good" area


Area that's mostly dead(also maybe bentgrass? Hopefully tenacity will knock that down even more)

After looking at the closeups, I do see some loose thatch on top so I'll run the mower with the bagger one more time as well.


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## Lawn Noob (Jul 26, 2020)

I'd clean that up a bit more.


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

Lawn Noob said:


> I'd clean that up a bit more.


Yeah I ran out of daylight so I was only able to take it up but will definitely run the mower with bag over it in the morning. I did that in the front after raking and there's nothing loose left. I'm just not sure if I need to dethatch the back again.


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## Bean4Me (May 13, 2020)

I'd probably run a second pass. Do you plan on covering the seed? Or leaving it on the surface? If not covering I'd tear it up more to give you more opportunities for the seed to fall into cover.


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

Bean4Me said:


> I'd probably run a second pass. Do you plan on covering the seed? Or leaving it on the surface? If not covering I'd tear it up more to give you more opportunities for the seed to fall into cover.


Not going to be covering, I do have some bumpy areas that I'm filling in with some topsoil and I will be rolling everything after seeding. I don't want the added time tomorrow but I could run another pass 90° from this one. I just wonder how torn up is too much. Running the tines again would probably pull some more up, or do I dive in with the scarifier and really tear it up?


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## jimmythegreek (Aug 7, 2020)

I like to tear it up as much as possible. Leaves the most loose and accepting soil grooves for seed. I use a backpack blower after bagging as theres alot missed by the mower.


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

jimmythegreek said:


> I like to tear it up as much as possible. Leaves the most loose and accepting soil grooves for seed. I use a backpack blower after bagging as theres alot missed by the mower.


Do you have the sun joe and use the scarifier cartridge? I'm curious how much more "damage" they would do at -5 compared to the dethatching tines at 0.


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## jimmythegreek (Aug 7, 2020)

No I have a gas blue bird with flail blades on it. Test a small spot amd see what it looks like noth ways


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

Ended up running the scarifier at the 0 setting, 90° from my dethatch run. Also lowered it to -5 and -10 for some low/bare spots. Then raked it up, bag mowed one last time, spread out ~2.5 yards of soil mainly to level bumps. I really wish I had a lawn level, using a 16" bow rake to level was not fun. Tomorrow I get to throw down the last ~.5 yard of soil, my 50lb bag of Hogan Blend, and Tenacity(oh and Pylex in the area I'm battling Bermuda). My. Back. Hurts.


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## Lawn Noob (Jul 26, 2020)

You have a roller, right?


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## edixon88 (Jun 18, 2020)

Lawn Noob said:


> You have a roller, right?


Renting one from Home Depot. There's no need to lightly rake after spreading the seed since I'll be rolling, right?


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